AFL 2021: Snoozing Saints do themselves no favours in Seb Ross and Tim Membrey debacle
A slow-reacting St Kilda has been taught a valuable lesson over its handling of the Seb Ross and Tim Membrey blow-up in this age of 24/7 news cycles, writes Scott Gullan.
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St Kilda led for all but the final 61 seconds of Saturday night’s game against Adelaide.
It’s just another example of the Saints’ timing being off and this disturbing trend continued in the aftermath of the season-ending loss to the Crows.
On this particular occasion the time frame involved was roughly 36 hours.
That was the gap between the Saints being publicly outed for heartlessly not backing the decision of two of its players to put family first and the club raising its head for an explanation.
This allowed Saints fans to spend all of Tuesday shaking their heads about what a train wreck of a season 2021 had become with the overriding sense that people in the place were turning on each other.
Clearly the Saints hierarchy didn’t like the timing of Seb Ross and Tim Membrey departing the club’s mini-hub before the season-defining clash in Cairns.
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The fact that disapproval leaked out isn’t the issue, the lack of urgency to change the narrative quickly is.
While the journalist in question copped the initial heat for questioning the players, the focus soon turned to what the hell St Kilda was doing by not backing its men.
Chief executive Matt Finnis was previously the boss of the players’ union.
This type of mini-crisis management couldn’t be more in his wheelhouse — but instead we had to wait until a radio interview on Wednesday morning to get his thoughts on the matter.
In this age of 24/7 news cycles to feed a hungry AFL fan base, there is no time for snoozing.
And again then the timing seemed a tad off with Finnis not exactly exuding a desperation through the microphone to do anything and everything to back the two players and their families.
“There are no misgivings, but what I would say is that like any organisation that is in a highly competitive industry, we debate these decisions, but ultimately once the decisions are made, we get behind the players and we give them our support,” Finnis said on SEN.
What was there to debate?
A player who has just had twins wants to go home to help his wife while the other wants to be by his wife’s side for the birth of their first child?
What could there possibly be to debate about that?
Clearly the players would have agonised over it and then had the guts to put their hand up and say family is first.
The AFL is very touchy on the subject of players’ abandoning the mini-hubs because teams already out of the finals race will have plenty putting up their hands given the mental toll of last year.
Next time, more attention to the clock and less internally bickering might produce a better outcome for everyone.
Saints boss reveals club debated family leave call
St Kilda chief executive Matt Finnis has revealed the club’s senior figures debated a decision by two players to choose family over playing a game of footy.
Finnis also said the club had bigger issues to worry about than public criticism of stars Seb Ross and Tim Membrey flying home to be with their wives — one who has twins, and the other who is due to give birth soon.
Ross and Membrey missed the critical season-ending loss to Adelaide in Cairns to fly back to Melbourne.
Finnis said that senior figures at the club had debated the decision, but ultimately supported Ross and Membrey.
“There are no misgivings, but what I would say is that like any organisation that is in a highly competitive industry, we debate these decisions, but ultimately once the decisions are made, we get behind the players and we give them our support,” Finnis said on SEN.
MORE: HOW SAINTS SOLD FUTURE FOR QUICK-FIX FLAG
The issue came under the spotlight when Footy Classified’s Caroline Wilson questioned the decision to allow the Saints’ pair to return home, saying “supporters and sponsors and members and other teammates would have every right to be a bit disappointed”.
Asked if there were senior members of the club who asked Ross and Membrey to stay with the team for last week’s clash, Finnis conceded there had been some debate around the issue.
He said St Kilda wanted to “check if there is anything more that the club could do to help the guys feel supported … if that’s about checking in, and debating, then I suppose that is a part of what we do.”
“I think our players know — and we have got a pretty consistent record of this at the footy club — that we will always put family first and they will be supported in those decisions.
“You can be disappointed, but you can be understanding. I don’t think the emotions are mutually exclusive.
“As a CEO, I would love to have our best players on the park … but as a father I also understand that we have to prioritise what is important with our own families and no one can know except for the family themselves.”
When quizzed about whether Ross and Membrey felt vulnerable given there had been internal debate about their decision, Finnis said: “We are having a lot of conversations right now … you just know that the players, they get on with things.
“I know that our guys spoke to Seb (on Tuesday) and Tim was in as well. Our focus was making sure those guys understand that they are supported, and (when they) come in here after the bye, we get on with it.
