St Kilda coach Alan Richardson has been nothing short of emphatic in demanding a response from the entire football department after an underwhelming 2018 campaign.

And the urgency to turn his side’s form around has not been lost on the senior coach.

“I think you feel like you need to do it as soon as possible,” Richardson told SEN’s Whateley, when asked how to address the failures of 2018.

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“There was a meeting that we had at the end of last season and then we had the individual meetings.

“When we all got together on Monday – that is all the players – including Dean Kent, including Dan Hannebery, we did it again.

“I spoke about what our focus is going to be in terms of pre-season and why, but I did need to touch again on last season.

“I felt the need; it was pretty brief, it was pretty frank; and then it was, let’s move on.”

Listen to the full interview below:

The Saints fell well short of their own and others’ expectations this year, but Richardson revealed that there was suddenly a different feeling at Moorabbin.

“I’m sensing from the group in terms of their attitude and the way they’re going about their training, and the way they’ve gone about their time away from the footy club, there is a strong motivation to do something about last year,” he said.

I don’t know whether that motivation is embarrassment, is pride, I don’t really care. We know as a group we need to respond..

“We think things were heading the right way, winning more games than we lost the previous two years and last year was incredibly disappointing.

“We are committed to doing something about it.”