St Kilda coach Alan Richardson tells Mark Robinson he’s eagerly awaiting how his team will respond against Carlton

ST KILDA was humiliated in Adelaide and is on a mission of redemption against Carlton. Mark Robinson talks to coach Alan Richardson about why he has faith his team will respond.

St Kilda suffered another big loss on the road last week against Adelaide. Picture: Getty Images

ST KILDA was humiliated in Adelaide last Sunday and is on a mission of redemption against Carlton.

MARK ROBINSON talks to Saints coach ALAN RICHARDSON about the loss, why it happened and why he has faith his team will respond.

MR: Were there manly conversations with the players this week?

AR: Were there manly conversations? The only reason I hesitate is because there are things that need to stay between the coach and the player and you never want to break that. And I’m not sure they are for public knowledge. What there was, there were conversations early in the week that we needed to have around our response, who we are, what do we want to stand for.

We needed to spend more time on what underpinned our performance, our attitude to the game, our commitment to each other and where we’re going. That was the first conversation we had.

MR: You sat in the coaches’ box for 15 minutes after the Adelaide beating

AR: Yeah, we were in there for a long time. Pretty quickly the conversation in the box went to, ‘Righto, we’ve got to look at ourselves as a coaching group. How are we going preparing the team on trips against good teams? Are we getting them where they need to be? Is our prep good enough?’ You know, we lay 100 tackles the week before against Fremantle and lay 43 against Adelaide and they had a lot more of the footy.

MR: You get back Sunday night. Was Monday a day off?

AT: It’s normally a players’ recovery day but we met — myself, the coaches and the players, everyone on the list.

MR: So, not normal?

AR: No, it’s not normal. But at the same time it is normal ... because these blokes needed to know exactly what happened but, more importantly, what are we going to do about it? We’re either learners or losers, so we could either pretend it didn’t happen or we can man up and say this is it what happened, have the conversation about why and what are we going to do about it. Out of that comes the training focus.

Adelaide goalsneak Charlie Cameron evades Jimmy Webster last Sunday. Picture: Sarah Reed

MR: Who drove the Monday meeting? Did you take control or hand it to the players?

AR: If you were an independent observer, you would certainly say it was driven by me, with respect to the why.

MR: Everyone’s asking why. This is why we are sitting here. Why the different level of pressure from game to game? And was it a jolt for you?

AR: What the weekend does from a coaching perspective, is it ends up being an opportunity to learn and grow and improve. Otherwise, we are losers. There’s no doubt you look a bit closer at what we’re doing, at your players under adversity and how they respond. I don’t know if you were going to ask this question, but what did we identify as the why?

Twice now, when things haven’t gone our way (interstate), we have become conservative with our play. The reaction when you become conservative is the issue. So, at stoppages and the scoreboard’s not going our way, if you become a reactionary footballer, then we’re gone. That’s not playing our way. That’s clearly what happened to us in those two results (West Coast and Adelaide).

MR: Is it wrong for the footy world to be frustrated with St Kilda? Is it wrong that we see the Hawthorn game (lost by three points), the North Melbourne game (lost by seven points), the wins over Collingwood and Melbourne, and then when see other games we wonder what’s going wrong? Are you frustrated?

AR: Am I frustrated? No. I see the work we are doing to ensure we become a more constant team. I would absolutely expect our fans and others to be frustrated. Frustration comes from expectation. Expectation has risen internally and externally because of improved performance, albeit too inconsistent.

MR: You said after the game the players didn’t believe they could win, even before the game started. I took that as you having a go at the players’ character. Right or wrong?

AR: I would now say, not that the group didn’t believe, but too early in the game when things didn’t go our way, we became too conservative. We played off the back foot.

MR: Can I say meek?

AR: No, that’s the outcome. Anything you can throw from a numbers point of view will all be outcomes. Outcome of what? Of something. Why did we become conservative and, your word, why did we become meek? This is what I think about this group because I trust them enormously. They care so much about the journey we’re on, and I’m not talking about list build, I’m talking about performance build.

