Bassat senses a Saints revival
As a St Kilda fan who grew up in the famous Animal Enclosure at Moorabbin nearly five decades ago, Andrew Bassat knows what it is to wait.
The president also knows it is tough asking any fan base for patience, particularly one that has seen so much disappointment. But Bassat is steadfast the revolving door of personnel movement that has shaken up the offices at Moorabbin and the long-term plan he and coach Ross Lyon have committed to has the club on the way up to a pinnacle that will finally deliver a second premiership.
An uber-successful co-founder of Seek with brother Paul, Bassat needed to be talked into leading the Saints before his takeover in 2018 but now can finally see success is on the horizon. “I’d love us to win a flag,” he said. “So many people have played their role to the best of their ability and I can feel like we are getting to the top and getting that momentum to go downhill.”
The many stops and starts over the 58 years since St Kilda’s lone premiership probably had the club’s fans feeling like they were pushing something else up hill.
This time, Bassat has promised there will be no rushing in experienced players despite a 2023 finals appearance.
And while there will be no prolonged rebuild, there will also be no quick fixes.
The Saints started this season with two wins from their first five games, ran likely finalists Geelong and GWS Giants close, while throwing one away against Essendon. St Kilda hosts the Western Bulldogs on Thursday.
The Saints will have to find diamonds in the draft – such as recent winning picks Mitch Owens, Mattaes Phillipou and Darcy Wilson – before landing the big fish to vault them into the top four.
Bassat and the Saints have pledged to become a regular top-four finisher, but he said the club’s rise may not be linear. “I have been a long-suffering fan, which is why I got involved to be honest,” he said.
“I thought I could help. It is hard to ask for patience but we need to do it right and to be frank, in the past, St Kilda has taken short cuts.
“Probably even in the recent past.” Bassat believes Damian Carroll and Lenny Hayes lead “the best development team in the country”.
While he didn’t want to get caught in a trap of putting a time frame on hitting premiership contention, the president says he young crop of Saints have them on the right path.
“If you fast-forward a year, or two years, and those players are up to 50, 100 games, we should be challenging,” he said. No coach across the league gets spoken about as running his entire club as often as Lyon.
The Saints have reworked almost the entire football department around the experienced Lyon since he returned to the club in late 2022, but Bassat batted away talk that he has too much influence. “I think we have the best coach in the AFL,” Bassat said.
“Ross has not even remotely sought to interfere with the football club beyond coaching. We have a very trusting relationship; he trusts me to run the football club and trusts Carl Dilena to run the football club beyond football and he is coaching and doing very well.”