'Really bad look': AFL great slams Alan Richardson press conference
Former AFL great David King has slammed St Kilda for their treatment of outgoing head coach Alan Richardson.
Richardson announced on Tuesday that he would immediately leave the club, with the Saints in the midst of yet another mediocre season.
St Kilda enjoyed a fast start to the season, winning four of their first five matches, but have since struggled mightily.
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A combination of key injuries and mixed form ultimately doomed Richardson, who exits as the Saints’ second-longest tenured coach in club history.
Speaking on Fox Footy program AFL 360, King said St Kilda’s decision was ‘two-faced’ in light of their injury troubles and previous commitment to Richardson.
“The way that it’s been handled at the end is really disrespectful, I think,” King said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“He was never gonna survive.
“If it’s on last year, the conversations this year are a waste of time.
“Because the conversations they would have been having at Round 6, 7 and 8, 10 weeks later are flipped on their head.
“Now, I know not 10 weeks is a long time and you can say he’s not going to be our premiership coach, we’ve made a decision. That’s their right.
“But I just thought it was a little bit two-faced to be honest.
“The way that the press conference unfolded, I thought it was a really, really bad look for Richo to leave and not be followed by the CEO or the president which happens every time.”
Next Saints coach already under pressure
Calling it smoke with no fire, St Kilda are adamant that the constant speculation around Brad Scott as their next AFL senior coach is wrong.
After months of uncertainty, the Saints officially joined North Melbourne and Carlton in the coaching market place on Tuesday when Alan Richardson left.
Richardson and Saints chief executive Matt Finnis chose their words carefully throughout two lengthy media conferences at Moorabbin, couching it as a mutual decision that followed constant conversations between them since the start of the year.
Now the attention turns to who takes over from St Kilda's second longest-serving coach, who ultimately did not take them to the finals in his six-year tenure.
READ MORE: Third AFL coach gone as Alan Richardson quits St Kilda
But even without a coach Finnis is refusing to yield from the club’s high expectations after eight years outside the top eight.
“We start every year hoping to play finals and we started this hoping to play finals,” he told 3AW radio.
“We expect to play finals in 2020 and anyone would expect our club to be aiming for that.
“We saw with some of our performances this year, not withstanding some of the challenges not having some of our best players on the park, that we were able to mix it with the best teams.
“Even on Saturday night down in Geelong playing the best team in the comp on their deck, we saw a team that was competitive.”
Saints football boss Simon Lethlean is friends with Scott, who left North two months ago, and this has fuelled the talk that he will be their next senior coach.