So when things go against them, we’re letting the scoreboard and outcome have way too much influence on the way we play, as opposed to being able to park that and be strong enough to say, ‘OK, what is my purpose, what is my role in this team?’

If I can break it down to personalities, think of the great basketballers who want to be the man. They might’ve missed the last 10 shots but they still want to step up and take the shot. We have to develop that.

Saints coach Alan Richardson says expectation has risen internally and externally. Picture: Getty Images

MR: Is is too patronising to say St Kilda is a good effort-based team? And when is the day coming when we can say St Kilda is simply a good team?

AR: I know what you mean. Possibly that’s a reflection of a new coach coming in and wanting to make sure our underbelly, our platform, is about really strong pressure. You would not have heard me talk about effort, I talk about pressure. However, I will never get away from pressure being the most important factor in our method. rarely would I question our players’ effort or commitment to want to play the right way.

MR: Is it fair to say the confidence in the young players to be constantly proactive hasn’t arrived? Isn’t that the art of coaching — to get them to that level?

AR: I can see your point. However, I have seen our young players perform with real confidence against quality opposition often. Our challenge is to go from often to always.

MR: There are plenty of positives such as Tom Hickey, Seb Ross, Paddy McCartin, the form of Nick Riewoldt, young Jade Gresham, Jack Steven is elite, David Armitage gives his all.

AR: Jack Newnes has done some really good work. Blake Acres will play.

MR: Are you making players such as Acres, Darren Minchington, Jack Lonie earn their spots?

AR: Most definitely. Hugh Goddard is another one.

MR: Make him earn it?

AR: As much as we want give people opportunities, fundamentally it’s about the team, the journey, the cause, and if someone’s not quite ready to play, we’re doing him and the team a disservice by playing him.

MR: Acres won a Rising Star nomination and he was out of the team a few weeks later.

AR: Does that mean I have less confidence? No. If the call is to be strong in the way I message to the player or if it’s to put an arm around a player, or if it’s no, you haven’t earned the right to put on St Kilda jumper, they are significant tools to make sure you are moulding that person so he has clarity about what it means to play in our team, what it means to them to maximise their potential.

MR: Do you listen to criticism from media, former players and coaches?

AR: No, I don’t.

St Kilda tackled like maniacs against Fremantle earlier in the season but their Saints have been mixing their form. Picture: Colleen Petch

MR: They say there’s not a lot of top-end talent in the youth coming through. Is there enough talent and do you need more elite young talent?

AR: Yes and yes. I’m really bullish about what we’ve done in terms of list management. I’m not saying we’ve got everything right and, yes, we have work to do in terms of positional needs, and part of that is talent.

MR: From when you arrived to now, do you think you are behind schedule or close to the mark?

AR: I’m not going to put it into any of those boxes, but what I will say is, I’m very confident we’re heading in the right direction. The signs are strong that our method of play is improving but we still lack consistency. My confidence comes from the quality of people who drive our team and our club, whether that’s players, coaches or support staff.

MR: What was your main aspect of coaching this week? Strategy or mental?

AR: You’re always trying to get into the minds of the players. This week for me is we need to respond. If normally we are 70-30, 70 about us, 30 about the opposition, it would be fair to say this week it was 90-10. We have to rectify what happened last weekend if we are fair dinkum.

MR: You doing this interview, is that good or bad for the club on game day? At the same time, is it not good we are questioning St Kilda because our expectations have risen?

AR: Yeah, this a positive. Given it’s coming on the day of the game, I did have some apprehension. But what is pleasing is this frustration is coming from expectation. I like that and I agree with that. There should be higher expectations with the way we play. But I trust my group. How many times have I said that today?

MR: Several times. It’s a huge challenge today with Sean Dempster, Riewoldt and McCartin not playing. You’re going with youth and inexperience, and you were belted last weekend. Statement game?

AR: It’s an opportunity for players coming in and it’s an opportunity for us to rebound. It’s a big game.

Originally published as St Kilda coach Alan Richardson tells Mark Robinson he’s eagerly awaiting how his team will respond against Carlton