The Age senior football writer Jake Niall believes a restructure of the football department at St Kilda could be an alternative for the Saints rather than parting ways with coach Alan Richardson.
Niall wrote in The Age yesterday that St Kilda should soon conduct a thorough review of the football club, with a number of the Saints assistant coaches out of contract at end of this season.
The in-depth reviews successfully implemented by Collingwood and Richmond could be a blueprint for the struggling Saints to refer to in order to reshape their strategy going forward.
“They did kind of a routine review last year, but they haven’t done what I would call a real ‘root and branch’ one since late 2013 when Scott Watters was sacked,” Niall told SEN Afternoons.
“Andrew Thompson and the footy director, who’s still there, went around and spoke to the whole playing list and they got feedback.
“And that was really around the coach though.
“If they do a review now, and I think there’s a good chance that they will, obviously it will be Simon Lethlean who’s come in to run the football club operations.
“If they do it, and I think they should, then obviously they will look at all of the football and what’s gone wrong.
“If you look at Collingwood and Richmond, there is a good model for changing things forensically and probably retain the coach – I say probably because St Kilda’s situation is a bit more serious.
“I think that St Kilda have the advantage that if it’s too hard of an ask to remove Richo, they’ve got to two examples that they can point to.
“That can help them sell it to the supporters.”
Richardson is contracted until 2020 with the Saints currently crippled in $10 million worth of debt.
Listen to Jake Niall's chat on SEN Afternoons with Andy Maher in the player below