ST KILDA has conceded the decision to extend Brett Ratten's contract in July was a mistake, but president Andrew Bassat says a recent review of the football department forced the Saints to make a second coaching change in little more than three years.
In news broken exclusively on AFL.com.au on Thursday night, Ratten was dismissed less than 100 days after signing a new two-year contract extension, having guided St Kilda to 8-3 by the mid-season bye.
But just weeks after extending Ratten's initial contract until the end of 2024, the club also commissioned a review into its football operations, which was led by Bassat and involved new CEO Simon Lethlean, former North Melbourne coach David Noble and board member Jason Blake.
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Ratten waited to learn his fate inside the club's Moorabbin headquarters on Thursday night after the board met to debate Ratten's future.
During a 27-minute long press conference inside RSEA Park on Friday, Bassat revealed he had spent more than seven hours with Ratten since informing him last Sunday night that the board was forensically examining whether he was the right person to lead the club going forward.
Despite the personal cost involved in the decision, Bassat said St Kilda's 10-person board made the right call in the best interests of a club that has played in September only once since 2011, when Ratten led the Saints back to the finals in 2020.
"(This decision is a) very painful one for the club and incredibly disappointing for Brett and his family," Bassat said.
"I think Brett was pretty blindsided. I think it's been a brutal process and I've spared nothing with anyone, and Simon's been terrific with dealing with the challenge of working to get the right outcome.
"There was uncertainty but I don't think Brett had any inkling. I think to be frank, when you sign up to a contract not too long before, it probably makes that it probably made that harder to see happening."
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Former Saints football boss Lethlean, who only recently began his new post as CEO after replacing Matt Finnis, conceded that re-signing Ratten during the season was a mistake in hindsight.
"At mid-year, we were travelling pretty well, It was the right thing for us at the time to support and provide the certainty for Brett and the playing group to pursue the rest of the season with some certainty," Lethlean said.
"If you crystal ball that now, maybe in hindsight that's the wrong decision."
Bassat said the review – which will be released in the coming weeks – revealed the football program required a different style of leadership to improve the Saints' on-field performance in 2023 and beyond, following another disappointing season for the club.
"We gave Brett assurance at the start of 2022 we would give him clarity mid-year. At the time, the team was winning games and in contention, and we wanted to give Brett all the support he needed to give him the best chance of success and to show that he could be our long-term coach," Bassat said.
"If we as a club have regrets about that in hindsight, we cannot let those regrets get in the way of making the right decision for the future.
"Obviously a fair bit has changed (since Ratten re-signed in July). The second half of the season was very different to the first half in particular.
"Fair to say the review gave me the opportunity to get a process around opinion because what we can see is the results on field got worse. And secondly, some of the processes and some of the issues around our program that we feel we need to take our program forward towards where some of the better clubs are. We thought we needed a new style of leadership."
Lethlean said the club had not made an approach to Ross Lyon, who led St Kilda to three Grand Final appearances including the 2010 replay across five seasons at the helm before his shock move to Fremantle, or any other candidate at this stage.
"No, we have not (spoken to anyone yet). We were not going to have any dialogue with anyone until we had a vacancy. There is a vacancy now," Lethlean said.
"We know what we want to get, we know the characteristics we're after and we're going to go to the market to find it."
St Kilda registered 11 wins in 2022 to finish in 10th spot, matching their ladder position from the 2021 season.
Ratten's sacking follows a quiet Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period for the club, which just missed out in its pursuit of Collingwood free agent Jordan De Goey.
The now former Saints coach was spotted at the NAB AFL Draft Combine last weekend with St Kilda's recruiting team and had recently appointed club great Lenny Hayes as midfield coach.
Ratten was in his second stint as a senior coach, having led Carlton from 2007-12 before he was sacked by the Blues despite a decent record at Princes Park.
St Kilda's pursuit of a second premiership – and first since 1966 – is now in a precarious position ahead of the club's 150th season in 2023.
