No more roaring Lyon

One of the most entertaining – and enlightening – radio interviews of the season took place last Sunday in the lead-up to the St Kilda-Carlton clash at Marvel Stadium.

It was on Triple M and it featured the Sunday Rub crew catching up with Saints coach Ross Lyon, their colleague of the past few years.

It was like a school reunion as gags and stories were exchanged.

When asked about the return of gun duo Brad Hill and Max King to the St Kilda side, Lyon quipped that they were “20 per cent of the salary cap”.

He got stuck into veteran boundary rider Michael Roberts because the closed roof at Marvel Stadium prevented him from delivering a proper weather report.

And when asked what he missed sitting in the commentary box, he said, “Yeah, coming in hungover and sleepless and (needing) a couple of bottles of Gatorade.”

Lyon was one of the rising stars of the AFL media caper last year and his work on both Triple M and Channel Nine was captivating.

He was considered and informed and his sense of fun came to the fore. He never took himself or the game especially seriously.

He was also enjoying the wheeling and dealing of the property world he had become immersed in from Monday to Friday and, reportedly, he was quite adept at it. But coaching was and is his true calling.

It is difficult to believe that his return to St Kilda was only set in motion after Brett Ratten’s brutal axing well after last season ended. Influential past players and others close to the club had been laying the foundations well before then.

Romance came into play as well.

Lyon has ties to the Brisbane Lions through his 127 games for Fitzroy – plus two for the Brisbane Bears –and to Fremantle where he coached for 184 games and eight seasons, and he has connections to Sydney, Richmond and Carlton as well, through several years as an assistant coach at each club. His only taste of premiership success was at the Swans under Paul Roos in 2005

But when he took the job at St Kilda, it was a real homecoming.

If there was a club that was the closest to his heart, he confessed, it was St Kilda, where in his first stint as coach, he led the Saints to the Grand Final twice (2009 and 2010) and was arguably a wretched leg-break bounce of the ball away from becoming just the club’s second premiership coach in both years.

Lyon was adored by many of his players. This columnist remembers being in Adelaide for the National Draft a few seasons back and watching Lyon holding court with a bunch of his former Saints in a hotel lobby. He was telling a few stories and the laughs were coming thick and fast.

To those within the game, Lyon has always been excellent company.

But it is only after his time in the media, and now back in the loving embrace of the Saints, that his true personality has emerged.

And he has clearly evolved.

The days of the ‘Saints Bubble’ have long gone. He no longer appears to be the stern, micro-manager who drove his assistants to breaking point with long hours and a laser focus to match. His approach is now more collegial and he is happy to hand much of the actual coaching and the implementation of the game-plan to his assistants.

There is certainly a feel at Moorabbin at having got the band back together with former St Kilda stars Lenny Hayes and Robert Harvey among his senior assistants, Brendon Goddard holding down a development role and his old fitness coach David Misson serving as the interim head of football.

There is an element of trust that has allowed Lyon a level of comfort and to not always have both hands on the wheel.

He has a plan for the Saints and, while they might yet play finals this year after being widely tipped for as a bottom-six club, 2023 has been about assessing his list and identifying it needs going forward.

St Kilda shapes as one of the really interesting clubs of the forthcoming off-season as Lyon rolls up his sleeves and gets to work.

And the best part of it is that the door will be open and the transparency will be there.

He is taking all of us, not just the inner sanctum at the Saints, along for the ride.

Fillet-O-Fish® McChicken®

Nickname: Rod

Tender portion of fish

Zesty tartar sauce

Melted cheese

Steamed bun

“Does things a little differently”

Nickname: Chicka

Chicken breast in tempura coating

Aussie lettuce

McChicken® sauce

Sesame seed bun

“Executes the simple things right”