Jarryd Lyons says he has a point to prove to Gold Coast’s coaching panel after leaving the club in the off-season
It was one of the biggest surprises of the off-season. The already depleted Gold Coast let one of its best ball winners walk to their cross town rival. So why did Jarryd Lyons leave the Suns? JON RALPH looks at the extraordinary move.
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New Lion Jarryd Lyons says he has a point to prove to Gold Coast’s coaching panel after the most extraordinary summer of his football life.
Lyons provided one of the shock moments of the trade period when a Gold Coast side decimated by departures still decided to release the ball magnet to Brisbane.
The inside midfielder had played 19 games and won 137 clearances for the Suns in 2018, but despite an ankle injury that needed surgery they believed his running game was too poor to play consistently.
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Lyons not only signed a three-year deal with Brisbane, he married long-time partner Savahna and has just told his teammates they are expecting a baby boy.
This week Lyons will take on his old teammates in a practice match against Gold Coast after a flawless summer for the Lions.
Brisbane’s players have already completed up to a month of four-quarter intraclub hit-outs, adamant they can get a jump on rivals after fast-tracking their match simulation load.
“Anyone who leaves a club feels like they have got a point to prove,’’ he said.
“Not so much from the players, they didn’t see it coming either. But I guess there might be a few coaches I have a point to prove to. Footy is footy, there are no personal vendettas out there, but it would be nice to show them where I am at.
“I wouldn’t say it was insulting, almost motivating. The fact I wasn’t at my best but was still playing reasonable footy on one leg, it was probably something where I knew I had a lot more to come.
“If they didn’t see that (the move) was more about the trust Brisbane showed in me. I thought, ‘I am going to repay them’. Gold Coast didn’t kick me out, it was more my decision to leave but as soon as they didn’t shut it down I thought, ‘I am not in their plans going forward’.”
The former Adelaide extractor started his second season with Gold Coast in blazing form, kicking four goals and averaging 29 possessions in the first three rounds.
Then a bone spur injury began to impact his running, with the Suns clearly marking his cards despite having a year to run on his deal.
“I only found out three days before it actually happened. I was at my wife’s brother’s wedding on the Saturday getting ready to go to that and my manager called saying, ‘What do you think about this?’.
“On that Monday Chris Fagan and the boys came down and persuaded me to shift across and at 26, getting three years was massive security.
“We got married two days after being traded or shifting across and now we are expecting a little boy, so it’s been a busy two or three months. We thought we were pregnant and then we weren’t so we relaxed so it was a false negative and then positive.
“We found out last week it was a boy and it was nice to tell the boys about the baby when we were in Tasmania.”
Lyons admits he will never be one of the AFL’s elite runners but says Fagan is all about maximising his positives, believing he can reprise 2016’s 433-possession, 15-goal season at Adelaide.
“Fages talked about the role they wanted me to play inside. They were talking about my weapons, whereas Gold Coast were more about the weaknesses I had.
“Brisbane were happy to grow the weapons and they had a role for me so it’s what I wanted to be part of.”
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Originally published as Jarryd Lyons says he has a point to prove to Gold Coast’s coaching panel after leaving the club in the off-season
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