Why St Kilda should give coach Brett Ratten the ultimate show of faith

When your president declares you’re in the flag window, losing control of the storyline is a recipe for disaster. But there’s a way to ensure the Saints don’t, writes Jon Ralph.

Hawthorn paid Alastair Clarkson $900,000 to ensure his presence wasn’t a distraction that would sabotage the 2022 season.

St Kilda has a decision to make in coming months about whether it risks a potential $300,000 payout to Brett Ratten to ensure it gives him the best possible chance of that elusive flag.

Ratten is one of several senior AFL coaches out of contract entering 2022 and in a normal year the Saints might make him prove he deserves an extension through to 2023.

In two completed seasons at the Saints he has won a final before a bruised and depleted young team ran into eventual premiers Richmond in 31-point semi-final defeat.

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Nothing went right for the Saints in 2021. Picture: Michael Klein

Then everything that could go wrong did this year - St Kilda leading the league in injuries and at times seeming confused and disinterested with a series of morale-sapping early-season losses.

The Saints coughed up 21.18 (144) to the Dogs in a 111-point loss, got torched by Richmond in an 86-point round 5 defeat and also endured 75 and 54-point losses within the first 10 rounds.

Eventually the Saints got their act together to split the last 12 games of the season as they found players like Tom Highmore and Cooper Sharman, and skipper Jack Steele led from the front like a 10-year captain.

So, in a normal year it might be fair to make Ratten sing for his supper for a new deal.

But 2022 will not be a normal year. It will be one in which Clarkson and Nathan Buckley’s availability will be a prevailing theme after every crushing loss, every four-week form slump.

Handing Ratten a one-year contract extension to the end of 2023 would be the ultimate show of faith in a coach the Saints appointed only 26 months ago.

And it would also be a canny bit of business to immediately remove him from that speculation. The only potential downside would be a potential six-month payout that the Saints would have to hand over only in the worst possible circumstances.

Ratten isn’t some coaching green thumb. He is a 50-year-old coaching veteran with eight full seasons of senior leadership under his belt.

The Saints are still working through the best course of action on their coach’s future.

It is understood they will contemplate an extension for Ratten over the summer as they provide clarity to him in areas for improvement.

If the club’s hierarchy wants to see more from Ratten - allowing the contract to run - they will provide him with specific goals that are not based on win-loss record.

The Saints reason that setting the goal of finals participation is too simple so would be more likely to focus on the list build, game style and development of the kids than any concrete win-loss goal for him to win a new deal.

Will Alastair Clarkson be available for the Saints in 2023? Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

At times last year Ratten seemed at a loss to explain the lack of effort in those galling capitulations.

But his record stands for itself - finals in three of six seasons at Carlton and a finals victory at the Saints, their first since 2010.

St Kilda has backed him to the hilt and it needs to give him the best chance of off-field stability in his first year without interstate hubs and the chaos of playing in a pandemic.

Collingwood was happy to accept a year of intense focus on Buckley, who was gone by round 13 after the weekly speculation on his future combined with the club’s own off-field politics and the prevailing mood for change.

Extending Ratten’s contract doesn’t hand him a free pass, it instead heightens the focus on a playing group.

The alternative view is that you don’t extend a coach’s contract unless he is in demand elsewhere. That a club $13.8 million in debt (about to be $10 million) cannot afford to pay out Ratten if the proverbial hits the fan next year.

It ignores the modern media reality that St Kilda delaying any contract talks until late into the season will needlessly put a target on Ratten’s back.

Simon Goodwin will win his much-warranted new deal and Justin Longmuir and Matthew Nicks are tipped to join him before round 1 after strong early progress in their tenures.

St Kilda doesn’t need Ratten lumped into the same “Under Siege” category as Stuart Dew among the only senior coaches out of contract.

In a season that already has a level of pressure given president Andrew Bassat’s declaration the club is in the premiership window, losing control of that storyline is a recipe for disaster.