Pelchen has quit the Saints after a lengthy review into the club’s football operations.
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St Kilda’s revamp of its football department has resulted in the resignation of its head of football Chris Pelchen.
Pelchen quit the club after a lengthy review into the club’s football department.
Saints chief executive Matt Finnis revealed that he and Pelchen reviewed the club’s football program at the end of last season and concluded that the club needed to focus more on high performance rather than list management and strategy.
In a club statement, Finnis thanked Pelchen for his three-and-a-half years at the Saints, and wished him well for the future.
“Chris has professionally led our football department since August 2011 and in that time introduced a strategic focus to the Club’s list management activities and helped turn around our Total Player Payments position. Amongst other initiatives, Chris was instrumental in the Club entering a new market in New Zealand and the establishment of the Saints Player Academy – while the strategy to re-contract a significant number of our young players in a single campaign throughout 2014 can also be attributed to Chris’ expertise,” Finnis said.
“However, following our end of season review, we agreed to make some changes to drive further development in our high performance programs across our Football Department.
“The highly competitive AFL landscape requires us to drive a program that combines bringing in and retaining the best players with uncompromising excellence in the development and performance of our team.”
Pelchen said he was pleased to have played a central role at the club.
“The Saints are an iconic brand in the AFL competition and I am pleased to have played a part in strategically repositioning them for future success – an objective that I am confident will be achieved in coming years,” he said.
“Like all AFL clubs, there must be a relentless pursuit of premierships and I fully support the Club’s need to restructure their football program to reflect the ever changing landscape.”
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