SOME facets of the AFL system – TV ratings, Carlton, the ruck nomination rule, the Suns – may be suffering illness in 2018, but there is one aspect which is as healthy as ever.
The copycat.
Everyone is trying to play like the reigning premier, Richmond, with particular focus on inside-50 pressure.
And most are trying to embrace the Tigers' other key strategy – utilise the talents in the players on your list, don't force them to master talents they don't have.
The copycat is at play off field, too.
Richmond's decision at the end of 2016 to remove the assistant coaches around senior boss Damien Hardwick was embraced by Collingwood and its actions around Nathan Buckley last year, and is now a central part of the remodelling of the regularly stricken St Kilda Football Club.
Simon Lethlean started as Saints' football department boss in January, and has embarked on a rebuild strategy which has already seen the impending departures of assistant coaches Rohan Welsh, Lindsay Gilbee and Simon McPhee made public.
Senior coach Alan Richardson is not, according to the publicly issued narrative, under review.
Having re-contracted Richardson last year through to the end of 2020, the Saints are adamant that changes will be made around him, and not on him.
It is known there is a performance-related clause that threatens to rule obsolete the 2020 part of the new deal, but according to Lethlean, 2019 is guaranteed.
Lethlean clearly has been acting under board instructions in his review. Having come to the Saints as an outsider and having been empowered from day one to review all operations, an ideal-world and unencumbered review for him would have included Richardson.
It would have been natural. With just 37 wins from 107 matches since starting with the Saints in 2014, Richardson's strike-rate gives him the third worst record of coaches to reach 100 matches in VFL/AFL history.
When the Saints' board re-appointed Richardson late last year, it did so with the internal conviction that he was a better coach than when he was appointed.
That may well be the case, but with just four wins in 2018, the board will have to live with that call.
In copying Richmond and Collingwood by sticking with a struggling coach, St Kilda has invested everything in Richardson.
Yet in contrast to the Tigers and Pies, the Saints don't have established and obvious stars on their playing list, stars who have ultimately helped turn around the fortunes of Richmond and Collingwood once the football departments became better work environments.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick led the Tigers to the flag in 2017. Picture: AFL Photos
Jake Carlisle is probably the best player on the Saints' list. Sure, he's got flaws, but he's a player you'd like to fight alongside in that proverbial footy war.
Jack Steven is an A-grader, Jade Gresham is tracking very well, and Jack Billings could still be a star, but beyond that, the best that can be said about the list is that it has hard-working footballers as well as some with potential.
Heavily in debt and also not wanting to jeopardise the cap on football department spend, the St Kilda board told Lethlean to look at every aspect of the coaching department, except for Richardson.
This season is another wasted one for the Saints, and while nothing can be gained in the remaining three matches, a whole lot more can be lost – primarily the ability to sell hope to both a frustrated membership as well as out-of-contract, big-name players from other clubs.
St Kilda has marquee slot engagements in its next two matches – Essendon this Friday night, and Hawthorn in round 22 on a Saturday night. North Melbourne is its opponent in the final game of the home-and-away season on August 26.
Richardson cannot afford more losses like the last week's horrendous effort against the Western Bulldogs, as at some stage there will come a point where it is more expensive for the Saints' board to keep him as a contracted coach than to pay him out.
Twitter: @barrettdamian
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