‘Rotten’: St Kilda eviscerated as brutal details come to light
St Kilda has been torn to shreds over fresh details of its sacking of Brett Ratten as reports emerged the club has big news to drop.
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St Kilda will reportedly re-link with Ross Lyon 12 years after he sensationally quit the club.
The veteran coach has emerged as the front-runner to replace sacked coach Brett Ratten and the deal is now “on” according to Channel 7’s Tom Browne.
Multiple reports have suggested the club wants Lyon in the hot seat, despite chief executive Simon Lethlean and chairman Andrew Bassat on Friday insisting they had not had any contact with the former Dockers coach.
The 7News report suggests the Saints could appoint Lyon as early as next week.
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Landing Lyon would be welcome news to the club, which has been widely condemned for the brutal nature of its sacking of Ratten after Bassat just months ago spoke glowingly of Ratten’s ability to lead the club in the future.
Bassat said during the press conference on Friday Ratten had been “blindsided” by his termination
Now the club is being criticised for the way it treated Ratten leading up to the decision.
The Herald Sun reports Ratten was made to wait at the football club as senior officials made their decision to sack him. The club confirmed it had met with Ratten several times in the days leading up to his axing, giving the coach a final plea to save his job.
The Age also reports Bassat was on-board a luxuy cruise in the United States last month when he first began to contemplate Ratten’s future.
It is just one more detail in the club’s apparent slap in the face of its former coach.
Journalist Peter Ryan posted on Twitter: “The cruise, the call, the fall, the whole handling of Ratten was rotten. Time will tell how the decision will be remembered.
“So after the media conference it is clear the St Kilda leadership completely failed Brett Ratten. Had doubts, didn’t communicate them as they re-signed him and then asked him to present a case. My God. Better off gone.”
The Herald Sun’s Mark Robinson wrote on Saturday: “Those people have blood on their hands and, at present, ineptitude hanging over their heads”.
Seven’s Mitch Cleary also took a swipe at how the club had handled the axing. Responding to the club’s Twitter post which “thanked” Ratten, he wrote: “Thank you Ratts… thank you for being our scapegoat. From a club leadership that admitted you weren’t given the best chance to succeed and subsequently made you plead for your job… three months after supposedly being backed in”.
Ratten’s sacking comes after some big changes at the football club this year with veteran football manager Geoff Walsh this month appointed to the new position as executive general manager of football.
Lethlean on Friday insisted Walsh was not involved in the review that has ultimately cost Ratten his job. He said the decision was made by a review committee which was made up by Bassat, Lethlean, Jason Blake and former North Melbourne coach David Noble.
Bassat said the decision was made after the review found “troubling” news that suggested the club was not in a position to contend for the premiership.
“I went into this with no predetermined views,” he said.
“The sorts of questions I was asking, to be frank, is, ‘are we genuinely on the path to contending or are we kidding ourselves’? Or are we at serious risk of getting stuck in the 6-10 zone?
“The answers I got were troubling in terms of our confidence to come up with a plan with conviction.”
Walsh last week spoke boldly about his ambitious plans for the club in a radio interview, saying he hopes to drag St Kilda out of the “degree of irrelevance”.
“One of the things I’d like to think I can bring to the table is the willingness to make a hard call, to not walk past something if you see it and know it’s wrong,” he told SEN.
“This might sound abrasive and Saints fans might get upset, but one of the things I think, when asked about how do I see St Kilda, I think the competition would say there has been a degree of irrelevance.
“That should be abrasive, that should choke down people’s throats. I hope that going forward I can contribute to a profile that gives the Saints the due respect they crave.”
Instead, they had a quiet trade period, missing out on the big-name signature of Collingwood midfielder Jordan De Goey.
The club was able to pick up Zaine Cordy from the Western Bulldogs through free agency, but utility Ben Long left to join the Suns.
Ratten took over as caretaker coach midway through the 2019 season when Alan Richardson was sacked as coach and has had three full seasons in charge.
He led St Kilda to the finals in 2020, which saw the Saints win an elimination final against the Western Bulldogs.
But St Kilda have not made the top eight since then.
North Melbourne legend David King earlier called for more heads to roll at St Kilda.
“I don’t care if that’s Simon Lethlean or James Gallagher or who it is because this is not a one-man problem,” he said on SEN.
“It’s not. You can’t blame Ratten for all of this – having signed him 100 days ago. It’s laughable.”
Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes labelled it “one of the most brutal decisions” he’s seen in the sport.
“Maybe it’s an insight into the changing landscape of how AFL football is going and how ruthless some of these clubs are going to be,” he said.
“We see this in world sports from time to time … largely there’s been a level of loyalty with AFL coaches. This is a coach that was re-signed halfway through the year and now he’s gone the day after the trade period.”
Originally published as ‘Rotten’: St Kilda eviscerated as brutal details come to light
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