Coach’s Clipboard: Q&A with St Kilda coach Brett Ratten ahead of the 2022 season
Out-of-contract at season’s end, Brett Ratten says there’s always pressure being an AFL coach. See why he won’t get caught up in contract talk and his expectations for the Saints in 2022.
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Injury-ravaged St Kilda fell short of expectations in 2021 but what can the Saints do with a clean slate?
Brett Ratten is among a number of coaches out of contract at the end of the season and yet to put pen to paper.
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There is plenty riding on 2022 for the coach and a number of Saints.
Simeon Thomas-Wilson throws a few curly questions at Ratten ahead of this year’s first bounce.
Before the players went on their break you said ‘why not us?’ What is the belief behind that?
I think the ‘why not us’ is really about challenging the players to push themselves and get the upmost out of themselves. We are trying make sure we are prepared the best we can be and have the opportunity to play the footy we want to as a team. Over the past two years I think we’ve had a good snapshot that we can play some good footy. We understand if we are not switched on and ready to go, we can play poorly as well. So that was really the challenge to the group, ‘why can’t it be us?’. There’s no ceiling or rules against it and we still didn’t have the year we wanted (in 2021) and won 10 games. It wasn’t a disaster. It just wasn’t what we wanted it to be.
Have you nailed down what was behind the slow start in 2021?
I think it was a combination of a few things, the personnel part of people not being on the pitch didn’t help us but that’s not an excuse. I think the fluctuation of performances from quarter to quarter or in quarters as we fell away — and trying to address that, how can we stay on task and address momentum that has gone against us. You are not going to win every game, and you are not going to win every quarter but when teams have kicked two, three or four why do they need to kick seven, eight or nine and that’s what was happening in quarters and in games. That’s what we had to address and it was probably more about us challenging ourselves, and it’s just not the players it was everyone across the board. We weren’t just at the level we needed to be.
What changed in the second half of 2021 when you were able to win five of your last nine games?
I think it was just having the conversations and not just letting it go and trying to reset new standards and higher standards than what we were accepting. It is hard to make a statement sometimes when you want to take players out and sometimes you don’t have the personnel there. We used every player on our list bar one so a lot of blokes got a lot of opportunities to play AFL footy but sometimes when we were in that early part of the year we didn’t have the opportunity to change the personnel that we wanted to make a statement as well.
Do you think Paddy Ryder’s interrupted start to the year played a part?
I think that, and Rowan Marshall was in the same boat. He wasn’t in all the games at the start of the season and his pre-season was limited compared to what he has done in the past. So he had no continuity at the start of the year and then we lost Paddy as well. Our ruck stocks were decimated a little bit and I think that might have affected the confidence of our midfield and that cohesion that comes with playing together. So from that point of view I think that hurt us as well.
How have the players responded to the message of ‘why not us?’
It has been really positive. I think the addition of Nick Walsh to be head of performance — he has really made a big splash in that area and has been really impressive. Then you think of the Corey Enrights that have come in from Geelong to be a backline coach and Damien Carroll to be in that development space. I think those three have had a really good impact.
But credit to the players — they’ve come back and some of the standards they have set in the time trials, skinfolds and some of the other things — every club looks at them each year and most of the comments are that we’ve gotten better but for us it is actually true so to see the players are trying to be the best they can be. And that’s all we can ask, if we can give ourselves a chance we will find out if we are good enough.
Where do you think the key area of improvement will be?
I think it will be in our preparation and lead-up. I think getting the work done and having a better base than what we had will be critical. But the improvement will come from the disappointment last year. There were some individuals who had some pretty good years in 2020 but weren’t to the level that they would like to be last year. So some of the disappointment from the players, I think that will be burning in their stomachs, they want to play finals footy and they want to be back to the player they were.
Will St Kilda play differently in 2022? If so how so?
I think you are always evolving your game plan and whether you go a bit quicker or a little bit slower through pre-season or you try and look at the game a bit different. And the same defensively, I think they go hand in glove a bit. Whatever you do defensively can hurt you offensively so it is about trying to mirror each other and compliment each other so that is pretty important. We’ve tried to tinker what we are doing a little bit, you do that too when you bring people in. You take a bit of their IP and how they see the game and that’s why you bring them in and to have Damien and Corey come in and give their views on our attack and how we play and our defence and how we go about it. That’s the beauty of having new people in.
How is Dan Hannebery tracking? Has he put his injury troubles behind him?
You don’t want to say they are behind him because you are one day away from him maybe getting re-injured or something like that but what I do know is that we have taken a pretty conservative approach with him and he is building. The work that he has done before Christmas has been the most that he has done while he’s been at the Saints and we are sort of just trying to set him up to keep building. It’s not about doing the whole program, he’s getting older and he’s had some injuries and we need to look after him. He needs to build to Round 1, not be ready to go today. So that is the approach and he is doing a fair bit of work with the group, but he is coming in and out also.
What does a fit Hannebery add to the team?
I think his leadership, the voice that he displays at training and on game day he is very much a vocal leader. He is very instructional and I think he very much helps our group move into the next phase of the game really quickly. He is helping guys switch on, he’s a really good communicator and when he isn’t there we sometimes lack that.
How has Brad Crouch been this pre-season, and how did you rate his first season at St Kilda?
This pre-season he has done a lot more work in the build up. He is going really well. He has done every session and he is physically in really good shape. It’s an interesting one when you come across from another team and you have a short period to acclimatise and gel with the group and understand what players do. And I think not having Paddy and Rowan there to begin with for the early part hurt him in terms of getting that continuity with the big fellas. But I think his second half of the year, he was a solid contributor to the team and whatever he does this year will be an improvement on last year and I think now he feels a lot more comfortable and has fitted in.
