Ratten right for Saints
ST KILDA’S faith in Brett Ratten has not wavered and the club still expects to re-sign its senior coach despite dropping out of the top eight after three consecutive defeats.
But the Saints did assess the AFL coaching landscape – which includes free agent Alastair Clarkson – before deciding they had the right man.
“We’ve been consistent in saying for where we’re at now with our program and our list, we think ‘Ratts’ is our man,” chief executive Simon Lethlean said on Monday.
“I doubt anyone would have challenged us on that a fortnight ago. Clearly, that’s a debate that can now happen on the back of our form.
“But we aren’t as reactive internally perhaps as the external football world is. We’ll keep progressing down the path as we’ve said we will with Brett and his management.”
Club champion Nick Riewoldt recently urged the Saints to have a crack at Clarkson.
Lethlean responded: “I hope Nick will understand that when you go through a process of looking to re-sign or consider your current coach, a part of that process is to do your due diligence across the market that’s available for coaching. We’ve certainly done that. But we’ve put our focus now into making Brett better and making our program better and focusing on how we go forward with him.”
Interestingly, Lethlean was clear on what the list requires.
“We have a list that needs to improve and needs to find game-impacting players to be able to compete at the really pointy end to beat the best teams and to also change momentum in games,” he said on SEN. “We can’t go to the well every time with (Jack) Steele. We can’t expect Max King at his young age to wrestle every game back for you when the ball movement is not what it should be. That’s all part of list management across the next few months.”
That could be a fair description of Collingwood free agent Jordan De Goey, who is one of only two players in the AFL to have averaged at least 20 disposals, 400m gained and a goal a game this year. The other is Marcus Bontempelli.
De Goey, 26, is also ranked No.2 for clearances for all midfielder-forwards, according to Champion Data, behind only Tom Liberatore.
Asked specifically about De Goey, Lethlean reiterated that he would be assessed along with all possible targets.
“It was incorrectly reported last week we’d offered a fiveyear contract, which is completely wrong,” Lethlean said.
The Saints’ return of 4.8 (33) in Saturday’s 51-point loss at the SCG was their lowest score in more than six years.
They took just five marks inside 50m, generating one behind, as King was let down by poor ball movement.
Lethlean, however, praised the improved effort against Sydney after last week’s shock loss to Essendon. But he admitted the club’s game plan was starting to get figured out.
“I think some clubs are playing us a lot better as well and probably unpicked our system a bit better than perhaps the way we bounced out of the blocks in the first six or seven weeks,” Lethlean said.
“We were quite stagnant when we won the ball (against Sydney), we didn’t have much flow.
“So we need to get our midfield a bit more energised and take the game on a bit more.”