Saturday night's 70-point defeat against the Power at Adelaide Oval was the Saints' second loss by more than 10 goals in as many weeks and their fourth for the season.
The club fielded 15 players with fewer than 40 games' experience and it showed, as it was put to the sword by a Power unit that had been through similarly dark times before emerging last year.
Five talking appoints: Port Adelaide v St Kilda
Indeed, Port spent five years in football's wilderness after the club's disastrous 119-point Grand Final loss in 2007 – the last two of which produced finishes of 16th and 14th – before last season's semi-final berth.
Although Richardson wasn't at the club as it laid the foundations of today's top-of-the-table side, he played a significant part in its resurgence last year as director of coaching.
He didn't believe the young Saints players would draw confidence from his presence at Alberton in 2013, but said they could do so in the knowledge that Port had endured pain and was now reaping the benefits.
"I don't think [the players] would be encouraged by the fact that their coach was [at Port], but I think they would see that Port Adelaide were considered to be a pretty ordinary footy team for a couple of years," Richardson said.
"When they were drafting (Travis) Boak and (Hamish) Hartlett, (Jackson) Trengove, (Tom) Jonas, Cam O'Shea, Andrew Moore – all these guys into their footy club – they weren't playing great footy.
"That is what it looks like when you decide that your model, which is clearly ours, is to go to the draft.
"It takes time and it takes patience, it's about the journey and it means at times you end up with results that we're having at the minute because you need to expose young players."
Richardson said his side would look to draft heavily over the next few years, at which point it could be placed to replicate the Power's calculated poaching of opposition players to fill holes in the list.
But for the time being and at least the next few years, he said the club would look to blood young talent with its eyes focused on the longer term.
"Whilst it was painful to lose players like (Ben) McEvoy and (Nick) Dal Santo…we got three players (Jack Billings, Luke Dunstan and Blake Acres) into our footy club inside [pick] 20 – we'd had a period of 10 years where, I think, we'd had five players," he said.
"That is the only way you can do it given where we're at and then after two or three years when it's time to go and get a (Matt) White from Richmond or perhaps a (Angus) Monfries from the Bombers to compliment what you're doing.
"But we're certainly not there yet, we need a couple of years of bringing in talent and we'll do that."
Twitter: @AFL_Harry
