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Three months after extending Brett Ratten’s contract until the end of 2024, St Kilda has sacked its coach.
It’s an incredible about-face which deserves closer examination. At first glance, Ratten is incredibly unlucky. The Saints finished 10th this year – hardly a disaster – and at one stage were 8-3.
But as always, the devil was in the details. Here is everything you need to know about St Kilda’s decision and what’s next for the embattled club, which has the longest premiership drought in the AFL.
BURNING QUESTIONS
When Ratten penned a two-year extension, the club was humming. Finals looked a certainty at 8-3 and CEO Matt Finnis, with just months left in the role, was keen for stability.
The last thing Finnis wanted was to spend his final days fending off questions around the coach’s future. So he, with support from the board, extended Ratten. The coach wanted three years, but he got two.
A month ago Finnis left his post and Simon Lethlean stepped up as the new CEO. Finnis was big on culture, identity, values and social issues. But he was often critiqued for his lack of footy nous. The Saints did many great things in his nine-year tenure, but footy wasn’t one of them. That, after all, is the core business.
Lethlean is the opposite to Finnis. He’s a ‘footy guy,’ who has had a hands-on role within the football department for several years now. To understand the sacking, you need to understand the disparity between Lethlean and Finnis. They are polar opposites.
St Kilda Saints Senior Coach Brett Ratten talks to his players prior to the round 21 AFL match between the Geelong Cats and the St Kilda Saints. (Photo by Graham Denholm/AFL Photos via Getty Images )
It’s also important to note the review that was commissioned when it became obvious St Kilda would miss finals did not paint Ratten in a positive light at all. In fact, it did the opposite. If the review was to be taken seriously, then Ratten had to go.
The Saints were frustrated they couldn’t lure high quality assistants (such as Daniel Giansiracusa) or players (such as Jordan De Goey) to the club and Ratten was partly blamed for that. His presentation skills were ordinary. St Kilda needed a better front man, not just a nice guy, as its coach.
The U-turn on Ratten boils down to two factors: The first was a poor second half of the season, and the second was the review.
When AFL Media broke the news late on Thursday night, no players had been informed of the club’s decision. Indeed, at the time of writing, the club website was still spruiking trade and draft information, though a press conference was called for 11.30am on Friday.
But Ratten had met with president Andrew Bassat earlier this week and had told confidantes he was in trouble. If on Tuesday the axe was hovering, then by Thursday it had fallen swiftly. It’s only reasonable to assume that Ratten knew first and it leaked out somehow from his end, rather than the club’s.
When Channel 7 and The Age followed up AFL Media’s report, they both noted how sources close to Ratten had confirmed the news. Players were set to be told officially on Friday morning, along with staff.
The timing of the sacking – one day after the trade period – may seem bizarre. But coaches get sacked mid-season, and St Kilda itself axed Scott Watters just days before the National Draft in 2013.
The bottom line is, there is no good time to fire a coach. Once he’s not your guy, you need to make the call, whatever time it is.
Ratten had two years remaining on a deal, but as an AFL-assisted club, the league puts in place parameters which protects clubs from their own poor business.
In other words, Ratten will only have a six-month payout in his contract thanks to the AFL mandating the mechanism for its poorest clubs during the Covid pandemic. That money will come out of next year’s soft cap and in reality, won’t impact the club too heavily.
Ross Lyon is the name that immediately springs to mind. It would be incredible if Lyon returned to Moorabbin, though any hope of luring him would need to come with the promise of no official process.
Lyon was not keen on being put through the ringer at Carlton or Essendon over the last 18 months and the Saints’ only hope of snaring him (again) would be to simply offer him the gig outright.
Bassat is very close to former players such as Nick Riewoldt, who is an unapologetic Lyon fan. Conversations between those two would be fascinating right now, even if Riewoldt is in the USA with his family.
Another former coach, Grant Thomas, has pushed for Luke Beveridge, who has one year remaining on his deal with the Western Bulldogs.
Beveridge was appointed to the director of coaching role eight years ago, came into the club once, but was then poached by the Dogs at the 11th hour to be their senior guy.
Others of interest would be Adem Yze (who came second at GWS and Essendon) and Nathan Buckley, even though he has repeatedly said he’s not keen on coaching in 2023. Lenny Hayes has returned as an assistant, but it’s surely too soon for him to be elevated.
One thing is for sure, Saints fans are desperately impatient. Geoff Walsh has arrived as the new footy boss with a ruthless attitude that matches Lethlean, though he had no involvement in the review. They won’t be looking for a coach to cuddle and nurture, they would want someone commanding and with a presence.
Only the players and board know this, but given how inactive St Kilda was in the trade period, you’d suggest frustration had grown internally to change things up.
Sacking the coach is a brutal circuit breaker, but one Walsh, Bassat and Lethlean clearly thought necessary to refresh a club which has played finals just once since Lyon left in 2011.
Next year St Kilda will want to push for finals. They showed glimpses in 2022 of being a top eight team, but faded badly. A full-scale rebuild is not an option.
In mid-2019, Ratten took over from Alan Richardson as the caretaker and was then appointed to the full-time role. In the same period, David Teague took over from Brendon Bolton at Carlton and Rhyce Shaw from Brad Scott.
All three were given the full time job after auditioning in the back half of 2019. Player power played its part.
Now all three are gone, with Ratten the last to fall. It’s the second time he’s been sacked and will likely spell the end of his senior coaching career.
It’s a brutal business at the best of times. Nobody knows this better than Ratten.
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