St Kilda forward Tim Membrey opens up on the raw and honest review that followed the loss to Fremantle
St Kilda forward Tim Membrey misses his young nephew terribly, but he has made his peace with hublife, filling the wardrobe at his temporary home with clothes and making a purchase that has ensured it’s all “set in”, Lauren Wood writes.
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“Pretenders” cut deep.
The review of St Kilda’s shock loss to Fremantle was brutal — an old school reality check in a darkened room nestled among the lush tropical gardens of one of the Sunshine Coast’s most luxurious resorts.
Forward Tim Membrey — who has sat through more than his fair share of game reviews since his days as a junior at Traralgon — had teammate Dean Kent on one side and Callum Wilkie on the other as coach Brett Ratten questioned the group, some 48 hours after they let a six-goal lead slip to the Dockers last Saturday week.
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The big screen presentation began with a stream of articles and commentary from recent weeks, Membrey said, which went from the Saints being the talk of the town after rousing wins over the Bulldogs, Richmond and Carlton to their mettle being questioned.
The words cut.
“We’d beaten Richmond and Carlton and were playing some good footy and had seen some articles saying “are they finally the real deal?”,” he said.
“Then two days later after that loss it’s like, ‘are they still pretenders?’.
“Hearing those sorts of comments doesn’t sit well when you’re involved. Especially when you know that our best is right up there in the competition and that’s where we need to get to.”
They’re determined to not let it happen again, starting tonight against Adelaide.
It was what they needed. Real. Honest.
“It was (a bit old school),” Membrey said this week.
“The way Ratts and (head of football) David Rath and the whole coaching staff connected all the players – everyone’s got such a good relationship. We all understand each other and to be able to strip it right back and know when blokes are getting challenged, we know where it’s coming from.
“It’s coming from a place where ‘we know you’re better and we want to improve’.
“To be able to be in a review like that and be open and honest and not sit there and think ‘oh, he’s just having a go at me because he doesn’t like me’ or something like that, it’s definitely not and it wasn’t like that.
“It was just purely and simply ‘we know you’re better than that’. And it was really good. It was honest. And the players had a lot to do with it as well in challenging each other.
“It was important that we addressed it, because it’s happened to us before in Round 1 against North where we jumped out and had a really good lead and then we let a side back in and roll us.”
WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?
It was the question Ratten first put to the group last Monday.
Former Richmond and Western Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace this week said the Saints were “brilliant, not resilient”.
And while from a young age the opinion of others is traditionally encouraged to be discounted, Membrey said over the two-hour honesty session, how the team is perceived by its opposition struck a chord.
“When we broke off into our line groups, we spoke about what our football looks like when we’re playing well, and what the competition would think of us,” he said.
“What would other teams think about us in those situations?
“We’ve got a bit of work to do in shifting the mentality of what the competition thinks about us as a football team. Because we certainly believe that we’re as good as anyone on our day. It’s just purely about being more consistent in that space.”
Coaches admitted fault, too, he said, and everyone got their say, including Membrey.
“And that’s where we’re going to get our improvement from,” the forward said.
“We don’t want to be going into those types of meetings and just hearing from the same people. We want to hear from players and if someone’s got something to say, then just say it. Because if you’re thinking it, there’s probably 10 others who could be thinking it as well.
“That’s exactly what it was – everyone had their thoughts and opinions and we heard from a lot of different players. It got to where we wanted it to get to.”
TALK ISN’T CHEAP
On-field leadership was one area identified in need of stark improvement for tonight’s clash with Adelaide.
Membrey, a member of the team’s leadership group, said the team must become “aware and adaptable” if it is to take the next step – and find its voice in the heat of battle.
“We expect more from each other and from ourselves,” he said.
“We need to change our mindset … to be able to have that belief in ourselves and as a football team and when we do get challenged, that we can do something about it.
“We need to be able to be mature enough and do something about it when it happens.”
It all comes down to belief – starting tonight.
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“We know that we’re going to be a good side and purely it’s just about believing we can be a good side,” Membrey said.
“I still think there’s players who probably think they’re 20 or 30 or 40 games into their career and still trying to cement their spot, but they’ve got to start believing that they’re cut out for this and they can be really good players for us for a long time.”
SINKING IN
As the Saints looked to implement change – and quickly – there was another revelation to get their heads around as the league revealed players and officials would remain in Queensland for the rest of the season.
Membrey doesn’t mind hub life thus far, managing to nab an apartment to himself – others aren’t so lucky – and despite not being a big TV buff, has binged American drama series Yellowstone in recent weeks.
Membrey’s partner Emily is a photographer in Gippsland, which isn’t in lockdown, so she will remain at home and continue working.
And there’s plenty of FaceTime with one-year-old nephew Foxx who is “growing so quickly and talking and running around”, with the pair sharing an unbreakable bond.
But he had to face reality once the news was confirmed this week, with one purchase indicative of his commitment to hub life.
“We try and look at it that it’s going to be one of those things that we look back on in the future and think ‘what a crazy time that was, we had to do this to keep the season alive’,” he said.
“I’ve fully unpacked properly now and filled the cupboards up with some clothes, because we’re going to be here for a while.
“I’ve even bought myself some washing powder to do my own washing. So it’s certainly set in.”