How is Max King tracking in his development as a young key forward?
We, as a coaching group, thought his second half of the year was another step forward. He really started to launch at the ball and his physicality at the ball was great. And then he got the benefit of scoring the goals which was fantastic. So I think he got a lot of confidence against some of the best fullbacks in the game. He is a good young player that is learning and for him he missed his last year of under 18s with the knee and then his first year at AFL level he only played four or five games and then hurt his ankle and that was it for him. So he has missed pretty much two full years of footy and for him to be playing nearly every week I think he’s shown fantastic growth and development and whatever he does he will continue to improve. But he is starting to really mature as a player.
You mentioned the collective — a criticism of St Kilda has been whether you have enough A Graders in your side. Do you feel like you have enough A Graders?
I think we have players that if you sat there in 2020 you would say they are on the verge of becoming an A-Grade player in the next 12 months. Some players might have stalled in that space and I think that is where our growth is. We’ve got some players who have the capability of becoming really good players, but Jade Gresham has pretty much been injured for the past two years. He has played about seven or eight games in 2020 and three or four last year and he is one of those players who could improve. Is Rowan Marshall an A-Grade player? Well in 2020 he definitely showed he is right up there and in 2019 he finished second in a best and fairest. Last year wasn’t a year that he would have liked, he still played some good footy but the consistency wasn’t there. They are the players who can really take us to the next level.
Where is Brad Hill’s best position for St Kilda?
I think where he is with his age and how he plays the game and what we need he still has the ability to play wing and even as a high half forward he is quite dangerous. But I think at half back he helps us with his run and carry and his ball use he is very creative there. So I think we will see him play predominantly down back but I don’t want to lock him in and say he will play there all the time because we have flexibility. We get (Ben) Paton back and (Nick) Coffield’s pre-season has been really impressive, so has (Jimmy) Webster’s as well. So you have players that weren’t there 12 months ago in Webster who had fantastic years and Paton had a great year and then he got injured. So it is going to get really competitive there in our back half, that will be interesting with the selection.
How did Jack Higgins deal with the criticism around his accuracy and how has he been going this pre-season?
He’s had a terrific pre-season, I think he ran a PB in his time trial and his skinfolds are the best. But he just looks sharp, he looks dynamic and he is one of those players who can influence games and be really dynamic. So he has had an outstanding pre-season and he is one that we think could go through the midfield a little bit as well. He is one that is really going to add to our forward line.
How did you rate Jack Steele’s first year as a co-captain?
Yeah at my time at the Saints we have asked him to do different things and challenged Jack in not just being a run-with player but being a bona fide midfielder of the competition and win your own footy. And he did that and he got the opportunity to be a co-captain with Gears (Jarryn Geary), to have somebody to sit beside you in Geary what an opportunity for Steele.
And then Gears gets injured and Steele leads from the front and in a year when we were up and down and we were inconsistent I think he stuck to his task really well. Leadership can be really funny, it has a few parts to it. One part is you see the game day leadership of a captain but then there is the behind the scenes stuff they do, which is in the build up to games and at the club Monday to Friday. His growth as an individual Monday to Friday was fantastic — behind the scenes leadership he took on more. He wasn’t just doing it on the field he was doing it off the field as well. And hats off to him he is trying to be the best he can be and grow in that space and I thought his first year was outstanding as an individual.
How is Gears this pre-season after the injury issues?
He is tracking well. He had a little bit of a complication with his shoulder surgery. They had to reattach it but he will be doing contact work at the start of February and he will be right to go for the start of the season. He is just a warrior, he is such a warrior with this little frame and he is heart and soul. Hats off to him because not a lot of players would have been injured like he was over the past three years and keep bouncing back up and that’s why he has been a great leader for the footy club.
Personally how do you feel going into this year being out of contract?
Whether it is your last year of your contract or not, the pressure of being a coach is that you are trying to get the best out of your team. It is hard to make up ground if you are waiting for Round 1 and aren’t trying to change some things. So we have put a lot of work into the players and the next bit of the challenge will be in the lead-up to Round 1. I’m confident in the work that the assistant coaches have done, everybody here is working really hard and trying to get the most out of this group. The talent that we got in this year, they are young our NGA boys (Marcus Windhager and Mitch Owens) and Nasiah (Wanganeen-Milera) but they are very talented and that can be the difference sometimes. Does Mitch Owens play this year? I’m not sure but you look at what Melbourne and other teams have done, you bring in a Jackson, Rivers and Pickett two years ago they were drafted and they are now premiership players. So that’s the impact I think some of our kids can have.
Have you started contract discussions or are you still planning to begin them in February or March?
I just leave that up to my management. I have a mentor now who comes into the club in Ernie Merrick, who will come in this year. I have constant contact with Simon Lethlean, David Rath and Matty Finnis, we talk constantly. So that will be ongoing and there won’t be any rush with it. You don’t want to be caught up with, ‘Oh, you are out of contract?’ Yeah, you are – so are another few coaches. So it is about what I do as a coach and how we go about things, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.
What should be the expectations or goals for St Kilda this year?
We’ve said it every year, even in my first year we hadn’t played finals for 10 years and we ended up playing finals. We didn’t play finals last year and the group is pretty disappointed, and that’s staff as well. That’s our ambition, to play finals, there aren’t many teams that get there and that’s where want to get to as a team.
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Originally published as Coach’s Clipboard: Q&A with St Kilda coach Brett Ratten ahead of the 2022 season
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