Almost 600 days ago, Brett Ratten was sacked as St Kilda coach just months after signing a contract extension mid-season.
The Saints pointed to a lengthy review in explaining their belief that Ratten was underperforming with the list he had at his disposal and soon moved to recruit experienced coach Ross Lyon.
President Andrew Bassat said the club “needed a new style of leadership” and the decision to recruit Lyon looked to be the right one in 2023.
The former Dockers mentor took St Kilda to the finals after the Saints finished sixth in his first year back at the helm. But nearing the midway point of the 2024 season, as Lyon’s men fall into the bottom four with a 3-8 record, the discussion begins again.
Gerard Whateley and David King dissected the call to sack Ratten some 591 days on, with the former believing it’s becoming clearer to see St Kilda’s list was the primary problem.
Whateley: “If you quickly review their long term aspirations, they did an independent review of their list around the Brett Ratten sacking and determined they were better than the results they had achieved.
“They then made the eight and had a really good year. This is not an external view, that was the express view of the president.”
King: “Isn’t that just what they’re capable of? I don’t understand the ‘we played above ourselves’ mentality. It’s just your capability.
“You play to your best or to your maximum. You can’t play above that.”
Whateley: “They were happy to sheet it home to the coaching to justify the move they wanted to make. You can make whatever move you like but they were prepared to say, ‘no, it’s the coaching, not the list’. Well, it’s sort of big deep breath time now.
“I think they’ll play a good month of footy later in the year… and then what do they do with their list?”
King: “Do you feel that if they hadn’t made the coaching change they would be in a better space?”
Whateley: “No, that’s not my contention… they did the work, they did the study and they were prepared to blame the coaching.”
King: “Which is their right.”
Whateley: “Which is their right. But we were suggesting this might be your list, and it looks like their list.”
King: “To be blunt about it, and clubs hate when we do this… we are fingernail deep on 18 clubs and they are full brief on one club. So our knowledge can’t compete with their knowledge.
“So when they do an absolute deep dive like this, you have to endorse, you have to elevate their thoughts over your own, even though in the long run you might be proven correct.”
Whateley: “I accept that that’s right, but you’re also to judge what they did and you go, ‘no, the likelihood was it was the list all along’. And it still is now.”
King: “Or he wasn’t the man.”
Whateley: “But that’s not what they said. They justified the move (by saying) this list was capable of more than they were getting from it.
“That looked the case last year, but at 3-8 it doesn’t look the case this year.”
King: “He’s shown the capability last year though, didn’t he?”
Whateley: “Yes…”
King: “And they’ve failed this year. So they’re two separate discussions, aren’t they?”
Whateley: “Which holds greater sway?”
King: “They move on the coach and they go to finals in the first year, I think most people said good move.”
Whateley: “I’m not saying they shouldn’t have changed the coach. I’m saying the problem is the list. The lack of elite talent on that list.”
King: “I think there’s a bit of system in it as well. I think it’s a safe system.”
Whateley: “Are they going to be successful by 2026?”
King: “We said this before, if you can land a couple of free agents and you get your young guys to follow a normal path of improvement, it can change.”
“But to win a flag is a big question, I wouldn’t be putting my money on that.”