Don’t rule out former Fremantle coach Ross Lyon as Adelaide Crows boss, says Essendon great Tim Watson
Scott Burns might be an odds-on favourite but don’t rule out axed Dockers coach Ross Lyon for the Adelaide job, says Essendon great Tim Watson, as a former Port-turned-GWS assistant considers his position.
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Most AFL pundits — and the betting markets — believe former Norwood and Collingwood star Scott Burns is a lock to become Adelaide’s next senior coach.
As the Crows’ four-man selection panel begins to ramp up its process, one betting agency has current Hawthorn assistant Burns at $1.10 to fill the vacancy left by Don Pyke who sensationally stepped down this month.
But Essendon great Tim Watson believes Ross Lyon is still a live chance, saying the axed Fremantle coach has some big fans at the Crows.
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“I had heard earlier in the piece that Scott Burns was very much in the frame,” Watson said on SEN on Thursday morning.
“According to someone I spoke to, they have not started their interviewing process yet, but there are people there who have a very strong view that they like Ross Lyon and the style of Ross Lyon.
“Don’t rule Ross Lyon out, that is what I’m saying.”
Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe was full of praise for his former mentor after he won his second Brownlow Medal on Monday night and was confident Lyon, who took the Dockers to the 2013 grand final, would return to the game.
“Our relationship’s incredibly strong, forged through some of the fiercest times over the last couple of years,” Fyfe, who played under Lyon for almost eight full seasons, said.
“He and his wife Kirsty are going to play a role in my life for many years to come.
“You won’t be able to replace a Ross Lyon — he’ll be back in footy circles in years to come, I’m sure, because he’s so valuable to the game.”
GWS and former Port assistant Matthew Nicks is another outsider who has been linked to the Crows role.
The former West Adelaide and Sydney player said while senior coaching was his “ultimate goal”, he would see how Saturday’s grand final played out before he gave a move back to Adelaide any consideration.
“There’s no hiding from the fact I want to senior coach, and when the right opportunity comes I will put my name up for it,” Nicks told SEN SA.
“This one’s a really tough one. I have huge respect for the Adelaide footy club, it’s my home town. There’s a lot of things that point to that I’d love to talk to the club. But at this stage I haven’t spoken to them and I am very much entrenched in what we are doing up here and I am in the first year of a three-year contract after Leon Cameron and Wayne Campbell asked me to work with them.”
The Crows, who had Pyke walk with two years left on his contract, are going through an external review and look to be moving into a rebuilding phase, with stalwarts including Sam Jacobs, Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins destined to switch clubs over the summer.
Former Crows player and assistant coach James Podsiadly, four-time Olympian and basketball coach Phil Smyth, Crows CEO Andrew Fagan and football director and board member Mark Ricciuto are on the selection panel.