At risk of getting sucked into a weekend of half-hearted match simulation in late February, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has quickly been reminded of how difficult this coaching business is.
Using the events of the pre-season and the sloppy hit-out against Melbourne on Friday as evidence, the Saints are in all sorts of trouble this season.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for president Andrew Bassat - who, when he shockingly sacked Brett Ratten with two years remaining on his contract, said: “We think our list is capable of more than we've shown.”
From what we witnessed on the weekend they are no chance to match the 11 wins achieved last season.
St Kilda continually butcher the ball, and the opposition will easily score off the turnover.
Midfielders such as Brad Crouch, Jack Steele, Seb Ross, Marcus Windhager and Zak Jones are average to poor by foot.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera has class but is still raw and will take time to become a consistent performer while Brad Hill has proven too easy to be shut down by the opposition.
The news of Jack Billings' broken leg obviously doesn’t help.
Then there’s the forward line. What a mess with Max King out for the first two months of the season and Tim Membrey coming off surgery.
Lyon opted for former Bulldog Zaine Cody and Dougal Howard as the tall forward options against Melbourne on Thursday.
Cordy and Howard have a combined 27 AFL goals. Unsurprisingly it was ineffective.
Perhaps the only positive was confident, first-year sensation Mattaes Phillipou who slotted two goals and is ready to go for Round 1.
So what now?
Bassat's other justification for sacking Ratten was he worried if St Kilda were “at serious risk of getting stuck in the 6-10 zone?”
He should be careful what he wished for - the Saints look like they could be stuck in the 16-12th zone.
Bassat isn’t the only one at risk of being made to look foolish, CEO Simon Lethlean has a lot riding on the decision to re-contract and then sack Ratten.
He also moved on list manager James Gallagher and restructured the coaching panel around Lyon.
Lethlean desperately needs Lyon Mark II to work.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was honest last week when asked about the treatment of Ratten: “I thought it was terrible in so far as the way you treat people.
“Again, I’m not talking about another club but just the look and the support that you need to give people, it didn’t look great. But I don’t know the detail, so it’s not for me to pass judgment on.
“I just know, from Brett’s point of view, he was treated poorly.”
St Kilda could have worn industry critique like these had the decision resulted in finals wins and took the team closer to breaking the premiership drought. They won’t get away with it if they finish bottom four.
I was shocked how bad they looked on Friday. How worried should Ross Lyon be?