Alan Richardson says he is disappointed and angry over St Kilda’s poor performance against North Melbourne yesterday.
Despite an at times hard to watch but ultimately close contest for three quarters in the Good Friday showdown at Etihad Stadium, the highly unfancied Kangaroos booted seven goals to none in the final term to run out 52 point winners.
Richardson says that his side let slip an opportunity to start the season with two wins and build a strong platform to finally break into the finals in 2018.
“I’m incredibly disappointed with our performance,” he told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“It was a big night for the club. It was an opportunity, having had a reasonable result the week before to build on that and we clearly let ourselves down.
“To fall away as badly as we did…we are really disappointed as a group. It’s an incredibly even competition and if you’re not at your best, you’re a chance to lose and if you’re far from your best you’re a chance to get beaten badly and that was clearly the case.”
Richardson says the club’s final quarter display came as a bit of a shock to him, angered by the lack of fight his players showed when the contest was still in the balance.
“Whilst we haven’t been perfect in recent years, our ability to fight has been pretty strong and that clearly was not there yesterday,” he said.
“We lost all essence and want to defend and we were smashed at contests. We didn’t want to do the work, couldn’t do the work or wouldn’t want to do the work.”
However Richardson played down fears the result could derail the club’s season only two rounds in, backing them to respond strongly next week when they take on Adelaide.
“It’s Round 2, we’re 1-1,” the St Kilda coach said.
“It was an opportunity we lost and we need to do something about it.”
Listen to Richardson's chat with Gerard Whateley, Anthony Hudson, Bob Murphy and Kane Cornes below: