St Kilda appoints Brett Ratten as senior coach
After losing eldest son Cooper in a tragic car accident four years ago, Joanne Ratten admits she and husband Brett took a step back and focused on family. But the proud wife says he’s back where he deserves to be as St Kilda’s new coach.
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St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has his sights set on September after winning the club’s top job.
But his wife Joanne admits that the prospect of him being a senior coach again had seemed a world away just four years ago.
Ratten has been officially unveiled as the Saints’ new man after signing a three-year deal following six weeks as interim senior coach following Alan Richardson’s departure.
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The 48-year-old — who coached Carlton between mid-2007 and 2012 before a triple-premiership stint at Hawthorn as an assistant coach — said he felt better placed given his previous experience and felt a sense of “unfinished business”.
But he had feared his second chance may never come again.
“There’s only 18 jobs out there, and it’s tough,” he said.
“I think you’ve just got to keep pushing and driving yourself personally. I’m very fortunate to come to St Kilda and get that opportunity.
It's official!
— St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) September 5, 2019
Brett Ratten will lead the red, white and black as Senior Coach for the next three years ðŸ¤
“It was one of those dreams that I thought maybe if I got into my 50s (it wouldn’t happen) … but then Fages (Chris Fagan) went up to Brisbane and I thought ‘ooh, he’s kept the fire burning a bit deeper’. I’m very lucky.”
Joanne admitted there had been a false alarm in the Ratten household earlier this week when Brett’s son and her stepson Tanner was tagged by a friend in an Instagram post that declared the premiership player had the job.
Tanner had quickly rung his dad to congratulate him, with word spreading quickly — problem was, no such deal had been ratified.
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She said there had been every attempt to quell any potential excitement, until Ratten rang through with the news at around 6pm on Thursday.
She said the family was “really proud” of Ratten, especially given the horrific tragedy the family was dealt in 2016 when his oldest son Cooper was killed in a car accident, aged 16.
“Obviously with everything that’s been going on in the last few years with us, it’s just amazing that he’s been able to get back to this point where he deserves to be,” Joanne told the Herald Sun.
“We had spoken about it a lot over the last couple of years. Probably after Cooper’s accident, we put the brakes on and just focused on family.
“Last year, I could see that the fire was back.
“We’ve spoken a lot about it and obviously family is number one, but we’re just so excited for him that he’s got the opportunity again.”
Ratten completed the trifecta of caretaker coaches that have been elevated to the top job this season, joining Rhyce Shaw at North Melbourne and David Teague at Carlton.
St Kilda’s last and only premiership was in 1966, with Ratten “daring to dream” what the team can achieve on his watch, declaring the playing style would be “bold”.
As for how long it would take for the club to rise after this year’s 14th-place finish, Ratten was bullish.
“How quickly can you jump?”, he said.
“There has been teams that have jumped from 13th, 14th and got themselves into grand finals.
“We’re not saying that it’s just going to happen overnight. But that is our aim.
“We haven’t played finals in a while so our first step will be let’s make finals and see what we can do.”
Ratten laughed that he had asked Jo to buy a ticket in Thursday night’s $80 million Powerball jackpot, and once the call came through from club president Andrew Bassat he thought that might have been all of his luck used up.
“I said to her that ‘I don’t think we can win Powerball twice in one night’,” he said.
“I’m rapt that this has come to me and my family. We have had some things that have happened in our lives and with Jo’s support … she’s been a star, and the kids. It’s really about the family — not just me. And the next phase of it will be about our family and the connection that we have with the St Kilda Football Club, which we hope is a long one.”
Originally published as St Kilda appoints Brett Ratten as senior coach