St Kilda review findings: Document reveals key takeaways from Saints review

The Saints’ home-away-from-home at Cazaly Stadium in Cairns is no longer with St Kilda tearing up that contract to begin the Ross Lyon era mark II.

New St Kilda coach Ross Lyon. Picture: Getty Images

St Kilda will tear up its $650,000 contract to sell a home game to Cairns next season as it strives to sharpen the focus on football under new coach Ross Lyon.

President Andrew Bassat on Friday published a six-page executive summary of the club’s exhaustive football department review that saw Bassat interview more than 100 people.

Former North Melbourne coach David Noble also interviewed players, coaches and staff while ex-Roos list boss Glenn Luff completed “a detailed external assessment” of the playing stocks.

Fresh doubt was also cast over the Saints; involvement in the annual Pride Game, Spud’s Game and Maddie’s Match after the report determined the club must “apply a strong football lens to any cause games we consider undertaking”.

Next season will mark five years since the Saints played all 11 home games at Marvel Stadium and they are 0-6 in home games sold to Cairns (0-2), Wellington (0-3) and China (0-1) in the past decade.

SSaints CEO Simon Lethlean, coach Ross Lyon and club president Andrew Bassat.

But Bassat warned long-suffering Saints fans that more pain was probably on the way in what will be the club‘s 150th anniversary celebration in 2023.

“The review found that in some areas the club was focussing impatiently on short-term outputs, and that was detracting from a more productive focus on getting the fundamentals right,” Bassat’s report read.

“Perhaps understandable for a club starved of success for so long, however this needs to change. Moving forward, we are determined to focus much more on building the team, gameplan and culture to contend over time, even if this does make the short-term more difficult for us.”

The brief document shed no new light on the decision to sack coach Brett Ratten less than 100 days after he was re-signed.

Sam Hayes and Tom Campbell compete in a ruck conteted in Cairns.

But it did blame the coaching program for the club’s inconsistency in the miserable 2021-222 seasons.

“These issues were more pronounced in the second half of the season, but certainly not confined to that period,” the report read.

“Ultimately, the review recognised that the club needed to see significant change in our coaching voice and leadership in order to drive the football program forward in the manner required.”

Former Saints coach Brett Ratten.

The top-up plan was defended, despite trade acquisitions including Dan Hannebery, Bradley Hill, Paddy Ryder, Dougal Howard, Dean Kent, Dan Butler and Jack Higgins only taking the Saints into one finals series.

But the players Lyon inherited are highly-rated, although the list strategy will be refreshed next year.

Luff’s list assessment largely validated what the Saints already suspected.

“The age profile is a strong positive, with many of our key players not yet in their prime and none on the wrong side of 30 years of age,” the report said.

“But we do need to improve our stock of top-end talent. The review concluded that the list management strategy outlined five years ago – to drive greater competitiveness initially through trades and then to rely primarily on free agency and draft to move to the next level – is still appropriate in hindsight.”

The Herald Sun revealed last month the Saints wanted to strike a pre-draft trade to improve their hand of No.9, 28 and 32.

Originally published as St Kilda review findings: Document reveals key takeaways from Saints review