Summary
In early January defender Dylan Roberton announced he was taking a break from his footballing duties to consider his future in football. [31] Roberton has been attempting to make a full return to football following a collapse as a result of a heart condition in Round 4 2018. Roberton ultimately announced his retirement from the game on 6 March, stating that "I've come to a point where I need to put my family and future first...after lengthy discussions with my family and on the advice of my doctors, I've made the extremely hard decision to hang up the boots." [32] In late January, Captain Jarryn Geary sustained a fracture to his fibula in the left leg while training. The injury will rule him out of early fixtures, but is likely to return to running and light training after six weeks of rehabilitation. [33] It was announced in early March that Ruckman Paddy Ryder would temporarily step away from the club to spend time with his family and elders. Ryder received the full support of the club. [34] Forward Max King was ruled out of round one following a concussion sustained while playing golf. [35] The Round 2 game against Melbourne was named 'Spud's Game' in tribute to former Saints' Captain Danny Frawley, who died in 2019. The game focused on raising awareness and funding for mental health to '"promote a national conversation that can help lead to early intervention and fight the prevalence of mental ill-health in the community." [36] The Saints' poor luck with injuries continued when Jade Gresham suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the round 3 loss to Essendon. [37] Ryder returned to the club on 6 April and will undertake a preseason-style training regimen to return to full fitness, [38] eventually returning in Round 7.
After the Saints' round nine loss to Geelong, in a game they dominated but failed to kick accurately (5.17) from gettable shots at goal, former player and media commentator Nick Dal Santo said that
"this game is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and we're diluting it with our inability to kick goals. We’ve gone so far one particular way — we love people who can run, we love pressure. How about you kick the damn thing straight? That's a good starting point. Enough is enough....I'm emotional because (the inaccuracy) shouldn't happen at this level. This is the top one per cent of the competition that can't do the fundamentals of the game correctly. When will we learn? When will the industry learn? When will St Kilda learn? When will we give time and resources to the one part of our game that's diluting the product: Skills, but in particularly, goal kicking. [39]
Following the Saints' shock 111-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in Round 10, the club launched an investigation. After Round 11, the Saints had four wins and six losses with the second-worst percentage in the AFL of just 72.6%, with the season to date a significant decline in performance and results following a top six finish the previous season. By Round 10, the Saints had six losses by an average of 62 points and won just two of the 20 quarters in those games. [40] Brett Ratten said after the loss to the Bulldogs that "the gap between the best and our worst, it's just too big and it's unacceptable...it's unacceptable, and we’ve got to do something about it. We can't just keep going with this. Players that aren't performing will have to go back to the twos. We’ve got some players in pretty good form in the reserves and we'll have to make some changes, because we can't have that. [The players] were told that post-game.” [41] Former Captain and club legend Nick Riewoldt questioned the playing group in the media, suggesting that he could tell early in the game that the players “weren't interested in the contest” and keen on treating it like “an athletics carnival” [42] Riewoldt added that "it's not a dog-hungry group...the complete disregard or (lack of) desire to defend on four occasions now (in those heavy defeats) and give defensive effort is there for us all to see. The lack of accountability around that I think has now permeated through the group to the point where there would be a lack of trust." [43] Brownlow Medalist Gerard Healy suggested that the team was "playing on its own terms and only playing well with effort every second week. That's the starting point, why the effort is so pathetic every second week." [42] Following intense media coverage of the recent losses, General Manager of Football Simon Lethlean faced the media on Monday 24 May stating that:
"we had a good conversation and some open questions about how to make the program better, and that's on me that the program is not delivering at the moment...We’ve got a coach the players love and respect. There's more to all this and we’ve got to uncover what that is. This gulf between our best and worst is not good enough, and we’ve got to find a way to dig a bit deeper and get things back on track. We haven't got all the answers right now, but searching for them, and we're not in denial.” [44]
President Andrew Basat issued a letter members on 24 May, writing that:
"losing by over 50 points for the fourth time this season in the space of 10 games is not just disappointing, but unacceptable. This is not where any of us want our club to be....Disappointingly and embarrassingly, we have failed to meet those expectations so far, with the results speaking for themselves. It is not just the win–loss margin that is of concern, but the manner in which some of these losses have occurred." [45]
Despite the promise to make big changes ahead of the round 11 game against North Melbourne, the Saints only made two omissions (fringe players Lonie and Bytel) in addition to three forced injury changes (Clark, Frawley, McKernan). The selection decision was questioned by some in the media, particularly given one of the omissions, junior Jack Bytel, had been in good form over the past month while bigger name players who had been under scrutiny had been left in the side. [46] [47] Just earlier in the week, Riewoldt and Gary Lyon questioned the integrity of team selection in 2021, with Lyon adding they had set a bad precedent by continuing to name players who were out of form. [42] Of the selection decision, Ratten explained that recent injuries had left the selection panel with little choice; "we have got three players outside of our emergencies available. One is a Category B ruckman, one is a first-year player and one is a second-year player. They (the latest injuries) all happened yesterday so it threw probably some of our plans out....There has been some harder conversations this week about making sure that their performance is to the level, otherwise maybe they are on their last chance before they get put out of the team." [48]
In June, the club and players held a further internal review to address the disappointing efforts of the team and poor inacurracy in front of goal. [49] With the team at 5-8 and with intense media criticism, the Saints held another 'raw' review in Sydney with coaches and players discussing the lack of effort and the need to improve in order to be a 'dynasty club'. [49] The Saints coaches also addressed members following the Round 13 capitulation against cellar-dwellers Adelaide, after the team blew a 36-point margin in the third quarter to end up losing by six points.
Following the Round 14 bye, the Saints surprised reigning premiers Richmond, keeping them to just 22 points for the game in a 40-point win, and also scored wins over top eight sides and premiership contenders Sydney and Brisbane. After the bye, the Saints won five of the last nine games of the season. The Saints narrowly missed out on finals as a result, missing the top eight by 4 points (one win) and percentage. Of the Saints' four losses in that period, three were narrow and against top eight sides. Comparing the Saints' two halves of the season (rounds 1-13 then 14-23), the Saints lifted their scoring accuracy from 51.2% (17th in the competition) to 63.9% (1st), increased their average points for from 70.6 (16th) to 80.7 (7th), increased their ladder percentage from 78.3 (16th) to 116.4% (7th), goals per inside 50 from 16.3% (17th) to 20.4% (4th), reduced average points against from 90.2 (13th) to 69.3 (6th) and reduced inside 50s against from 54 (12th) to 47 (4th). [50]
At the conclusion of the season, Ratten was optimistic that the Saints could return to finals in 2022:
"It's (mid-season honesty sessions) dangerous when you do it in that period and are open and honest. There is some risk with it, there's also some reward. We didn't make it (finals) and we didn't deserve to make it and some of the lessons learned will put us in good stead for the future. You can fall, but it's how high you can bounce. Maybe last year with COVID-19, Noosa (hub) and coming back and starting a bit later (in pre-season, were we up and about early? No, we weren't. As a team, we had a year we haven't enjoyed. We finished strongly in the back half of the year, but our first half wasn't that enjoyable with inconsistencies we had. So, the 'why not us' is about getting moving individually and the effect that'll have collectively." [50]