“It is one thing to have the conversation, I just think we need to be really mindful of speculating about the context with which decisions are made, when we can’t possibly have the full set of visibility on that.
“These are guys who are senior members of our footy club. I would imagine they are both in the top 10 or higher in our best-and-fairest, they have been having good years on the field and they are as invested as anyone in working to arrest the season and change morale.”
Finnis dismissed suggestions the club’s playing group was not as hard or as committed as it needed to be.
“I think we have got some bigger challenges to address than players supporting their families and that’s what our focus is on now,” he said.
“Caro’s called stuff out which has had great benefit for our game, but I would have handled that differently in the sense of naming the player’s partner, publicly speculating around medical issues where none of us can be fully aware of that context.
“There are things legitimate for debate, (but) maybe bring a bit more empathy to the way we go about it.”
Finnis said he had spoken to Wilson after Monday night’s show.
It comes as the 13th-placed St Kilda has opened up its mid-year crisis to the members.
Saints coach Brett Ratten, football boss David Rath and chief operating officer Simon Lethlean will take questions from members on Thursday afternoon in a live Q&A event.
Members have been sent details via email to view the event and submit their questions.
Finnis said the club had been working on ways to arrest the team’s slide so far this season.
“We have a fair bit of work to do to bridge the gap between where we ultimately aim to be and where we think we are right now,” he said.
“We don’t think the list we have the program we run should be positioned where it is on the ladder, clearly it is not a top-four proposition now,
“We had a board meeting a couple of months ago where we took that to the board and suggested these were the things we needed to go away and do some assessment on, from there, the football department led by Simon (Lethlean) but also Brett Ratten and Davoid Rath and Jarryd Roughead and Ben Robbins.
“These guys have been doing a bit of work on bridging that gap and that involved a bit of assessment.”
AFLPA SLAMS JOURNO’S ‘IGNORANT’ BLAST ON SAINTS DUO
AFL Players’ Association boss Paul Marsh has slammed “outdated and ignorant” criticism of two St Kilda footballers who chose their families over playing in a must-win game.
Seb Ross and Tim Membrey came under fire from journalist Caroline Wilson on Monday night for skipping the Saints’ clash with Adelaide in Cairns to return to Melbourne and support their wives.
Father-of-three Ross and his partner welcomed twins in early May, while Membrey’s wife is due to give birth to their first child any day.
Wilson, who was particularly scathing of Ross, reported that senior St Kilda figures had asked them to remain with the side.
She also suggested their absence may have cost the Saints victory despite Brett Ratten’s side leading by six goals at one stage.
A St Kilda spokesperson emphasised on Tuesday that club officials had repeatedly stated their support for both Ross and Membrey to fly home from interstate.
Speaking to the Herald Sun on Tuesday, Marsh said he was “really shocked” at Wilson’s questioning of the Saints pair.
“I thought we’d moved past commentary like this, so I was shocked and disappointed,” Marsh said.
“The players do a lot. Footy is their job and they love playing footy, but family is what’s most important and you don’t get these times in your life very often.
“Some people aren’t fortunate to get them at all, and I think to be questioning players who’ve taken some time to be with their family at such an important time is completely inappropriate.”
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An unapologetic Wilson doubled down on her stance on her podcast on Tuesday, saying there was a “significant level of disappointment” within St Kilda towards Ross, in particular.
“I was just surprised, personally, that Seb Ross would (leave). I wondered whether there was a medical problem with the twins and I established there wasn’t,” Wilson said.
“I suppose my feelings were reflected by people across the AFL.
“I’m going to own what I said, because I said it, but pretty much everyone I spoke to in footy said, ‘Oh, yeah, I agree with you but I couldn’t say that … I’m a man. I’m not going to say that’
“These (people I’m speaking to) are from AFL headquarters, to clubs, to the footy club itself. I know that senior leaders at the club tried to talk to Seb about staying.”
Part of Wilson’s argument on Footy Classified on Monday night was that both Ross and Membrey would have family they could turn to for support to enable them to keep playing.
However, Marsh said that attitude demonstrated how far the AFL industry still had to go in “smashing stereotypes”.
“Raising children and babies, in particular, is not the sole job of a child’s mother,” Marsh said.
“The players are playing their role as a parent and it’s inconceivable that that is being criticised. Every situation is different, so I just don’t think this is an area people should be questioning.”
Ross’ uncle, ex-Essendon champion Tim Watson, also described Wilson’s comments as “extraordinary”, while his SEN colleague Garry Lyon said he was “almost speechless”.
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