Newly appointed St Kilda coach Brett Ratten is bullish about leading the AFL club from the doldrums.
Ratten is the third caretaker coach this year to win the top job and has set his sights on returning the Saints to the finals for the first time since 2011.
“How quickly can you jump?” Ratten told reporters on Friday.
“There has been teams that have jumped from 13th, 14th and got themselves into grand finals.
“We’re not saying that it’s just going to happen overnight. But that is our aim.
“We haven’t played finals in a while so our first step will be let’s make finals and see what we can do.”
Ratten has signed a three-year contract at the Saints, who finished 14th this season.
He follows North Melbourne’s Rhyce Shaw and Carlton’s David Teague as caretaker coaches who are now in the chair for next season.
But unlike Shaw and Teague, who made their senior coaching debuts this year, Ratten was an old hand when he took over from Alan Richardson for the last six rounds.
Ratten coached Carlton to the finals from 2009-11 before being controversially sacked in 2012.
He was then an assistant at Hawthorn during their 2013-15 premiership three-peat and joined the Saints this year.
“To get back in that (head coach) chair that I have been trying to get back to for a long time, it has been seven years,” Ratten said.
“But I’m really excited about our list and where the club is heading and it’s a great opportunity for me.
“We need to get more success at this footy club.
“And when preseason starts we will be pushing really hard as a coaching group and also as a playing list to make sure that we do that.”
Ratten said he’d learned to delegate and trust other people to support him in the years since departing Carlton.
“As a young coach probably I tried to do a little bit too much and cover off bases across the whole footy department where being older now I probably just try and play to (my) strengths,” he said.
“We say that to the players all the time – play to your strengths and the other side of it, you put people in place that can support you in areas that you’re not as good at.
“We say that to players, so why wouldn’t you do that as a coach?”
Chief executive Matt Finnis said Ratten’s previous coaching experience had been an advantage in the selection process.
“It’s a difficult role being a senior coach,” Finnis said.
“So the chance to get someone who’s been there before, who’s done that, who’s also then been able to reflect on that experience and then go and have another apprenticeship alongside Alastair Clarkson brings enormous credibility to his experience.”
After replacing the departed Richardson, Ratten led the Saints to three wins in their last six games.
Ratten’s appointment leaves Fremantle as the sole club without a coach, following last month’s sacking of Ross Lyon.
Collingwood assistant coach Justin Longmuir is favoured to take over at the Dockers but any announcement will be delayed until after the Magpies’ finals campaign, which begins with a qualifying final against Geelong on Friday night.
