Former St Kilda coaching consultant Ernie Merrick was disappointed in the club’s decision to sack coach Brett Ratten.
Merrick, a two-time A-League winner as coach of Melbourne Victory, recently departed Moorabbin after taking on Football Australia’s chief of football position.
While he’s now in a new role, Merrick worked as a mentor for Ratten from the pre-season to Round 21 last campaign.
At Moorabbin, Merrick helped Ratten and his coaching staff work through their preparation, matchday and review and he couldn’t have been more glowing in his praise for the recently axed leader.
“I observed a very, very good coach who has excellent relationship skills,” Merrick said.
“He led by gaining respect through his leadership and his personality without installing fear of failure or being an authoritarian.
“A couple of times I think board members consider that as being soft, but I consider it modern coaching.
“The end results really proved that, despite what’s being said – which amazes me, I think his results have been on track.”
Referencing the time it took for Mark Thompson and Damien Hardwick to achieve success at Geelong and Richmond respectively, Merrick feels Ratten should’ve also been offered a similar opportunity.
“Consider Bomber Thompson’s in his first four years, 12 wins, 9 wins, 11 wins, seven wins in his fourth season – by the eighth season he’s won a Grand Final and in he won again in the 10th season. Damien Hardwick is a very similar story,” Merrick said.
“The difference is Geelong had Frank Costa in support of Bomber Thompson and Richmond had Peggy O’Neal in support of Damien Hardwick and to me, the board has a lot to answer for at St Kilda.”
Merrick says he was shocked with the club’s decision to move on from Ratten, particularly due to the hurdles he faced in 2022 as well as being re-signed mid-season.
“I was shocked because of what’s been reported many times that his new contract had been signed roughly three months earlier,” Merrick said.
“The club spoke, and the president and chairman spoke very highly of him and that all changes in half a season.
“I can’t understand how you can judge a person in half a season, especially with the injuries he had with (Paddy) Ryder, (Jade) Gresham, (Jack) Billings, Jack Hayes, (Nick) Coffield, (Dan) McKenzie etc.”
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After taking part in St Kilda’s football department review, Merrick feels the decision to sack Ratten was already made by President Andrew Bassat earlier in the piece.
“It’s one of the worst (sackings) I’ve seen,” Merrick said.
“I was part of the review process the day before he was sacked, and I think the decision was already made.
“I was just ticking a box to check on my belief of his performance.
“I only spoke with two people, one was the President one was the CEO.
“The CEO I thought was very fair and honest … but I’m afraid (with) Andrew Bassat I felt the decision was already made.
“I was so disappointed, whatever argument was presented to me for removing the coach I countered.
“They say it’s a results-driven business that we’re in … but it’s really not performance-related, it’s usually someone who makes a tough call without the expertise or knowledge behind them I would say.”
While he was disappointed with the decision to move Ratten on, Merrick thinks the worst aspect of the call was making the 51-year-old plead for his job as the review wrapped up.
“That’s quite disgraceful really,” Merrick said.
“It’s demeaning, it’s not called for.
“Being in coaching for a while you win a game, you go in the change room and everybody’s happy and everyone’s supporting you.
“But as soon as you lose a couple of games, no one wants to know you, you don’t get the same characters supporting you and you can tell that some are ready to jump quickly.”
It’s expected that St Kilda will appoint Ross Lyon as Ratten’s replacement after interviewing the former Saints coach on three occasions already this week.