Ratten departs Saints after “troubling” internal review findings: Bassat

St Kilda has confirmed Brett Ratten has been sacked as the club’s senior coach.

Following reports that broke late on Thursday night, president Andrew Bassat and CEO Simon Lethlean fronted the media to announce that Ratten had departed the club.

It comes after St Kilda finished 10th in 2022 with 11 wins. Ratten finished with just one finals berth in just over three seasons as the club’s senior coach.

Bassatt said it was with a “heavy heart” that Ratten departed, but suggested the club’s internal review gave no other choice.

Bassatt led the review which wrapped up last month and also admitted Ratten was “blindsided” by the decision.

“I went into this with no predetermined views… the sorts of questions I was asking, to be frank, is, ‘are we genuinely on the path to contending or are we kidding ourselves’? he told reporters.

“Or are we at serious risk of getting stuck in the 6-10 zone?

“The answers I got were troubling in terms of our confidence to come up with a plan with conviction.

“To be entirely clear, the nature of the head coaching role, there’s a lot of focus on and a lot more scrutiny on that than anything else.

“There were a bunch of other things we need to get better in our program in order to be successful. This is not all about our coaching program and all about Brett, if we don’t fix those things the new coach will also struggle to be successful, so we’re really mindful of that.

“We’re going to fix all areas of the organisation, but we really felt to maximise the chance of success we needed to console leadership.”

Ratten departs the Saints after signing a two-year contract extension in July earlier this year.

The decision to sack Ratten has been questioned given the lack of talent in St Kilda’s squad, but Basset believes the club is capable of more.

“I won’t pretend Brett was given every opportunity to be the best coach could be, but the alternative was to go ahead with our strong doubts into next year… we thought that risk was too great, as harsh that decision is,” the president said on the contract extension.

“Brett couldn’t have handled himself better… he’s disappointed and feels we made the wrong decision.

“We think our list is capable of more than we’ve shown… at the same time, to be frank, we feel this football club needs to perhaps have a stronger crack at getting the foundations right.”

The club didn’t confirm whether it would run a process for its next coach, but hinted more details would be available in the coming weeks.

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has reportedly ruled himself out of the job, according to The Age’s Peter Ryan.

“We’ll be swift and decisive and go and find the coach we need,” Leathlean said.

The Saints released a statement on the matter with Ratten admitting his disappointment at the decision.

“I have loved my time at St Kilda Football Club, and while I am extremely disappointed with the decision, I thank the Club for the opportunity and wish the players well,” said Ratten.