Ex-Saints coach reflects: Blindsided by Blight sacking to taking top job

Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas certainly found his way to the top job in a unique way.

The former Saints half back, who played 72 games in red, white and black as well as a handful of games for the Roos and Lions in the 80s, rejoined St Kilda in the 90s, first as an assistant coach and later as a board-member and football director.

He was in charge of football at the club in 2001 when the Saints landed the biggest coaching fish in the market, Malcolm Blight, to a million-dollar deal.

Unfortunately, Blight only lasted 15 games at Moorabbin, but it wasn’t the footy boss’ call to get rid of the two-time premiership coach.

Reflecting on Blight’s stunning mid-year sacking, Thomas revealed he was one of the last to find out, even though he was the one to tell the world of the decision at a press conference.

“I found out at the Flower Drum restaurant… they (the board) told me not what they were going to do, but what they’d done,” Thomas said on This is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.

“I said, ‘You can’t do that, I’m director of footy’. They said, ‘That’s why we’ve done it, because we knew you wouldn’t want to do it’.

“I just wanted to get through the year, have the pre-season with Malcolm… I just thought it wasn’t great how it was going but it was treatable.

“I wasn’t there all day every day, I had my day job still. The CEO at time Jim Watts was absolutely adamant for some time that there were problems… they wanted Malcolm out and they spoke to the President and others and that’s how it all came about.

“They said it’s already done, and they said the press conference was going to be arranged. I asked, ‘Who was going to do the press conference?’, they said, ‘You are’.

“I haven’t spoken to Malcolm since or seen him since. I don’t know if I’ve bumped into him and just said g’day… but that’s just life, that’s how it is.

“But you’ve got to remember I was absolutely determined for success. I didn’t care what happened. While this was an incredibly enormous event, it was just, ‘Okay, let’s move through this’.”

Stunningly, Thomas then took over as interim coach for the rest of the ’01 season, before being instated as the club’s head coach thereafter.

He coached the club through a period of success in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before being axed ahead of the 2007 season as Ross Lyon took over.

Thomas reflected on his entire career in footy and more in this week’s episode.

Listen to Thomas' full chat with Sam Edmund below.