David King and Kane Cornes have provided their reactions to the sacking of St Kilda coach Brett Ratten.
The news leaked overnight that the club would part ways with the senior coach, despite only signing him to a two-year contract extension in July.
Ratten departs after 68 games at the helm, including playing finals in 2020.
King said he felt for the former Carlton captain given the Saints have such a mediocre list and haven’t given him much to work with.
“I feel for Brett, he’s a great football person. He’s exactly what you want at your football club,” King said on SEN Breakfast.
“He’s honest, he’s courageous in his own way, he always has empathy for the player. It hasn’t worked.
“For 66 games Brett Ratten has been taking a knife to a gun fight. There’s no doubt about that.
“He’s been asked to win games and ultimately finals with a star-barren list. If you judged the playing roster for mediocrity, they’d win a gold medal every year.
“He made the finals in 2020 and they won a final and I thought they played a fraudulent game plan. Guys getting forward of the ball, no real control.
“In any St Kilda game you watched there was no real control or handle on the game at any point and they won games playing like that, but when they lost they lost big.
“I was always critical of the way they played, but if you said: ‘if they played a conventional brand, who is going to win them the game?’. Jack Steele is a star, Max King we talk about like he kicks 100 goals a year.
“Who’s their next best player after Jack Steele? Jade Gresham misses too much footy. Sinclair is their second best player. He had a very good year.”
King feels more dominoes may need to fall following the decision to sack Ratten.
“All these decisions are decisions you make in the cool light of day. They’re made by a collective of people. If those guys, who have allowed St Kilda to have a 10-win, 11-win ceiling every year and really not contend with the big boys and not give the coach the best opportunity, if they’ve got a shred of decency they walk today with Brett Ratten,” he said.
“They say ‘you know what, part of the failings of this football club are in my department, I’m accountable for this’.
“I don’t care if that’s Simon Lethlean or James Gallagher or who it is because this is not a one-man problem. It’s not. You can’t blame Ratten for all of this – having signed him 100 days ago. It’s laughable.”
Cornes admitted he was shocked by the news, but added it was a level of ruthlessness we’re more used to seeing in international sports.
“It’s one of the most brutal decisions I’ve seen and maybe it’s an insight into the changing landscape of how AFL football is going and how ruthless some of these clubs are going to be,” Cornes said.
“We see this in world sports from time to time … largely there’s been a level of loyalty with AFL coaches. This is a coach that was re-signed halfway through the year and now he’s gone the day after the trade period.”
St Kilda has called a press conference at Moorabbin that will be held at 11:30am this morning.