ST KILDA coach Brett Ratten is out of contract at the end of this season but doesn’t believe his future will come down to the Saints returning to September after an underwhelming 2021.

Ratten guided the success-starved club back to the finals for the first time in nine years in 2020, where the Saints defeated the Western Bulldogs in an elimination final to win a final for the first time since 2010.

But last year didn’t go to plan. The Saints crawled out of the blocks and couldn’t make up for lost time late in the season, eventually finishing 10th with ten wins, following a season where a handful of St Kilda's best players weren’t available due to injury.

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St Kilda president Andrew Bassat put on the record late last year that the expectation is a return to the finals in 2022, endorsing Ratten as a coach with the qualities to end the club's 56-year premiership drought.

But Ratten, who initially took over from Alan Richardson as caretaker coach in July 2019, said finishing in the top-eight is only one component he should be assessed on, with the process between each game just as important to securing reappointment.

"It will be interesting to see. I think you can just look at it as win-loss or there are certainly situations that happen throughout a season. I think you have to assess that as well," Ratten told AFL.com.au last week.

"When you talk about trying to play finals, well we didn’t play finals for 10 years and in my first year we made finals and in my second year the expectation was to back it up.

"There's a competition of 18 teams and you want to be in the top eight; you want to be in the top echelon. That’s the challenge each year and that's what we'll keep striving for each year.

"We won't shy away from playing finals at all; that's the carrot out there. I don’t see too many win the flag from outside the finals. That’s the end result, but it's how we go about it. That will probably determine whether I get a contract or not."

While Ratten is clearly under pressure heading into the new season given the way 2021 unfolded, Stuart Dew, Adam Simpson and Chris Scott will start the year under just as much, if not more, scrutiny for a variety of different reasons.

The 50-year-old, who coached Carlton for five years before landing his second gig seven years later, said he won't lose sleep if the club takes its time to offer him another contract.

"You can only control what you can control," he said. "As a coach, we'll be putting our best foot forward as a team. Whether it's the club's decision to wait or do it through the year or whatever that’s up to them. What I can control is what we do mid-week getting prepared to perform on the weekends. Hopefully we get that process right."

With less than six weeks between now and St Kilda's season-opener against Collingwood at Marvel Stadium – the game Kanye West wanted relocated – Ratten revealed the Saints faced the music at the end of last season. The players, coaches and high performance department all made mistakes in 2021, following an unusual 2020 where the club relocated to the Sunshine Coast for more than 100 days amid a global pandemic.

"We didn’t finish where we wanted to, but maybe if we did finish in the finals and scrape in, we might have 'Band-Aided' a few things we needed to address through the pre-season with the group. It's not just about the players; it’s about the growth of the whole football club and the program. We all missed the mark a little bit collectively and we've addressed it and taken some big steps forward through the pre-season," he said.

"There was a bit that went wrong; there was probably a little bit of Noosa baggage for us. We were in an environment that was a little bit different and we focused on some different things. The health of our players to mentally get up every week knowing there were shorter turnarounds and long travel. We probably brought a little bit of that back and then we played catch-up at the end.

"We had a few injuries and that’s been well stated and we had a tougher draw, but really, we got a few things wrong last year. We addressed that through the middle part of the year and performed pretty adequately by the end. There was some positive growth and we got to find out about some players: (Cooper) Sharman came in, (Ryan) Byrnes playing more football, (Jack) Bytel getting more games, (Leo) Connolly as well. I think it allowed us find out a bit more about our list. That’s what happens sometimes through adversity."

Ratten ended a 3311-day wait between finals in 2020. Now St Kilda supporters are hoping he can end the longest premiership-drought in the game. It might not happen in 2022, but if they make progress, there is little doubt he will have a new contract before the end of the season.