The Ashes revealed as inspiration for St Kilda’s blistering month of football that rocketed it to the AFL’s top three

Premiership coaches have famously used quirky metaphors to galvanise their sides. The Saints turned to the The Ashes to inspire them, and which Aussie cricket greats are working closely with the club? At just 10cm tall, the replica of the original Ashes urn – the symbol of cricket’s greatest rivalry between Australia and England – has been a key element in surging the Saints to third on the ladder in a different ball game, and potentially higher should they claim tonight’s clash with Geelong. Coaches are always hunting inspiration. Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge famously turned to the gobstopper scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in his team’s premiership campaign, while Richmond counterpart Damien Hardwick left weekly gifts for his players in 2019 with that week’s message cleverly intertwined. When the AFL was relocated out of Victoria, with initial plans for a five-week block, St Kilda coach Brett Ratten and his colleagues got cracking. “It was about trying to come up with something that had five events in it,” Ratten told the Herald Sun. “Whether it was maybe a war, or car racing, it didn’t matter what. But then one of the coaches mentioned ‘The Ashes have got five’. “That’s where it got born. “A lot of people were involved in cricket or know cricket, and a lot of players play at the club and muck around and things like that. It connected with them. “We bought a little Ashes urn and it’s been sitting in the meeting room on a table. “It’s brilliant.” The mentality drove the Saints, who to add an edge framed each game – starting against the Dockers in Round 6 – as an Ashes Test, starting at “Edgbaston”, and ending last week against Gold Coast at “The Oval”. After the loss to Fremantle in the first “Test” of the series, Ratten joked that “maybe we should burn it”. But with the help of Australian cricketing greats – including players and coaches like Mike Hussey and Greg Chappell, plus others whose involvement the club has chosen not to reveal – the Saints won the next four games to, replica aside, “take home the urn” to Noosa. “It was a good one for us, because they go into a hub situation over there in England,” Ratten said. “The guys have spoken about their experiences and we’ve tied it back to us, and even some of the series that they’ve been involved in, they lost games as well, so they talked about how they responded. “There was a really good connection there for the players.” The cricket achievements of the likes of Chappell and “Mr Cricket” Hussey – who played a combined total of 166 Tests in the baggy green – didn’t go unnoticed by the players, who were treated to playing vision as part of the project. “(Chappell) was not just one of the great cricketers of his time, but also a great coach,” Ratten said. “He coached India, and was an Australian selector. “It’s been really good. It’s a different voice, and we’re up here for a while, so it was good to change it up.” The players have embraced the different tack as they embarked on the most mentally and physically challenging period of football in history. “You’ve got to win three out of the five to win the urn,” star midfielder Jack Steele said. “I think we might have been 3-2 when we came up, and if we could turn that into 6-4 before we came home, then that would be a win. “Josh Battle and Jake Carlisle, those guys played cricket at a pretty high level, and Jack Sinclair, Jack Lonie, Gears … there’s not too many that aren’t into cricket. “We all love it. When we were at Moorabbin, we’d be always playing cricket in the gym and changerooms. There’d constantly be a game going. I miss that. But we’re still enjoying time up here.” MORE AFL: With the five Tests now complete and “the Ashes retained”, Ratten said it had been joked that with the competition set to extend outside Victoria for another two months at least that perhaps the team’s “tour” may too. “We did joke that when the whole competition got changed on its head, it was ‘sorry boys, we’re now off to India and Pakistan and back through New Zealand on the way home, and we’ll have our last Test in Christchurch and then who knows where we’ll be’,” he laughed. “We had a bit of a muck around that we’d be off to the West Indies and so forth, but we’ve got a few things we’re thinking of. “This is a short turnaround so you don’t want to over coach, and do too much in this week, and the Ashes finished up so we don’t want to do too much in that space. This will be about recovery and a really simple focus on the Cats. “With a six-day break, I think we can get the boys together and try and think of something to go the next step.” But he maintained that the theme hadn’t been the only key to unlocking the Saints’ blistering month. “Our staff is less and we’ve still brought the whole list up, so our staff is less and we’re still doing roughly what we would do back home,” Ratten said. “People are working extremely hard on even shorter turnarounds and it’s a credit to them. “They’re all doing their role and playing their part, which has been brilliant, because some of them are under enormous duress trying to support and manage 46 (players) and they haven’t got the support they would have in Melbourne, so they’re doing a great job.”