In Round 2 next year, Ross Lyon will break Rodney Eade’s record for the most games coached in VFL/AFL history without a premiership.

But St Kilda president Andrew Bassat couldn’t care less.

He’s all in on “Ross the Boss” and the Saints’ crazy brave but “very deliberate” strategy to break the mould of mediocrity at Moorabbin and deliver a second flag to football’s most success-starved supporter base.

“But for the bounce of a ball, really Ross could have won two flags here – and he wasn’t too far away at Fremantle,” Bassat said.

“He’s a very, very good coach and all that has done is make him hungrier than ever.

“He’s learnt to empower more. He’s learnt to trust others more.

“He’s a very reflective person and has said, ‘Here are the things that I did well the first two times and here are some things that I need to get better at’. He’s been very open with me about this journey.

“Ross does not walk past a thing that he thinks can be done better. And I love working with him for that reason.”

They make for an intriguing couple, Bassat and Lyon.

The crisp-shirted, mega-rich co-founder of Seek.com with an eye-popping mansion on Brighton’s Golden Mile and the street-fighting, media savvy coach from Reservoir whose second coming at the Saints has divided football opinion.

Throw in chief executive Carl Dilena, an old teammate of Lyon’s at Fitzroy, colourful football identity Graeme “Gubby” Allan (head of talent and acquisition) and list manager Stephen Silvagni and you have St Kilda’s “Gang of Five” – a tight-knit group that has masterminded what Bassat describes as an “incredibly, thoroughly and thoughtfully discussed” plan to combat an AFL system stacked “unfairly” against smaller Victorian clubs.

An audacious post-season recruiting splurge that landed Tom De Koning, Sam Flanders, Jack Silvagni and Liam Ryan on top of the $2 million-a-season signature of breakout superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera may have given the impression of desperation, but Bassat insists it was a strike four years in the planning.

“It was a very deliberate strategy,” Bassat said.

“We discussed it at length. After four years of drafting and getting games into younger players … we felt we were ready and that we were close enough and if we didn’t go now we would face this war of attrition and things going in the wrong direction.

“It was about recognising that very few clubs are able to get to a premiership without free agency and trading. We had to fill the gaps.

“We’ve gone pretty hard and used a bit of salary cap in doing that, but we have to break through. We had to have a crack at breaking into that top half of the competition and moving into contention.”

It’s hard to argue with Bassat’s scathing assessment of the AFL’s “compromised” draft system.

Fresh off back-to-back flags, the Brisbane Lions cashed in again on a prized high-end academy pick, while the heavily-propped-up Gold Coast Suns secured two of the first five selections (and four of the first 18) in this week’s national draft.

“Rebuilding doesn’t work anymore in this competition, just have a look at this year’s draft,” Bassat said.

“We are taking a risk, we know that, and if we don’t start having on-field success they will be lining up to have shots at us, but it was a risk that was incredibly, thoroughly and thoughtfully discussed.

“As to when we will start winning enough games to be in contention – I can’t tell you that. We are hoping to do better next year, but when we are going to be top four, I don’t know. But we hope it’s not too far away.

“You don’t do something bold just for the sake of being bold. If there was a risk-free way to win a flag, of course you’d take it, but that option doesn’t exist for our football club.

“And so this was the most viable strategy and it may not work, but we felt this gave us a genuine chance.

“And I can tell you one thing for sure – if we did nothing as a football club but somehow hoped that the draft would get us there – we aren’t going to win a flag.

“We had to find something different.”

PAIN OVER RATTEN

The St Kilda transformation began in mid-2022 with a Bassat-led review into the club’s entire operation.

The hardest call came in October that year when coach Brett Ratten was sacked just months after he secured a two-year contract extension.

“That was painful. I still have remorse. I still have regret over that because Brett tried his hardest,” Bassat said.

Next came the exit of CEO Simon Lethlean and a total overhaul of the playing list and executive ranks.

Bassat said the club’s football program had “changed dramatically” and become “far more professional” and “accountable” during the period that Wanganeen-Milera, Mitch Owens, Marcus Windhager, Max Hall, Mattaes Phillipou, Darcy Wilson and Max King have been drafted.

In the week after Nasiah put pen to paper the club said it sold almost 17,000 three-game $7 memberships.

For the first time in a long time, there is a sense of alignment right across St Kilda, Bassat said.

The left-field thinking has shifted to the boardroom where the Saints are considering a plan to buy and develop land around RSEA Park to help shore up the club’s long-term finances.

The Saints’ 83 poker machines are set to be sold and relocated, they’ve set a target to sign 100,000 members by the end of the decade (current count is almost 66,000) and will have a stand-alone VFL team next season, giving them full control of player development.

