Jack Steele during the 2022 AFL Round 1 match between St Kilda and Collingwood (Photo by Cameron Grimes / Zero Digital Media)
Brett Ratten has slammed the Saints' ball movement after last night's disastrous 51-point loss to Sydney, conceding that his side had struggled since the bye.
The Swans loss came just eight days after a 35-point defeat to the Bombers cast serious doubt over St Kilda's finals ambitions, with the club now hovering outside the eight after heading into the bye with an 8-3 record.
Speaking to the media on Saturday night, Ratten expressed his frustrations, and that of key forward Max King, about the Saints' ball movement inside 50.
"Good luck to Max," Ratten said.
"If you kick the ball like that to anyone, if it’s Tony Lockett or Jason Dunstall, you’ve got no chance.
"I felt for him tonight. He had to wear the brunt of our ball movement. It would’ve been pretty frustrating.
"He’s only a third-year player. We kicked the ball so badly tonight. It’s not about him. We didn’t kick the ball well to anyone. Most of the forwards would be frustrated with our delivery."
The Saints have now been handed three straight losses to Brisbane, Essendon and Sydney, with matches against current top eight teams Carlton and Fremantle to come in the next two weeks.
The Saints were exposed badly on Saturday night, managing just five marks inside 50's and four goals throughout the match, with forward 50 target Max King amassing just eight disposals and remaining goalless.
Ratten's men are now teetering on edge of missing finals altogether after a strong first half of the season, with the coach conceding the club has some soul searching to do to recover some form.
"Looking back at what we did in the front half, since the bye we haven’t captured that," he said.
"Our ball movement at times throughout the front half of the year hasn’t been A1 but it’s been solid, where our defence has been really good and our contest work.
"There’s aspects to our game we’ve just got to go back and look at how we did it, why we did it and the roles people played in it. That’s the part we didn’t get right again. It’s a couple of weeks in a row, really poor.”
"Our ability to find a target inside 50 (tonight) or use the ball to advantage it was probably at the lowest it’s been for a while.
"We created 20 front-half turnovers and scored one goal. Sydney had 24 but scored 5.2. We had 12 clanger kicks in our attacking mid, kicking efficiency and clangers combined we were -10."
The Saints will be looking to make amends as they take on Carlton on Friday night at Marvel Stadium, who enjoyed their own 31-point win over Fremantle on Saturday.