Cochrane voiced his support for Suns coach Rodney Eade on the weekend, while having a dig at McKenna.

The boss of the Suns, who continue to struggle while fellow AFL expansion side Greater Western Sydney go from strength to strength, suggested the club erred in hiring McKenna as foundation coach.

“They made some chronic errors (at the start) … we were in a bit of a mess, to be honest, before Rodney turned up,” Cochrane told radio station SEN.

“There’s no way we should have had a junior coach.”

McKenna was sacked in 2014 and is now working as an assistant coach at the Bombers, while he played alongside Worsfold at West Coast.

Worsfold claimed after Sunday’s loss to St Kilda at Etihad Stadium that he hadn’t heard Cochrane’s comments.

When told of them, Worsfold made his thoughts about Cochrane clear but opted against biting back.

“Does he also think maybe they needed him as chairman at the start? Because he could have made all those calls,” Worsfold said of Cochrane, who joined the Suns’ board in 2014.

“He’s got great hindsight.

“But good on him, he’s doing well.”

Meanwhile, St Kilda coach Alan Richardson was pleased his side responded to the previous week’s 103-point loss to West Coast.

Richardson asked for an improvement in pressure and contested ball and the Saints delivered, kicking clear in the third quarter to defeat Essendon by 46 points.

Josh Bruce, Tim Membrey and Paddy McCartin booted a combined seven goals in the third term, six of them coming on the trot.

“We saw the game as an opportunity to get our season back on track,” Membrey said.

“Last week against West Coast clearly wasn’t the result we wanted, but this time we cracked in and just did the basics well. Contest and pressure.”

Richardson admitted he was unsure what impact the horrible performance in Perth – where the Saints totalled three goals against the Eagles – would have on the side’s confidence.

“You have a performance like that, which has the potential to undermine a bit of belief,” Richardson said.

“The guys had come off … (two) pretty strong performances.

“To then have one that hits you between the eyes … just ‘wow. Where did that come from?’… you have conversations and train in quite an aggressive manner to hopefully bounce back.”

The Saints smashed Essendon 46-23 in clearances, despite Matthew Leuenberger dominating the ruck contests.

“That was a tick,” Richardson said.

“We’ve improved (this season). Our best footy is really competitive against good teams.”

Membrey, who finished with 3.3, suggested the side’s midfielders deserved a lot of praise.

“It was a little bit ugly at the start. We got a lot of entries and just couldn’t capitalise,” he said.

“That was a bit frustrating, but it broke open in that third quarter, we got our run going and got on top.

“The mids really cracked in the whole day. They were able to get first use a lot of the time.”

-AAP