Sacked St Kilda coach Brett Ratten joins Alastair Clarkson’s North Melbourne coaching staff
Former St Kilda and Carlton head coach Brett Ratten has joined Alastair Clarkson’s North Melbourne coaching staff after his sacking from the Saints, writes DANIEL CHERNY.
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Sacked St Kilda coach Brett Ratten will reunite with Alastair Clarkson after signing to be a part-time assistant coach at North Melbourne.
And Clarkson is leaning on another old ally, with consultancy firm Leading Teams also joining the Kangaroos.
Ratten, who was axed by the Saints last month with two years left to run on his contract, has been lured back to the fold by Clarkson, with whom he worked for six years as an assistant at Hawthorn.
The 51-year-old will have a matchday role as well as spending some time at Arden Street during the week. He will primarily work with the Roos’ midfield group alongside fellow assistant Jordan Russell.
North’s first-to-fourth year players resumed training this week. Ratten is set to begin at the club on Friday.
The former Carlton star was let go by the Saints in the wake of the club’s football department review. Across three and a bit seasons, he had a 50 per cent winning record; having previously been sacked from the Blues, where he coached the side to the finals in three consecutive season.
Ratten was replaced by Ross Lyon, who returned to St Kilda more than a decade after leaving the club for Fremantle.
While Ratten has thus far kept silent on his sacking, Brendon Lade, who had been Ratten’s right-hand man at the Saints before leaving to take on an assistant coaching role at the Western Bulldogs, told RSN radio on Thursday that the fact Ratten had been sacked just three months after signing a two-year contract extension had left a bitter taste.
“I was pretty disappointed how it played out in the end, as a lot of people were,” Lade said.
Leading Teams, meanwhile, have started working with North’s players, coaches and executive. The firm, who have worked with a host of AFL clubs since the 1990s, had partnered with the Hawks during part of Clarkson’s 17 years at the helm.
Having signed with North in August, Clarkson arrived at the club on schedule but remains embroiled in an AFL investigation over allegations of inappropriate conduct towards First Nations players during his time at Hawthorn.
Originally published as Sacked St Kilda coach Brett Ratten joins Alastair Clarkson’s North Melbourne coaching staff
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