Live blog: Alan Richardson departs St Kilda

"He's still a chance to survive, but I don't think he will."

Speculation around Richardson's future has been brewing for some time now. The Age's Real Footy Podcast asked the question directly three weeks ago. 

Listen back to what Jimmy Bartel, Jake Niall and Michael Gleeson had to say. Were they right? Did you predict today's outcome?

Speaking just now, Jarryn Geary has praised caretaker coach Brett Ratten.

"He’s a great coach, he’s got great knowledge. He’s come from football clubs with great success. He’s a great person, has a good balance between having a bit of fun and challenging the group. He's got six weeks to coach.

"Obviously, I wont be out there for the majority of time but I’ll be supporting him."

He also praised Richardson for departing the club and allowing it to move forward.

While no one's making excuses here, there's no doubt it's been a challenging ride for Richardson this season. The team has been beset by injuries including...

• Currently 14 players are on the injury list including captain Jarryn Geary, who is out with a leg injury.
• Back problems have meant Jake Carlisle has played only four senior games.
• Four-time best and fairest winner Jack Steven has had multiple mental health breaks to manage just four games this year. 
• Paddy McCartin has had at least eight concussions since being drafted in 2015.
• A heart condition forced star defender Dylan Roberton to have a second year on the sidelines.
• 2018 draft pick Max King is yet to debut this season following an ACL surgery in 2018.

One thing I've noticed is there's never a shortage of stats in sports. Here are the latest rolling in as the final siren calls for Richardson.

• The coach finishes with a 34% win percentage: 43 wins and 81 losses
• He is second on the list for fewest wins after 126 games behind only Bill Stephen who had 32 wins with Fitzroy.
• Richardson becomes the 44th coach of St Kilda not to win a flag and the 30th coach to win less that 50% of matches. 

Source: StatsInsider

After an emotional and lengthy press conference, onlookers are left to air their feelings on Twitter. Here are what some footy fans are saying:

"Perhaps as a CEO and coach, you're closer," said Finnis.

"We've had many [difficult] conversations in recent times. The last one on that front was yesterday."

"I couldn't be more confident about the journey we're on. 

"Bassatt has brought a lazer focus to our organisation, from top to bottom. Our focus is now very clear. 

"With a new stadium deal with Marvel Stadium, with new sponsors and our membership growing and AFLW coming on. 

"Without sounding to clinical now, our job now is to fill that piece of the puzzle, that senior coach," said Finnis.

"Clearly last year was a year where we didn't meet expectations. 

"We learnt a lot about ourselves last year. We learnt we weren't good enough in a whole range of areas. 

"Perhaps we wall-papered over things we needed to get better at. 

"It’s hard to sit next to Alan and see him walk away having been in the trenches with him.

"I’m sure we could all of done some micro things differently which produce different outcomes along the way. But ultimately we reviewed a lot of our program last year and it’s not for me to dwell on those moments now.

"My focus is to take the steps to set ourselves up for success going forward," said Finnis.