'Clever but also wrong': Nick Riewoldt reveals Brett Ratten 'took the bait' with famous one-liner in accidental feud

St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt has cleared the air about a story that spread like wildfire indicating that he was on bad terms with former Saints coach Brett Ratten.

The drama erupted in 2023, one year on from Ratten's sudden sacking as coach of the club.

He was quickly replaced at the helm by veteran coach Ross Lyon and St Kilda went on to play finals that year.

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At the time, Riewoldt said the Saints had "gone forward" under Lyon, following Ratten's ruthless sacking.

"I can promise you now, the standards in that joint (St Kilda) over the last however long have been sub-par," Riewoldt told the FootyTalk podcast at the time.

Ratten, who was serving as interim coach of North Melbourne at the time in place of Alastair Clarkson, was quick to hit back at the former Saints skipper.

"The only time he (Riewoldt) came was for free physio, that's the only time he was at the club, so I don't know where he saw those standards," he said.

Two years on, Riewoldt has spoken on the situation, revealing his barb at the club was not a direct shot at Ratten.

"It's interesting how all of that unfolded and it's nice to have the air to actually clear that up," Riewoldt told Triple M's Mick in the Morning.

"Brett was asked at a press conference, he was at North Melbourne at the time, he was asked what he thought about me criticising the standards at St Kilda when he was there as coach.

"Which I never said. Brett was led into that by the journalist. He actually hadn't heard the comments. He took the bait on that one.

"I never even mentioned Brett Ratten. I spoke about the standards being poor there for a long time, dating back to when I was still there at the end of my career.

"(Ratten) fell into it and he had a very clever one liner, he said 'How would Nick know, the only time he came (back to St Kilda) was for free physio'.

"Which was clever, but also wrong, I sometimes went down to get tax advice from the chief financial officer."

Ratten currently works as an assistant coach at Hawthorn as head of coaching and development.

Riewoldt retired before Ratten took the reins at St Kilda, with the final years of his career played under coaches Scott Watters and Alan Richardson.