Dal Santo steps down as winless Saints turn to review
Nick Dal Santo has stepped down as St Kilda's AFLW senior coach after six seasons, with the Saints winless and last on the ladder.
St Kilda confirmed the decision in an official announcement titled 'Dal Santo to step down as club set to commence independent review' St Kilda Football Club. The call came with four rounds left in the regular season and St Kilda holding eight losses from eight games ABC News.
The Saints were the competition's only winless team after Essendon's first win of the year. They sat at the bottom of the ladder with a league-worst percentage of 37.2. Percentage is points scored divided by points conceded, and it splits teams sitting on equal wins.
The numbers explain the pressure. St Kilda averaged just 23 points scored per game in attack. It conceded an average of 62 points per game at the other end.
The last game before the decision was in Ballarat. St Kilda lost by 30 points to the Western Bulldogs on the weekend prior to Dal Santo's resignation. The Saints did not kick a goal, worth six points in Australian football, for the whole match.
Their only score was a single behind, worth one point, from Ashleigh Richards at the 17-minute mark of the final term. One scoring shot for an entire game leaves very little room for a coach to defend.
Dal Santo will coach the team one more time. His final game is scheduled to be the Saturday home match against Collingwood.
It closes a six-season tenure that included St Kilda's maiden AFLW finals appearance the season before 2026. Finals football is the end-of-season playoffs, and that breakthrough had set up this year with real hope.
Instead the season unravelled quickly. Dal Santo gave a tense post-match press conference after the eighth straight loss. After the goalless game against the Bulldogs he pointed to conditions, youth, inexperience, a short break and recent travel, according to AFL.com.au. He had signed a contract extension in December 2024 tying him to the club until the end of 2026.
St Kilda has now ordered an independent review into its AFLW football program. Brad Lloyd from Apogee Sports will lead the review after previously leading reviews at AFLW clubs Richmond and Carlton.
For fans, this means a reset with games still to be played. The Saints must find a way through the last four rounds, then find a new senior coach and act on what the review finds.
