Watters took over the Saints at a seriously difficult time. Just 12 months removed from the second of those Grand Final appearances, he took over a playing list with gilt-edged talent at the top end but with gaping holes in the key 22-26 year old age bracket.

 

Watters succeeded Ross Lyon, who largely eschewed the draft in favour of trading for imports. Some, such as Sean Dempster, Farren Ray and Adam Schneider have been great for St Kilda. Others such as Shane Birss, Charlie Gardiner and Andrew Lovett, not so much.

 

As Watters lamented in his now fateful SEN radio interview on Friday, just hours before his dismissal, no club has had fewer picks inside the top 20 of the draft in the past 10 years as St Kilda. Watters hoped that had been addressed by the active trade period just completed that saw Nick Dal Santo and Ben McEvoy depart, Shane Savage, Billy Longer, Luke Delaney and Josh Bruce join the club, but which more significantly, gave the Saints three of the first 19 picks at the forthcoming national draft.

 

Watters branded the Saints a "juggernaut" in the making when he first lobbed at the club, but changed direction entirely after opening this season with losses to Gold Coast and Richmond. By then, he said the Saints were in a "rebuilding" phase and in hindsight, this is when the relationship between coach and club began to deteriorate.

 

On the back of such an unsettled recent history, what with Lyon's abrupt departure, Brendon Goddard's surprise free agency defection, various off-field shenanigans and the unsettling move to Seaford, the last thing the St Kilda bean counters wanted to sell was that they were rebuilding.

 

From there, the disconnect between Watters and club management started to grow. And nor was his relationship with the players and in particular the leadership group, one of harmony. The autocratic style he brought across from Michael Malthouse at Collingwood failed him at St Kilda, as it did Mark Neeld at Melbourne.

 

At the end of the miserable five-win 2013 season, the Saints thought long and hard about replacing Watters. In the end, the decision was made to allow him to complete the remaining year on his contract, but with terms and conditions attached.

 

But the relationship continued to fray, with the tipping point being the departure of high performance manager Bill Davoren and senior assistant Dean Laidley, who joined Collingwood and Carlton, respectively.

 

Then came the radio interview in which Watters painted a rosy picture that was shortly after shown to be miles from the truth.

 

St Kilda does shock coaching changes better than most. Malcolm Blight and Lyon being particular cases in point.

 

The drama this time around is mainly around the timing, but the slate has now been cleared at Seaford and whoever is named in the next few days as the 45th senior coach will find himself walking into a football club still with considerable issues, such as finding a new chief executive and major sponsor, but unity, you would think, would no longer be among them.

 

With Watters now gone, the entire club will be singing from the same song sheet.

New president Peter Summers was hammered on social media for his ham-fisted attempts to explain the club's decision at the media conference.

Apart from a glib line about process, he largely dodged questions on why the club reached its decision and did little to inspire confidence for what the next steps are for St Kilda, which is a bit unfortunate when the club's membership campaign for next season has just hit the members' inboxes.
 
If there are concrete plans in place to take the Saints forward, let's hope Summers does a better job of selling his vision of the club to prospective coaches than he did to the club's members and supporters on Friday afternoon.