How St Kilda’s Seb Ross powered through controversy to find clear skies in 2022

When he walks through the front door at the Ross residence, the midfielder chuckles that “it’s on for young and old.”

But it was no laughing matter in the middle of last year. The Saints’ finals chances were hanging by a thread when Ross and fellow leader Tim Membrey opted out of a clash against Adelaide in Cairns when Melbourne was coming to the end of its fourth Covid-19 lockdown.

Membrey’s wife Emily was expecting a baby in the coming days, while Ross’s wife Marnie had only a few weeks earlier given birth to twin sons Vinny and Henley, younger brothers to daughter Charlotte, two at the time.

Had St Kilda not squandered a massive lead to the lowly Crows in driving rain, the storm that ensued would probably never have erupted.

But Riley Thilthorpe’s look-away goal precipitated a chain of events that ultimately led to Ross issuing a public statement and heightening speculation that the dual best and fairest would depart the club at season’s end as a free agent.

It was a report on Channel Nine’s Footy Classified from Caroline Wilson that set the bomb off. Wilson said that key figures at St Kilda had been disappointed in Ross’s decision to head home, stressing that there was no medical reason with the twins for him to leave.

The story became a key talking point for a few days in the footy media cycle. Addressing the chapter 10 months on, Ross is adamant he would do the same thing again.

“It certainly was [tough], particularly because they were so young, and each week we were so unsure of what was going to happen each week,” Ross says.

“It was hard to manage because we had Covid zinging around too, and our families aren’t from Melbourne, so trying to get help with Charlotte and the twins, trying to figure out how to be parents to three kids. There was a lot on our plate for a bit there, so I didn’t need that media attention for that week that I came home.

“[But] it was a really easy decision to come home. I needed to support my wife and I had every intention of playing, it was just that the Queensland Government wouldn’t let me play. If the game stayed in Sydney I would have been playing.”

Probably the bigger issue was a perceived lack of trust; that elements within the club had been briefing against him.

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd pondered on Channel Nine at the time whether Ross would be seriously questioning his future at the Saints.

“Do good clubs handle themselves that way? Do good clubs speak the way they did?” Lloyd said.

Ross says he asked club powerbrokers to explain the situation, but that ultimately he was too busy with three young kids to worry too much about what had gone down behind the scenes.

“We sort of had those conversations where we sought clarity around that stuff. In the end I didn’t really have time to focus on it,” Ross says.

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The short-term issue may have been settled, but there was still a bigger picture at play.

Having acquired Brad Crouch, Dan Hannebery, Zak Jones and Bradley Hill over the previous three years, and with Jade Gresham and Hunter Clark due back from injury, Ross was a long way down the list of shiny new toys at Moorabbin.

Perhaps with the exception of Jack Steven, traded to Geelong at the end of 2019, Ross had been the most consistent Saints midfielder of the Alan Richardson era. He won the Trevor Barker Award in 2017 and 2019, was runner-up in 2018 and served as vice-captain from 2017 to 2020, filling in as skipper semi-regularly because of Jarryn Geary’s frequent injuries.

But because St Kilda had been poor to mediocre for the entirety of Richardson’s tenure, Ross had become something of a whipping boy among segments of the Saints’ supporter base. Fairly or not, he was burdened by the stench of team failure despite relative personal success.

Even within the club, there were questions as to whether both parties would be best suited to part ways.

It took until October for Ross’ re-signing for two seasons to be announced, but the North Ballarat product says he didn’t really consider leaving the club, and never has. Discussions about his role in the team did need to take place, a situation made tougher because of lockdown.

“I was glad when it was finally over. It was a prick of a thing trying to sort out, particularly because we were in lockdown, you couldn’t sit down and it was all over the phone. You missed that actual face-to-face contact in the negotiations.

“This is my 11th season now. I love the footy club, I love the boys, and I always wanted to stay.”

And of the seemingly annual rumours that come up about a move to Essendon where his uncle and cousin (Tim and Jobe Watson) are royalty, Ross is happy to debunk the story.

“My uncle and cousin played for them, they think I’m going there every year!

“It never has been something I’ve entertained.”

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So he is committed, at least for a couple more seasons. But as the longest-serving current senior regular at the club, Ross is content to let others take the spotlight. This is true in a couple of ways.

First there is off-field. For the first time since 2016 he is not a member of the leadership group.

“It ended up getting shortened,” Ross says.

“My votes were there, I was at that cut-off line anyway. But I think they identified that it was probably best for me to not solely have to be on all the time.

“It’s actually freed me up a bit. I don’t see myself as not a leader of this club, I still contribute in meetings and contribute the way I always have.

“It’s not something that keeps me up at night.”

On-field he is also playing a less flashy role, albeit one critical to team success.

“I sort of play that more defensive role, which allows ball-winners like Steeley [Jack Steele] and Crouchy and Gresham just to get after it.

“It’s not necessarily tagging, it’s more just setting up the defensive side of stoppages and working back to help defensively.

“I’m happy to keep playing my role, keep playing games.”

As the Saints rolled through an unanswered 10.4 run against Richmond on Sunday, the plan played out perfectly to the tune of a 33-point win.

Crouch won the Ian Stewart Medal as best afield, Gresham was among the best few on the ground too and the metronomic Steele played another excellent game. That left Ross flying under the radar, despite finishing with 28 disposals (his highest tally since his sons were born) and four clearances.

Jones (personal leave) and Hannebery (injury) remain indefinite absentees, but the Saints are coping well enough.

Two weeks in a row they have jagged come from behind wins, setting a reasonable early foundation for a season in which coach Brett Ratten is out of contract.

“We haven’t been able to [generate] great continuity in that midfield,” Ross says. “But with [Jack] Sinclair coming in there in the last couple of weeks, he’s such a smart player, he just understands the game that well.

“It was just another gritty win. The last two weeks we’ve showed some fight and spirit.

“For us it’s really obvious that there’s times where we’re playing well but we’re just not getting scores on the board. I think that’s what’s happened the last two weeks, we’ve come in at halftime … all our KPIs and that were saying we were in the game, we just had to stick at it and eventually it will turn. I think what [has] come out these last two weeks is that there’s great belief in the way we want to play.”

Whatever St Kilda’s season amounts to though, it won’t be the be all and end all for Ross, 29 next month.

There is a bigger game at home.

“It’s awesome. The boys, I can’t believe they’re one next month. They’re on the move, they’re walking with walkers, one goes that way, the other one goes in that direction, my daughter still wants attention as well.

“It’s funny, sometimes I say to the boys when I’m leaving the footy club, ‘OK I’m going to work now.’ When I get home it’s on for young and old, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”