St Kilda CEO Matt Finnis says the decision to re-sign Alan Richardson a year before his contract expired was because the club believes he is the right coach to lead the Saints back towards September and premiership contention.
After leading the Saints to 23 wins across the last two seasons, Richardson signed a two-year extension last month that will extend his tenure at the club to at least seven seasons by the end of that deal.
“When you work with ‘Richo’ week in week out and you see the way he’s leading that football department, the way in which the coaches have bought into the program, the relationships he has with the players; we’ve just got the utmost confidence that he’s the man to lead our program,” Finnis told SEN on Friday morning.
“So why wouldn’t you show that confidence in him and extend him out?
“We’re not there yet, we’ve got a long way to go, but we know that ‘Richo’ is the right man and we want to back him in.
“There’s a lot of moving parts in a footy program, but ‘Richo’ is going to be one constant for us for the foreseeable future.”
Finnis said the club was on track to relocate to the redeveloped RSEA Park headquarters in Moorabbin next season.
“I bump into Saints people all the time and they can’t believe how big it is,” he said.
“It’s literally taking shape right now; we expect that our players will be back there for next season.
“So it’s a really exciting time for our footy club to get back to our spiritual home and reconnect with our heartland.”
Finnis said he wasn’t surprised that the Western Bulldogs appointed Ameet Bains as their CEO given his performances at the club across a range of departments.
Bains, who is currently St Kilda's Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, will start at his new post early next month.
“Ameet has been a terrific lieutenant for us. I wasn’t surprised at all that the Bulldogs looked to appoint him because I think he’ll be a terrific leader for them and he’ll head off there in December,” he said.
“Right now he’s stepped out of our football program, but he had some commercial obligations that he’s finishing up.
“Footy clubs aren’t built on one person; we’ll bring in some good people; my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. When people go and take higher positions at other organisations, it probably makes your organisation more appealing for others to join."
