ST KILDA president Peter Summers has thrown his unequivocal support behind under-fire coach Alan Richardson.

The Saints have not won a game since the opening round of the season and are 16th on the ladder ahead of a tough month in which they will face Collingwood, West Coast, Richmond and Sydney.

That saw Summers and Saints CEO Matt Finnis come in for criticism from former St Kilda coach Scott Watters on Sunday.

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When contacted by foxfooty.com.au regarding the critique, the president refused to buy into the war of words but was resolute in his backing of Richardson ahead of a scheduled board meeting later in the week.

Richardson recently signed a contract extension locking him to the Saints until the end of 2020.

“We firmly believe Alan is the right person to continue to lead our group forward,” Summers told foxfooty.com.au.

“It was pleasing to hear Scott’s endorsement of Alan and we agree with his view.”

Watters’ approval of Richardson, who has a win-loss record of 36 per cent since taking reins a week before the 2013 National Draft, was at odds with his stinging critique of Summers and Finnis.

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Since Champion Data was formed, no team has a worse inside 50 to score conversation rate than St Kilda’s this season, whole the club is also 18th for points for and 17th in contested ball numbers.

“Ultimately what’s been set up at the club started 10 years ago,” Watters said on Footy WA over the weekend.

“This is poor decision making around the list, poor decision making around the recruitment strategy.

“We don’t often see Presidents or CEOs get sacked, maybe they should. Alan Richardson is a working class coach doing his best with a pretty average list.”

Summers had been president for just two months when Watters was sacked by his board in November 2013 but would not be drawn into a bitter verbal stoush on Monday.

Instead, the CEO of residential developer AV Jennings urged the Saints to share “collective responsibility” for the club’s poor start to the season.

He also conceded criticism is par for the course when performances are not meeting expectations.

“As a former coach of the club, Scott will know that the culture we have developed is that we are all in this together,” Summers said.

“We expect a level of criticism given our current performance and don’t shy away from our collective responsibility as leaders of St Kilda to create a club our members are proud of.”

Richardson will be on AFL 360 on Monday night on Fox Footy at 7.30.