A post-match blast will be the start of a tough week at St Kilda with several players set to be dropped

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten looked completely confounded after his team was humiliated on Saturday night and he’s not going to cop poor performers any more.

A bunch of beaten Saints could be headed back to the VFL (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Change is coming at St Kilda after a deflated coach Brett Ratten declared “we can’t have this” following his team’s humiliating 111-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

Lost for answers after a third loss by more than 75-points this season, Ratten said he would look to his VFL side for new troops to arrest a concerning form slide.

After taking Geelong deep last week with St Kilda’s best pressure game of the season, the display against the Bulldogs was the complete opposite and Ratten let his players know in no uncertain terms.

“Eight days ago, win, lose or draw, you hold your head up high. After that, you don’t know where to look,” a flummoxed Ratten said.

“The gap between our best and our worst is just too big, it’s unacceptable.

“Our pressure was enormous against Geelong, but tonight we got out tackled … they won the ball and they got it back off us. It’s unacceptable and we have to do something about it.

“We can’t just keep going on like this, a good quarter here or there. Players who aren’t performing will have to go back to the twos.

“We’ve got players who are in pretty good form in the reserves and we’ll have to make changes. We can’t have that.

“The players were told that post game.

"It's unacceptable... players who aren't performing will have to go back to the 2s. We can't have that."

Brett Ratten says he can't explain St Kilda's performance. pic.twitter.com/R5GVpvjeUX

— 7AFL (@7AFL) May 22, 2021

Luke Dunstan and Mason Wood were two names Ratten mentioned as possible inclusions for next week’s clash against North Melbourne, back at Marvel Stadium where the Saints won just two of seven games this season.

“They’ll be talked about during the week, but we just can’t have a performance like that,” he said.

“It’s a tough game, AFL, but you can’t just drop off the face of the earth.”

Ratten said he wouldn’t shy away from doing a hard, harsh review of every player’s performance this week.

“We as a team need to deal with some of the facts in front of us right now,” he said.

“We need to make some changes and address things which are popping up all the time.

“We’ll address the efforts and what we expect going forward. We can’t have this. we need to do something about it.”

Ratten said the lack of effort from his players was all “above the shoulders” and they needed an attitude adjustment, and fast.

“We‘re trying to put our finger on it,” he said.

“That‘s four games (St Kilda has lost) by over 50 points.

“The pressure they applied to us, we were about half-rate to them. To put pressure on, it‘s just a mindset, and we didn’t put ourselves in the game there.”