St Kilda 2021: Saints boss Simon Lethlean ‘alarmed’ at club’s horror fall

Despite three defeats exceeding 75 points in 2021, “alarmed” Saints boss Simon Lethlean has defended the club’s recruiting strategy.

Bradley Hill is among a number of Saints recruits to cop criticism. Picture: Getty Images

St Kilda’s chief operating officer Simon Lethlean has defended its recent recruiting raids but is “alarmed” at how far the Saints have fallen since winning a final last year.

The 111-point spanking from Western Bulldogs on Saturday night sunk St Kilda’s percentage to 72.6, worse than any team other than bottom side and next opponent North Melbourne.

It was the Saints’ third defeat by at least 75 points this season and comes after they beat the Bulldogs by three points in last year’s finals series and were expected to be top-four contenders.

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Simon Lethlean has defended the Saints’ recruiting strategy. Picture: Michael Klein.

They are missing as many as eight first-choice options – Jade Gresham, Rowan Marshall, Zak Jones, Brad Crouch, Dan Hannebery, Ben Paton, Jake Carlisle and Dean Kent – but aren’t the only club dealing with injuries.

One aspect Lethlean was adamant on was that coach Brett Ratten had not lost his players despite “a fair bit going wrong on match day”.

“(The weekend defeat) shows the difference in where we’re at. As of Saturday night, the Dogs have improved again,” Lethlean told reporters.

“They’re playing with confidence and they’ve kicked to a new level in 2021 that wasn’t there at the end of 2020 for them – it was for us in 2020, but that level is not good enough and you saw that.

“I think we can all live with four and five-goal losses to the best team in the comp, but where that got to on the weekend was alarming.”

Lethlean was speaking after emerging from a lengthy leadership group discussion.

He revealed that defenders Dougal Howard and Callum Wilkie spoke of their frustration at the vulnerable position they were left in because the midfielders weren’t “doing their job”.

Defenders Callum Wilkie and Dougal Howard have called out their midfield. Picture: Getty Images

Ratten had already warned there would be changes at selection, which could include recalling Nick Coffield and Luke Dunstan, but Lethlean said it was too early to know how many.

“It’s a pretty thirsty industry for making statements,” he said.

“We’ll make the best decisions for the balance we need to beat the Kangaroos this weekend. If that’s a big-name player, then so be it.”

Much of the criticism has centred on the number of players St Kilda brought in across the past two trade periods, including Bradley Hill, Howard, Dan Butler, Paddy Ryder, Jones, Crouch and Jack Higgins.

On top of them, they also signed James Frawley, Shaun McKernan, Mason Wood and Paul Hunter to improve the playing depth.

Bradley Hill is among a number of Saints recruits to cop criticism. Picture: Getty Images

Lethlean pointed to newcomers filling four of the top 10 places in last year’s club champion award as evidence the approach worked, but conceded Hannebery’s recruitment wasn’t “at the moment”.

Fellow high-priced recruit Hill has also been an underwhelming addition so far.

“These are the trials and tribulations of recruiting and you live and die by them, but we’ll keep making decisions we think are best for the team at the time,” Lethlean said.

Lethlean said the Saints would use their first-round draft pick this year and was pleased with the quality of their youth, including Max King, Hunter Clark, Jack Bytel and Ryan Byrnes.

A number of Saints are giving Brett Ratten headaches this season.

TRUST A BIG ISSUE FOR RATTS, SAINTS

As Billy Joel once crooned, for St Kilda it’s a matter of trust.

Brett Ratten can’t trust his team to turn up from one week to the next.

He can’t trust the hard-won improvements in St Kilda’s game plan in recent weeks not to evaporate in any given round.

And when his players look him in the eye and promise effort pre-match, too often they respond with performances like the 111-point defeat.

It’s a terrible position to be in for an AFL coach.

As Geelong star Jimmy Bartel told 3AW on Sunday, Brett Ratten has no answers for his side’s tailspin.

Or more to the point, no confidence they will fix exactly what he knows is wrong.

“It is now a trust issue. Do I trust my players to execute? This is the third time,” Bartel said.

“After the first time you fire the bullet in a team meeting and you trust them and back them in.

“The second time you go hard with mouthguards in at training, it’s a mindset thing.

“What do you do the third time?

“You can only fire a certain amount of bullets or the blokes think you are nuts. You lose the group. (So now he is saying) it’s personnel. I have to change the team.

“The ones I am giving opportunities to aren’t getting it done.”

Against Richmond (an 86-point defeat) and Port Adelaide (54 points) St Kilda was abysmal.

But in Round 7 and 8 victories over Hawthorn and Gold Coast, then the honourable loss to Geelong, St Kilda seemed to have fixed its problems.

They ranked third for clearance differential, second for points against and third for opposition points from turnovers in that period.

Against the Western Bulldogs in their worst performance of a miserable season, they lost clearances by 13, coughed up 144 points, allowed an opposition score from 56.5 per cent of inside 50s.

Every single strength was ripped apart by a Bulldogs side which had 50 more possessions but 74 tackles to the Saints’ 48.

Brett Ratten said it was time to dump the underperformers, so who has let St Kilda down most this year?

Brett Ratten is running out of ways to try and get his players to respond, and perform. Picture: Michael Klein

Dan Butler’s drop off a form cliff is reflective of the club’s fortunes.

He had five possessions against the Dogs, with three turnovers.

He has only 10 goals in 10 games and is in a group of players including Ben Long, Nick Coffield, Jack Lonie and Rowan Marshall who have had the biggest ranking points slumps from 2020 to 2021.

Long has been the sub at times, but he averages 27 ranking points.

Coffield finished fifth in last year’s best-and-fairest but has already been dropped this year.

Jack Billings hasn’t kicked a goal in five of his past six games, with Brad Hill pushed to half back in desperation.

You could make a claim every St Kilda player bar Max King and Jack Steele has gone backwards this year.

All of St Kilda’s point of difference players, burst midfielders Jade Gresham and Zak Jones plus both their ruck forwards, have missed big chunks of football.

Ratten’s issue is he doesn’t have a bevy of kids in the VFL.

Dan Butler is a shadow of the player he was last year.

Brad Hill has been down on form.

He mentioned Luke Dunstan and Mason Wood as potential inclusions.

Dunstan brings his own footy in the VFL (29 possessions, three goals on Saturday) and Wood had 26 touches and 2.2, but Coffield and Long had only 28 possessions between them.

There is no salvation in the VFL.

All is not lost because the Saints face North Melbourne, Adelaide and Collingwood in the next five weeks.

But at 4-6 and with a paltry percentage of 72.6 the Saints would need to win nine of their last 12 games to play finals and potentially every game to finish top four.

St Kilda’s list management build has all been about winning Grand Finals, not limping into eighth spot.

In a season with so many contenders, St Kilda could make a late charge but the reality is their premiership hopes are teetering on the brink.