Mark Robinson goes one-on-one with St Kilda president Andrew Bassat about the Saints' search for relevance
Where exactly are the Saints at? It’s something many have pondered this year. MARK ROBINSON goes straight to the top to find out, asking the hard questions of St Kilda president Andrew Bassat.
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Languishing in 15th spot on the ladder at 5-9, it’s been another season of disappointment for St Kilda fans.
Many have been asking the same question – just exactly where is the club at?
Ahead of Sunday’s clash with the Power, St Kilda president Andrew Bassat tells Mark Robinson why the Saints are hell-bent on earning the league’s respect and why Ross Lyon is the man to do it
Mark Robinson: Is St Kilda flying under the radar or is the club irrelevant?
Andrew Bassat: We try not to be irrelevant – we absolutely want to be a club that is respected and feared. I know we need to do some work on the field in terms of performance – and consistently – to get there.
MR: So not respected and feared?
AB: Not at the moment, but we’re planning on getting there before too long.
MR: When you appointed Ross Lyon, you spoke of wanting a winning culture. Brett Ratten had a 34-34 win-loss record in his time, and Lyon is now 18-20. Does that record match the want of a winning culture?
AB: We were pretty clear when we appointed Ross that we were a long way off it as a football club, and that we weren’t on track to be competitive at the top end of the ladder.
MR: I thought you were quite bullish at the time.
AB: No, we made it very clear there was a risk we could go backwards before going forwards. We said we were a long way off it after the review. Ross came on board fully aware of the problems. I was entirely transparent with Ross, and he believed we were committed to the long-term future and committed to supporting him through the ups and downs, through the noise that happens when you’re not performing every week. We knew it wouldn’t be easy.
MR: Where does St Kilda sit right now?
AB: We’ve gone back to the draft for the last three years. We’ve got games into our young players. Ross has put standards around the place ...
MR: How can we – on the outside – judge those standards?
AB: The challenge for football clubs, and I’m learning this, is the noise is pretty intense. The noise from fans and the media when you lose games is strong. And people try to avoid the noise by making short-term decisions. Football is the same as business, getting the process right leads to results. And there’s all sorts of things that go into that process. That’s making sure there is consistency in terms of messaging. You can see the standards. Anyone who comes to training now versus where training was three or four years ago would say the training standards are different. People work harder, they’re focused on the job, there’s much less mucking around, they’re much quicker to call things out, those are the things we can see. The players feel they’re being pushed to work harder, pushed to be more disciplined with their lifestyle in terms of drinking and all those sorts of things. They feel more belief in the game plan, more belief in each other. To me, you want signs on the field but you want to look at the process leading to those signs first and eventually if you keep doing that you will get there. Most weeks this year we have been younger and less experienced than our opposition.
MR: You’re all-in on Ross Lyon, aren’t you?
AB: Yes and no.
MR: What do you mean by yes and no?
AB: Yes, absolutely in terms of the football department. We think he’s a very strong coach. To be frank, from the review, I thought we had problems everywhere and we felt Ross was the person we could build a football club around.
MR: Why the no?
AB: When you say all-in, the rumours that Ross is unaccountable within football is not true. The rumours that he’s trying to run the football club are not true. He’s a strong coach, he’s open to feedback and he’s not trying to run areas beyond football.
MR: Does it frustrate you when you hear and read that he is the alpha male and he gets whatever he wants, and that includes CEOs?
AB: I know it’s not true, that he’s the puppeteer and I’m the puppet. I don’t really care too much about it.
MR: You can keep denying it, but how do you get rid of that perception?
AB: Look, all the key people are committed and we won’t let the noise distract us. If on the way we cop some criticism, I cop some criticism, Ross cops some criticism, we’re up for that. We’d prefer to cop that than take short-term decisions, which aren’t right for the long-term future.
MR: Can you clarify if this story is true? That leading up to Ratten’s sacking, you went on Lindsay Fox’s boat for his birthday, and a bunch of old Saints people like Lindsay and Gerry Ryan said, ‘Hey, why don’t we get Ross Lyon to coach?’
AB: Do you honestly reckon I’d go on a boat with all these guys and say a single word about what was happening at the St Kilda Football Club without it leaking out? I didn’t say a word to what was happening to anyone on that boat. It wasn’t discussed at all. It was such a sensitive issue. It was a brutally hard decision on Brett (Ratten); he’s a good person, and (it was) by far, the hardest decision I’ve made in my life.
MR: There’s another perception that the former cohort at St Kilda, which includes Nick Riewoldt, is very influential. True or not?
AB: I probably spoke to 120 people as part of the review to get to a really strong decision. To give too much weight to one or two people is completely false. And the boat story is completely rubbish.
MR: Are you enjoying the role?
AB: I‘ve not enjoyed some of the decisions that have been made, but I’m enjoying the role. I take it very seriously.
MR: You’re a hands-on president?
