Alan Richardson Biography

Alan Richardson resigns as coach of St Kilda, revealing he came to the conclusion that his time at Moorabbin was coming to an end after the club's heavy defeat to North Melbourne a fortnight ago.

"The conversations with (CEO) Matt Finnis have been really honest," Richardson said.

"Matt, I presume, felt it was the right time to really be quite transparent, in terms of what that might look like. I personally then felt like it was a real challenge to be the coach that I needed to be.

"Really, it's as simple as, 'I've had my crack at it, it hasn't worked, and it's time for someone else to have a go'."

St Kilda extends Alan Richardson's contract as head coach of the club for a further two seasons.

The deal will make the 52-year-old the club's longest serving coach in more than four decades if he serves his full term to the end of 2020.

Alan Richardson's signs a two-year contract extension as coach of St Kilda.

The 50-year-old was already locked away for 2016, but has now extended his contract until the end of 2018.

"I am very pleased to commit to St Kilda's future. There are exciting things happening right across our club and I am thrilled to be a part of it for at least the next three years," Richardson said in a statement.

"I have high expectations of this playing group, and with the backing of a united and supportive board and executive, I am confident we will return to a period of success in the near future."

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson has thrown his support behind the idea of trading future draft picks to help player movement.

"That makes sense. I think speaking to some at the AFL their concern is if clubs were to get that wrong what does that do to the future of your footy club?" Richardson said.

"So there's some trepidation from their end, but from our end we back ourselves in to get it right."

After coaching his first game as head of St Kilda, Alan Richardson says he is in awe of his captain Nick Riewoldt.

"He's incredible. He just outworks the bloke he's playing on; he gives our defence something to kick to when it is he needs to push up the ground; if it is we need to score, he'll go deeper and maximise opportunity," Richardson said.

"Probably the most encouraging and impressive thing for me today was to leave the huddle at three-quarter time. There's an opportunity to win a game of footy that's pretty important (in) round one when you've worked for three or four months.

"To turn around and see Nick's grabbed the group and re-focusing them in terms of reinforcing my message (and) the message of the leadership group, I thought that was impressive.

"He's a fantastic leader and I'm blessed, really. It's like another assistant coach out on the ground in many ways."

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson says wealthy clubs have an advantage when it comes to winning premierships.

"Clearly the correlation between ultimately winning [a premiership] and spend is fairly significant," Richardson said.

"I don't subscribe to the fact if you don't have the spend you're going to finish on the bottom of the ladder and I don't think anyone is saying that.

"But, in terms of ultimately winning and being able to make sure you've got everything covered to give yourself the best chance possible when it is you've got really talented players because the draft allows you to do that, then I think you do need to get it as even as possible."

New Saints coach Alan Richardson and his family had to leave their outer-suburban Park Orchards home in a hurry because of the nearby Warrandyte fire but were able to return after a couple of hours.

"I was actually heading up the driveway going to Danny Sexton's house for a coach barbecue," he said.

"I quickly did a U-turn, went back, got everything that was dear to us and took off.

"Around 12 o'clock we had to pack up the kids and the dog and the cat - we didn't find the cat, actually.

"So it was good the fire didn't come though."

New St Kilda coach Alan Richardson has implemented a tough pre-season program for the players, a program which Saint Adam Schneider says will be beneficial for the team in 2014.

"Richo has been great. He's old school, which I like, he's all about hard work and that's the first message we got from him; that we're going to be a hard-working team and train hard and that's what you've got to be if you're going to be part of St Kilda," Schneider said.

"A few of the boys have been blown away with how hard it's been. It's been one of the hardest pre-seasons the boys have had in the last five or six years.

"We're all extremely fit at the moment and all flying, so we're reaping the rewards and that's all because of the way Richo has approached it."

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says he understands Alan Richardson's decision to leave his role at the Power to become senior coach of St Kilda.

"I lived almost the exact scenario about 14 months ago so I know what he was dealing with," Hinkley said.

"At some point the level of interest goes up in you from the club looking and all of a sudden the call comes through that 'hey this is really serious now – this is something that if you really want to do this, you have to be prepared to go for it.'

"Imagine me of all people saying you can't chase your dream. He clearly wanted to coach in his own right at some stage."

Angry Port president David Koch says he will block any attempt by St Kilda to poach Power assistant coach Alan Richardson after the recent sacking of head coach Scott Watters.

"He's on contract to us til the end of 2015 and that's the way it stays and to leave it so late is terribly disruptive," Koch said.

"If St Kilda want that to change they're going to have to talk to us as a club because we're going to stick with it. We're not going to release him."

Alan Richardson is appointed as head coach of St Kilda for the next three years.

"I think the senior coach plays a massive role from a cultural perspective, and I know in that space this footy club is going to have a really significant focus," Richardson said.

"We want to make sure we're doing the right thing all the time because it's the right thing to do, not because we're told it's the right thing to do.

"That's on-field, that's off-field. As a leader, it doesn't happen unless I set an example and have really high standards and hold people accountable."

Port Adelaide must now find a replacement for Alan Richardson after the Power director of coaching was appointed as head coach of St Kilda.

"The unfortunate thing about this is that there's a flow-on effect; we're going to be affecting someone else's program," Power CEO Keith Thomas said.

"That's the situation that unfortunately the St Kilda footy club and their process has put us in … I don't know any way of avoiding it.

"We made that comment to the AFL today - the situation leaves us with no choice.

"We're going to be going to the best candidates, people who are willing to come to Port Adelaide."

Barely 12 hours after again declaring himself out of the running, Alan Richardson has had a change of heart and is now a candidate to coach St Kilda.

The Saints had been seeking the opportunity to formally interview Richardson for the position he came close to securing two years ago, but it took a late night change of heart on Tuesday for Richardson to decide to again submit himself for the process.

He advised Port Adelaide, where he is the director of coaching and strategy, of his decision on Wednesday morning and will meet with the Saints in the next 24 hours.