Former St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt believes Alan Richardson needs to win at least four more games this season, to give himself any hope of keeping his job for 2020.
The Saints were pummeled by the Lions to the tune of 70 points on Saturday afternoon, and while Riewoldt understands the club have been hit by injuries this season, he still says Richardson needs to show something.
โI reckon he needs to get to 10 wins. I think it gives him a fighting chance,โ Riewoldt toldย SEN Breakfast.
โI think his growth as a coach has been pretty evident this year.
โI think theyโve overachieved. Go back a month ago. I think to that point of the year theyโd overachieved.
โI find this year so hard to get a read on. I want to see the body of work.
โThe trouble with (Simon Lethleanโs) comments are โ how do we quantify improvement?
โI think itโs plain to see. The club needs to start beating teams above them on the ladder and they cannot put in performances where the effort is as bad as it was on the weekend.โ
Football boss Simon Lethlean spoke to 3AW about Richardson's future, suggesting if the Saints continue to improve "Alan will remain our coach."
โ(Lethlean) outlined there that they need to beat teams above them. The irony out of the weekend was, it was a horrible performance. It really was. Really, really disappointing,โ Riewoldt said.
โUp until the Port Adelaide game theyโd been really strong and competitive in all games theyโd been in.
โPort Adelaide I was willing to put a line through because of the injuries and the illness over there in China and the travel and all of those circumstances combined.
โThen they had a week off and then they went up to the Gold Coast and it was just a performance. They adjusted after half time which was encouraging to see.
โThis was the biggest game of the year for them. Theyโre six (wins) and six (losses), have an opportunity to go seven and six.
โAt seven and six with the way the draw had opened up for them, their season was alive.
โSo to surrender so meekly on the weekend was really, really damning on the group and it was based on the effort.
โThatโs what Iโve been so proud of this year is how strong the effort has been and it just wasnโt there on the weekend.โ
