AFL Daily: Nick Dal Santo responds to Scott Watters' claims of cultural issues at St Kilda
Scott Watters' revelations in the Herald Sun's Sacked Podcast of rampant cultural issues at St Kilda provide “a different version of events” to that of former Saint Nick Dal Santo, who has denied his ex-coach's stunning claims.
St Kilda champion Nick Dal Santo has refuted ex-coach Scott Watters’ claims the Saints had a poor culture during his two-year stint at the club.
Watters said on the Herald Sun’s Sacked Podcast he laid down the gauntlet to a playing group he believed had cultural issues and was still smarting from Grand Final losses in 2009-10.
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“We either break this culture once and for all or I am done,” Watters said.
But Dal Santo says his recollections vastly differed from Watters, who was sacked by the Saints after winning 17 of 44 games in 2012-13.
“What poor culture?” Dal Santo asked on SEN radio.
“Since I got there in 2001 we had played finals, when he got there, seven of eight years that group had been playing finals for, so I thought the culture was OK.
“We had, in my opinion, some of the greatest leaders of men on-field in (Nick) Riewoldt and (Lenny) Hayes in particular.
"We had a leadership group that was very strong, experienced, firm, understanding at times that were leading the club from a players’ perspective.
“I didn’t see this poor culture. I wasn’t a part of a poor culture when Scott got there in 2012 off the back of Ross Lyon.
“I’ve only ever listened to two podcasts in my life. One was the Grant Thomas one a few weeks ago (the other Watters).
“Definitely got a different version of events for that two years than myself and a lot of other people who were at the football club at the time.
“I’d like to think that Scott honestly sees it the way that he spoke about it in the podcast, and that he didn’t feel like he had to change the events and the conversations that were had behind closed doors and then ultimately the way that it all finished.
“I was there for those two years and I saw a lot of things and the majority things completely different to what I heard on that podcast.”
Dal Santo did acknowledge the group “did need to grow up” in the wake of the St Kilda schoolgirl scandal and infamous “burning of the dwarf”.
“I agree with that one part, it should never have happened and we did need to grow up,” Dal Santo said.
“I don’t agree with (Watters’ assertions of) where the club was at as a whole and the poor culture when Scott got there, absolutely not.
“There’s two sides to every story.”
He echoed former captain Nick Riewoldt’s feelings on the disastrous move to Seaford in 2011.
“Horrific, and we knew straight away,” Dal Santo said.
“It didn’t have a feel. It wasn’t us and the analogy I’ve used is it was like sitting on your couch at home: you were still sitting on your couch, but it wasn’t at your house, it was someone else’s house.
“The place was sterile, didn’t have a lot of feel, didn't have any atmosphere.
“It definitely wasn’t a place that we wanted to go to.
“It wasn’t Moorabbin, it wasn’t our homeland, it didn’t have our people around.
“It just felt different.”
Dal Santo left the club for North Melbourne at the end of 2013 after 260 games at the club, but believed he would have stayed, had Watters not replaced Lyon.
“The communication was different to what was actually going on,” he said.
Originally published as AFL Daily: Nick Dal Santo responds to Scott Watters' claims of cultural issues at St Kilda
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