St Kilda coach Brett Ratten on the changing landscape at Moorabbin
It was a bumper trade period for St Kilda, with five players moving in under a freshly-minted coach, ushering in a new era at Moorabbin. Only appointed last month, Brett Ratten is like a kid with new toys.
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Like a giddy kid on Boxing Day, Brett Ratten can’t help but see where the new toys fit.
St Kilda’s newly-installed coach could have as many as eight fresh faces in his Round 1 team next year after a trade period that signified the Saints’ revolution.
Flyers Zak Jones and Brad Hill on either wing, Dougal Howard and Paddy Ryder roaming between key position posts and Dan Butler adding the premiership class inside 50m.
It’s a heck of a trade haul and Ratten admits the magnet board has been out on more than a few occasions.
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“I won’t lie, it has been flipped around a little bit,” Ratten said.
“The beauty is with those players coming in, the flexibility they have.
“It’s quite funny, you muck around with the magnets and you put them in one spot and you think, ‘If we’re playing this team we might put him in this spot or that spot’.
“It’s a luxury in the sense that we can manipulate it a bit too.”
Yet when you consider gun defender Dylan Roberton’s excellent recovery from a heart scare and yet-to-debut teenagers Max King (knee) and Jack Bytel (back) should be ready, it could be a very different looking starting 22 by March.
Hill and Jones shape as the biggest difference-makers in a side screaming out for pace.
“We needed a bit more leg speed through the middle. Whether Zak plays in or out or halfback or half-forward … it gives us more run and flow in our game,” Ratten said.
“Their ability to break lines — and because they can beat their opponent in the run — it might be 14 v 15 in front of the ball.
“They can give us an outnumber with just their run and carry, which is quite exciting.”
It was an exciting trade period for the new coach, who had been privy to some of the conversations as an assistant earlier in the year.
“A lot of the targets were identified even when ‘Richo’ (ex-coach Alan Richardson) was there, around the types of player we needed,” Ratten said.
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“Gags’ (list manager James Gallagher) had identified who was out of contract and what we could do … a lot of it was already in place with he and Simon Lethlean and Gubby Allan.
“We went in with a plan and Gags had elaborated on how it might go and while there was always going to be a few things up in the air a bit, he did a fantastic job.
“It was a bit like game day. It was like ‘Gee, we might not be scoring at this point, but it’s OK, we’ve got the ball in hand’ and we kept to the process.
“You could see it was heading the right way so we didn’t need to change anything and Gags was calm and calculated in there with ‘Lethers’ and it was impressive to watch them work.”
After a whirlwind eight weeks that included securing the senior job, overseeing staff changes and a bumper trade period, Ratten will soon escape with the family to Bali for a well-earned rest.
“Not that you ever forget about footy, but just to have a break from driving to the club and separating yourself from the game a bit will be good,” he said.
