St Kilda need improvement across the board from their players to vault from being a mid-range team and become a top-four team, says the club’s newly appointed director of football Geoff Walsh.
Walsh also concedes that the club need to attract A-grade talent via the draft or trading to become a genuine a premiership contender, having missed out on their ambitious bid for Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey.
Geoff Walsh (left) and coach Mick Malthouse helped the Magpies to the 2010 premiership.Credit:Fairfax Photographic
But Walsh may be the most important recruit during this off-season, as he brings a wealth of experience as football manager at North Melbourne and Collingwood, having enjoyed premiership success at both clubs. He has joined St Kilda as the Saints are undertaking a review of the football department after missing finals for the past two seasons.
Walsh finished at Collingwood at the end of 2020, having spent the season in hubs during COVID-19, but has kept his footballing eye in, completing reviews at Carlton and North Melbourne and assisting the AFL with planning for a new Tasmanian team.
But he could not resist taking up the huge challenge facing the Saints as they attempt to win a second flag, and said the adrenalin that comes with winning and losing and being part of club land was enticing.
“They are a club that has got some potential. They are probably poised. They could go either way, languishing around the spots they are in at the moment or, with some improvement right across the board from players, and [some] draft picks and some trading that they can springboard into the top four, five or six of the competition,” Walsh said.
St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has backed the club’s review of its poor second half of the season.Credit:Getty Images
“That is appealing to me and the challenge, obviously.”
Walsh was alongside Mick Malthouse at Collingwood when they won the 2010 premiership and did a football department review when director of football at the Magpies at the end of 2017, before being Nathan Buckley’s right-hand man when they came within a kick of winning the 2018 premiership.
He said the Saints would continue to push hard for top talent through the draft and trade process.
“The right player can springboard you up the ladder but can [also] springboard how other players and other clubs view the Saints and adds to the appeal as a potential destination club,” Walsh said.
He said he had seen what works with clubs on that climb, and hoped to lend his experience to St Kilda with part of his role being to support the head of the football program David Rath and list manager James Gallagher in preparing them to meet their future aspirations, which may including becoming a football manager.
Walsh’s career began with Fitzroy in 1985, and he joined Carlton as recruiting manager before transferring to North Melbourne as general manager of football, then club CEO. Collingwood poached him in 2006 where he stayed until 2013. He then returned to work at North Melbourne as general manager of football before going back to Collingwood in 2016.
