Eagles skipper Shannon Hurn praises ruckman Scott Lycett’s finals swansong
PORT Adelaide’s marquee off-season signing Scott Lycett left West Coast with the respect of the playing group and captain Shannon Hurn who said he understood his decision to return home after winning a premiership.
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PORT Adelaide’s marquee off-season signing Scott Lycett left West Coast with the respect of the playing group and captain Shannon Hurn who says he understands his decision to return home after winning a premiership.
Hurn praised Lycett’s maturity to perform in finals amid constant speculation surrounding his future which is now back at Alberton - from where he was drafted to the Eagles in 2010.
Lycett played in West Coast’s grand final win over Collingwood in September before the ruckman joined the Power as a free agent on a five-year deal.
“It would have been great to have him and that’s what I told Jeremy McGovern and Andrew Gaff this year as well, ‘we want ya, we want you to stay and want you to play’,” Hurn told The Advertiser.
“But we also understand that family, sometimes money plays a part in things, opportunities, so you never want to force a player to stay because they might get halfway through the year and find it really hard.
“So it was more about providing a sounding board, saying ‘while you’re here just keep doing your best, we know the contract can be a distraction for you’ and Scotty maybe found that a little bit hard at times during the year, but I thought what he did in the finals was excellent.
“I think he showed a lot of maturity because there was a lot going on, and everyone has an opinion on ‘why aren’t you staying, why haven’t you signed?’ which is really hard on a player.
“So the thing I tried to do was say ‘look you don’t have to tell me yes or no but if you want to go make sure it’s for the right reasons’ but we’re not going to judge you too much either way.
“It would be nice to keep everyone all the time, but his (Lycett) family is back here, he’s got a couple of really good mates here, so it’s understandable.
“It’s part of sport, people move around and you don’t hold grudges because in any other job like going from bank to bank, people move around.”
The 31-year-old skipper and All-Australian half-back has returned to the family farm at Angaston six weeks after leading West Coast to grand final glory on the MCG.
Last Friday he was in the Australian cricket team’s box for their one-day win over South Africa at Adelaide Oval.
Hurn was a state-level cricketer before pursuing football and developed a friendship with Australian coach Justin Langer in 2010.
“There was a bit of a mentor system at the club with people from Western Australia and I got paired with him which was great and we have stayed in touch over the years, then he came on as a board member of the club,” Hurn said.
“There was an opportunity to go in the box last week and it’s a little bit different because game day the coaches aren’t doing as much as footy.
“It’s more talking to the players and everyone has the same goals - getting better, improving their technique, being confident, trying to work through that - it’s all about player management and getting the best out of them.
“I spoke to the coaches about what they do during the week and got to speak to the playing group including the younger guys and blokes like (Aaron) Finch and (Shaun) Marsh who have been around for a while.
“It was more an observation thing about how you prepare and in cricket sometimes you play and miss, you can’t get too uptight about it, the best sportspeople think ‘oh well I didn’t get that one right so let’s focus on the next one’.”