AB: I’ve become hands-on and I am trying to do that without interfering in the jobs of others. But what you realise when you get involved is just how much it means to so many people. For so many supporters, it’s the most important thing in their lives.
MR: Is it the most important thing in your life?
AB: I’ve become pretty obsessed.
MR: So when you go to bed at night, do you think about your businesses or do you think about the Saints?
AB: I shouldn’t admit this because I’m running a business and I’ve also got investors in that business, but this (St Kilda) is the thing I’m obsessive about, because I know how important it is to so many people. Hands on? Probably, because what the pre-review period taught us is that the board to some extent was forced to rubber stamp decisions because we didn’t have enough information to make good decisions.
MR: Despite playing finals in 2023, did the coach declare that the team/list wasn’t as advanced as much as you may have thought it was?
AB: That we have gone a bit backwards this year is probably not how we anticipated things would unfold, but we knew there were gaps. If you look at the commentary last year from Ross, and from everyone involved at the club, no one was getting carried away with our form last year. No one was thinking we were closer than we were. We resisted the temptation to bring in older players and go down the free agency path, to go down the top-up path. The players we brought in were younger. This is no disrespect to Jade Gresham, but there’s no doubt if we kept Jade we would’ve been better this year. We effectively, by allowing Jade to leave because we didn’t want to match the salary, we got a draft pick that we turned into Lance Collard and we got salary cap space. That’s the sort of the decision that takes you backward before it goes forward.
MR:Criticism this year has centred on game style. What do you say to supporters – and to the media – who describe it as rubbish football?
AB: I don’t really listen to what anyone says. Mostly, people are pretty positive. I get the occasional abuse if you have a bad loss. For most part, fans know we’re not taking shortcuts and the more sensible fans are pretty pleased with the direction.
MR: Do you like the style of football?
AB: We scored 106 points against Brisbane last week, we moved the ball fine. I think we’re No.1 for moving the ball from defence to attack. We’re breaking down in actual scoring, but unsurprisingly we’re moving the ball better when our midfielders, who we had been missing, came back.
MR: What was your reaction to suggestions this week that clubs were aware that Rowan Marshall might be gettable?
AB: If that was the reality, I would be concerned, and you’d prefer rumours not be out there when they are false. I have checked on the Rowan Marshall one. The answer is he’s fine. To be clear, I had a long conversation with Rowan – there was a function at my place on the Gold Coast after the game last week – and he looked like a very happy guy to me.
MR: Did you personally ask him this week?
AB: I did not speak to him personally this week; it’s not the sort of thing to bother the player with. But I believe it to be not true.
MR: Do you believe St Kilda is a destination club for free agents?
AB: It’s hard for us because they tend to go to the clubs who are in the window, which is self-reinforcing because they tend to go to clubs at the top (of the ladder), and they stay (there). So free agency continues to be an instrument of continuing unequalisation. But we’ll do our best.
MR: Do you think it should be “free”?
AB: I don’t. Richmond, for example, get Tom Lynch when they’ve won the flag. The reason for that is the (AFL) Players’ Association wants it. But it’s hard to argue that it’s fair.
MR: It’s testing times for St Kilda supporters. Can you say anything to them other than be patient?
AB: I’m a hardcore fan. The only reason I got involved is because I was impatient and I got convinced I could help a little bit. I completely understand the impatience. Our choice now is to try and rush things to be as good as we can be this year, knowing that won’t get us in the top four, or, we can try to do this properly and cop the noise and cop the criticism. I think the fans would prefer us to get there a bit later and get there more seriously than just dribble into the eight. Anyone can dribble into the eight and fall out the next year. That’s easy, we’ve done that twice. Now we’re trying to get into the top four and be competitive seriously.
MR: Have you spoken to Brett Ratten?
AB: We started off OK afterwards, but I completely understand Brett’s perspective. Brett doesn’t like me very much. I’ve got great regard for Brett, we had nice exchanges after our decision, but I’ve tried without response more recently.
MR: Have you spoken to Simon Lethlean recently?
AB: I’ve not spoken to Simon, either.
MR: What’s your vision of St Kilda in, say, four years?
AB: I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but I’d be really disappointed if you don’t see us a hell of a lot more competitive by then. Top four, top six. We don’t want to make predictions for next year because we’re really focused on the process. Results will take care of themselves.
MR: It doesn’t have to be said, but it’s a big game on Sunday.
AB: I think this is the fourth time this year we’ve met a side that’s had the media on its back all week. That’s OK, you want to prepare yourself for big games.
MR: You speak calmly and rationally, but do you get tense at the footy?
AB: I’m hopeless. I can barely function. I used to be fine, but now I care so much I have so little control. I need a padded cell with a one-way glass. If I can control myself I sit with people from the president’s dinner, if I find myself going astray I just wander off on my own somewhere. My wife can’t stand it, my kids can’t stand it. I’m a lot more relatable to the hardcore fans. But with most people, it’s just embarrassing.
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