Simon Lethlean says Saints must show improvement for Alan Richardson to keep his job

One former AFL senior coach says Alan Richardson’s ‘papers are stamped’ but St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt says the Saints coach can still save his job if he hits a certain number of wins.

Saints head coach Alan Richardson. Pic: AAP

Former AFL coach Rodney Eade believes it’s only a matter of time before St Kilda coach Alan Richardson loses his job.

Speculation is rife that Richardson won’t coach the Saints next year, with questions now turning to whether he’ll last the season.

A nine-goal to one third quarter, where Richardson said St Kilda was “embarrassed” by Brisbane on Saturday, has raised the stakes.

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St Kilda football boss Simon Lethlean said on Sunday Richardson has 10 weeks to save his job but Eade, who has been through this before, believes a decision has already been made.

“I feel for Richo … it’s a blood sport,” he said.

“The narrative is not great, he’s been lined up and I would think, internally, that his papers have been stamped.

“It will probably happen at some stage, which is unfortunate.”

Saints champion Nick Riewoldt isn’t giving up on his former coach.

“I reckon he needs to get to 10 wins. I think it gives him a fighting chance,” Riewoldt told SEN.

“I think his growth as a coach has been pretty evident this year. I think they’ve overachieved — go back a month ago, I think to that point of the year they’d overachieved.

“I find this year so hard to get a read on. I want to see the body of work.

“The trouble with (Lethlean’s) comments are — how do we quantify improvement?

“I think it’s plain to see. The club needs to start beating teams above them on the ladder and they cannot put in performances where the effort is as bad as it was on the weekend.

“Up until the Port Adelaide game they’d been really strong and competitive in all games they’d been in. Port Adelaide I was willing to put a line through because of the injuries and the illness over there in China and the travel and all of those circumstances combined.”

Saints coach Alan Richardson.

Eade said few outside Moorabbin had predicted the Saints to challenge for September action.

“Their expectations are too high. I know they’ve said they’ve got to win a final and all that sort of thing but realistically, some people picked them to finish bottom, or certainly in the bottom two or three.

“To win six games (already), some people didn’t they they’d win six for the year.

“They’re going to have some bad losses.

“Hopefully for his sake they don’t fall off a cliff and they get some beltings as they go forward now.”

The Saints have had a nightmare run with injuries to key players this season, including the likes of big-name recruit Dan Hannebery, Jake Carlisle, Jarryn Geary, Dylan Robertson and Jack Steven has taken time away from the game to deal with his mental health.

Eade says the Saints simply don’t have the depth.

“It depends how you rate their list but I don’t think their list is great and they’ve had some injuries and mental health issues to some really good players and they’re a side that can’t afford to have those types of players out,” he said on RSN927.

The club’s second disastrous showing in three weeks had Lethlean handing Richardson a brutally honest assessment of his tenure.

The man who will effectively decide Richardson’s fate says the club needs to showcase its development but also prove it can knock over top-eight sides for Richardson to survive.

That 10-week run starts against Richmond next week and also includes Geelong, Adelaide away and Fremantle.

“We need to show some significant improvement from last night, no question. I think that performance hurts everyone at the club,” Lethlean said.

Saints players feel the pain of the big loss. Pic: AAP

St Kilda footy boss Simon Lethlean. Pic: Michael Klein.

“Alan understands if we don’t keep improving, we are all under the pump. I think that’s a fair assessment of anyone involved in a footy club. No one’s role at any club is guaranteed.

“After 13 rounds we are 6-7 and better than last year. We have to start beating teams around us not below us and have to prove we are better than last night. If we keep improving Alan will still be our coach.”

Lethlean told Richardson as much at a meeting on Friday, then the Saints turned it up in a horror third-quarter against Brisbane.

Lethlean said it was a dispiriting loss for a side that had so much to prove against a finals contender.

“The coach is the one that bears the brunt of it but as Dan Hannebery said there is some ownership from the players on that performance,” he told 3AW.

“There was a real lack of effort and hardness from a number of players and they have to shoulder the burden. It is unhelpful for all the things we are trying to achieve for the footy program.

“It was a really hollow performance and we didn’t have too many players stand up and respond. It was hard work, we couldn’t stem the tide, if left you concerned about the playing group’s effort that night.”

Lethlean said there had been significant changes to the club’s program had worked, and said the club’s long injury list had to be factored in.

He said the club had to assess Richardson’s progress in recent history, saying it was impossible to judge him on the early years of rebuilding.

But this week Richardson will pass Grant Thomas (123 games) for games coached at St Kilda, meaning he trails behind only the legendary Allan Jeans despite not taking the club to a finals game so far.

Geelong legend Jimmy Bartel said the club had to factor in one of footy’s worst injury lists, with five of the club’s top seven in last year’s best-and-fairest sidelined.

Lethlean won’t shy away from tough decisions on Richardson, who has multiple clauses which would see him coaching next year.

“It’s my job to analyse what improvements are required. As head of footy it’s my task. Dean Anderson is on the board as a footy director and we talk regularly. As early as Friday Alan and I had an open conversation about it and I don’t think anything I have said is anything he and I haven’t discussed. When you are winning and the media is coming at you the scrutiny is fair enough and it’s what dictates where the season goes.”