Alan Richardson knows the blowtorch will be on him after St Kilda’s meek showing in a 56-point mauling by the Brisbane Lions.
But the embattled coach is adamant his focus is on kicking the Saints’ faltering AFL season back into gear, not keeping his job.
Richardson lashed his players for an embarrassing lack of physicality after the Lions put the Saints to the sword in a stunning nine-goals-to-one third-quarter blitz that set up Saturday’s 17.13 (115) to 8.11 (59) victory at Marvel Stadium.
Optimism over St Kilda’s surprise 4-1 record to start the season is a distant memory and Richardson’s position is under increasing pressure with his side losing six of their past eight matches.
The loss left the Saints in 11th spot with a 6-7 record and poor percentage.
Richardson is widely believed to need to guide to the finals for the first time in his sixth year in charge to continue in his role.
He accepts there will be be plenty of media speculation about his future this week, but he doesn’t have to listen to it.
“The team’s performance absolutely affects me, I’m responsible for the team’s performance, that’s my job,” Richardson said.
“(But) I don’t get affected at all by the other stuff.
“I know people have jobs to do. People sell papers and there’s a lot of time that needs to be filled in terms of footy shows … I get all that.
“But my responsibility is to make sure that we bounce back and address the issues of the performance today.
“That’s all I worry about.”
The Saints play Richmond at the same venue in the next round and a similar showing could have dire consequences.
Asked which of his 22 players he would give a pass mark against the Lions, Richardson named Blake Acres, Dan Hannebery and Nick Hind then struggled.
“There wouldn’t be many more I reckon … we had a lot of passengers today,” he lamented.
Hannebery’s debut for the club after a series of soft-tissue injuries and Jake Carlisle’s return from pre-season back surgery were positives.
But having fallen behind by as much as 76 points in the last quarter, Richardson won’t spare anyone’s feelings in his review.
“We got really strong feedback that if we’re not physical enough, not aggressive enough and not bold enough or prepared to sacrifice enough then we can be a pretty ordinary footy team,” he said.
“We won’t throw everything out because there’s some stuff that’s been building whilst we’ve had some challenges with some (injured) personnel, some young blokes have done some pretty good things.
“We’ve got a bit of time now (to prepare for the Tigers) … and it will be a review that will challenge a lot of blokes, I reckon, in terms of the way that we got beaten and then we’ll get to work.”