‘A potential destination club’: St Kilda appoint Geoff Walsh as director of football
Geoff Walsh #GeoffWalsh
St Kilda need improvement across the board from their players to vault from being a mid-range team and become a top-four team, says the club’s newly appointed director of football Geoff Walsh.
Walsh also concedes that the club need to attract A-grade talent via the draft or trading to become a genuine premiership contender, having missed out on their ambitious bid for Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey.
Geoff Walsh (left) and coach Mick Malthouse helped the Magpies to the 2010 premiership.Credit:Fairfax Photographic
But Walsh may be the most important recruit during this off-season, as he brings a wealth of experience as football manager at North Melbourne and Collingwood, having enjoyed premiership success at both clubs. He has joined St Kilda as the Saints are undertaking a review of the football department after missing finals for the past two seasons.
Walsh finished at Collingwood at the end of 2020, having spent the season in hubs during COVID-19, but has kept his footballing eye in, completing reviews at Carlton and North Melbourne and assisting the AFL with planning for a new Tasmanian team.
But he could not resist taking up the huge challenge facing the Saints as they attempt to win a second flag, and said the adrenalin that comes with winning and losing and being part of club land was enticing.
“They are a club that has got some potential. They are probably poised. They could go either way, languishing around the spots they are in at the moment or, with some improvement right across the board from players, and [some] draft picks and some trading that they can springboard into the top four, five or six of the competition,” Walsh said.
St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has backed the club’s review of its poor second half of the season.Credit:Getty Images
“That is appealing to me and the challenge, obviously.”
Walsh was alongside Mick Malthouse at Collingwood when they won the 2010 premiership and did a football department review when director of football at the Magpies at the end of 2017, before being Nathan Buckley’s right-hand man when they came within a kick of winning the 2018 premiership.