Veteran administrator Geoff Walsh wants to help bring "relevance" back to St Kilda after being appointed the AFL club's new football boss.
The Saints, who will celebrate their 150th year in 2023, have missed the finals in the past two seasons in an extension of the competition's longest premiership drought.
It dates back to to the club's sole VFL flag in 1966.
"This might sound abrasive and the Saints fans might get upset, but one of the things that I think when asked about how I see St Kilda, I think the the competition would say there's been a degree of irrelevance," Walsh told SEN radio.
"That should be abrasive, that should sort of choke down peoples' throats, and I hope moving forward that I can contribute to a profile that gives the Saints the due respect that they crave."
Walsh, who brings more than 35 years' experience to his role as executive general manager of football, concedes St Kilda need to recruit more elite talent in order to climb back into premiership contention.
It comes after the Saints missed out on high-profile target Jordan De Goey, who opted to remain at Collingwood.
"One of the things the Saints need to do over this trade and draft period and the next, and even the next, is an injection of top-end talent," Walsh said.
"They've got a lot of good players. I think that they would really do well and benefit from the injection of some top-end talent.
"That's one of the things that I think will help them up the road."
St Kilda started the 2022 season 8-3 but fell away in the second half of the year to finish 11-11 and miss the top eight.
It was a disappointing result after club president Andrew Bassat had claimed it was the year when the Saints' premiership window would open under coach Brett Ratten.
"It's not as if they're devoid of talent or devoid of hope," Walsh said.
"I think that there's some opportunities there for them to springboard into that bottom half of the eight, as a first step. That's exciting to me."
Walsh left his most recent full-time football post at Collingwood in 2020.
He has since played a key role in reviews at Carlton and North Melbourne, and assisted the AFL in planning for a new Tasmanian team.
During his time in the industry, Walsh has been involved in four premierships and 25 finals series.
He was awarded AFL life membership in 2016.