Corey Enright has been promoted as head of game plan and strategy above an assistant coaching team that includes Robert Harvey, Brendon Bolton, Lenny Hayes, Damian Carroll and Brendon Goddard and the club is exploring a move for Lyon to report directly to Dilena, instead of the head of football, following the recent departure of David Misson.

“David has now left and decided to do other things, so we’re taking the opportunity to look at our organisation and make sure we have the best structure for success,” Bassat said.

The Saints have also introduced a creche and concierge service for the families and partners of staff and players, reignited their sons and daughters academy and “boosted focus on First Nations representation and wellbeing”.

On his ongoing battle against the AFL’s draft concessions, Bassat said: “To be honest, I don’t want this to be my battle. What I want is for St Kilda to be successful. And people confuse the two.

“We are all working so bloody hard to be as good as we can be, but we see a playing field that is ridiculously uneven.

“I shouldn’t pick on the Gold Coast, because we have the greatest of respect for them, but they are up to probably 10 or 12 top-10 (draft concession) picks for free.

“Brisbane is up to about seven.”

Collingwood’s access to father-son selections Nick and Josh Daicos and next generation academy star Isaac Quaynor meant “the last three flags have been won by sides that have been the beneficiaries of draft concessions”, Bassat said.

“And at the very least – if you are going to have academy and father-son picks – make it a fair price (that clubs have to pay). Otherwise you are going to completely distort the competition.

Asked directly if he would get rid of the father-son rule, Bassat said: “I probably would. It’s a bit of an anachronism.”

Another bugbear is the inequity of the fixture favouring top-tier clubs, something Bassat hopes incoming AFL Commission chairman Craig Drummond will also address.

“(As a competition) you want to have principles of fairness that you guard jealously and only compromise where we really feel it’s important to do so, but that’s not where we are at,” Bassat said.

“The AFL has got into the habit of just giving stuff out to clubs when they ask for it.

“I’ve spoken to Craig since his appointment and I’ve got some optimism.

“I’ve observed him in presidents’ meetings (in his previous role at Geelong) and the word I would use is statesmanlike.

“Craig was one of the presidents who was able to have a debate that wasn’t just in Geelong’s self-interest. He’s a smart and sensible person and so I’m hoping he will come up with some smart and sensible outcomes.”

RED, WHITE & BLACK PASSION

Bassat, 59, was a member of the eight-person nominations committee formed to identify Richard Goyder’s successor. It failed to reach a consensus before the commission stepped in to recommend Drummond take over at the AFL’s annual general meeting in March.

“The process was probably more complicated than it needed to be, but I think we got the right outcome,” Bassat said.

“Perhaps the AFL has been a little bit too driven by the noise. There is so much noise in football that you can become reactive to whatever is in the paper versus having a clear strategy and letting that stuff wash over you a bit.

“But Craig will have an opportunity to reset that.”

On the AFL fixture, he said: “There are things that no one really talks about like Gather Round, where every single year the two Adelaide teams get an extra home game and we all get an extra away game.

“And again that’s the principle of fairness that just gets eroded.”

As a lifelong Saints fan who watched games as a youngster in the Moorabbin outer perched on empty beer cans, Bassat believes the club’s tortured past is part of what “binds” St Kilda people together.

“This is my view and perhaps not the club’s view, but we’ve got this lack of success which combines with incredible passion, which can sometimes spill over into frustration, that leads to this hunger and care and purpose that we all have,” Bassat said.

“If you’re a fickle person, you’re not a St Kilda supporter.

Bassat revealed he had shared “a couple glasses of wine” with outspoken former coach Grant Thomas in recent years as he sold his vision for St Kilda.

“Grant was critical of the club and I reached out to him to try to understand where he was coming from,” Bassat said.

“I think he thought that we weren’t a serious football club and were just happy to be in the competition, but I did the review (in 2022) and came to the conclusion that we weren’t on a serious track to success.

“Now that we’ve made the changes that show we are serious, Grant has been pretty supportive. He’s got his heart in the right place.”

Like rekindling a failed relationship, some believed it was a mistake for St Kilda and Lyon to recouple. But for Bassat, it made total sense.

“The first period under Ross was highly-successful. We played in grand finals and nearly won grand finals, but it almost reinforced the loser mentality among St Kilda supporters and with other clubs because we didn’t quite get there,” he said.

“So there’s a sense of mission unaccomplished with Ross. He has a great affinity with St Kilda.

“We really need that flag. It will mean everything to us. Another period of coming close won’t quite transform our future in the way that winning it would.

“We deserve one and are working hard to make sure that happens and I hope that our members recognise that we are working hard to be successful.

“Momentum is a funny thing. I’ve seen it work in business and I’m hoping we will soon start seeing it in football.”