Fremantle coach Ross Lyon slams Colin Sylvia, but remains confident Dockers in premiership hunt

IF Ross Lyon has a singular belief in football, it’s hard work.

ross lyon

IF Ross Lyon has a singular belief in football, it’s hard work.

It’s why he’s disappointed in Colin Sylvia, to put it mildly.

The one-time prized recruit has been banished to WAFL team, Peel Thunder, after failing fitness tests pre and post-Christmas, and for the third time in 12 months.

Incredibly, Sylvia was rebuked for arriving at the Dockers at the end of 2013 in a unfit state, and a year later, he’s in the same pathetic position.

He played six matches for the Dockers in 2014 and it would be a miracle if played that many games 2015.

His problem is attitude.

He had ankle surgery at the end of 2014, and after returning from the holidays he finished in the bottom four in the club’s first 3km time trial.

In context, 33-year-old Luke McParlin collapsed over the finish line and ran a personal best, as did 21 other players.

“We told him it’s not the end of the world, that it’s not ideal, that he needs to get to work,’’ Lyon said.

“And then there were hiccups at training.’’

The club sat him down. Disillusioned, it set up a clear plan for Sylvia over the Christmas break, which Sylvia not only failed miserably, but seemingly ignored.

“My understanding is he didn’t run over the break and binged,’’ Lyon said.

“On the return in the 3km, he was unable to complete or couldn’t do it.’’

Can he get back?

“Anything’s possible. Act your way in, act your way out. But is it probable? Based on the past, probably not probable. Is it possible, it’s 100 per cent possible.

“It’s up to Col from here. No-one can make anyone run or work.’’

Sylvia aside, the Dockers have worked hard this pre-season. All clubs do, of course, but when Lyon speaks football, he tries to speak facts.

Clearly, he doesn’t care about what the outside world thinks.

“We’ve written our own story for a long time at Fremantle,’’ he said.

The criticisms are obvious. Too old, out in straight sets last year, same list, can’t attack with speed like Hawthorn by foot, and Port Adelaide by legs and handball, which altogether means a tilt at a premiership has come and gone. Lyon disagrees.

Despite losing both finals last year — to Sydney and Port Adelaide — he points to the victories over Hawthorn (Round 21) and Port Adelaide (Round 23) as indications his team was around the mark.

“I’m not sitting here saying we’re perfect, we’re a long way, I don’t see a cup in the cupboard, but we played some very good football at the end of last year,’’ he said.

“We ran into some head winds with availability, that’s not an excuse, but the reality is McPharlin and Johnson are critical and Ballantyne, so there’s three All Australians, and we dominated for 50 per cent of the time.’’

Against the Swans, they couldn’t kick goals when they dominated the game in the third quarter.

“We know we need to improve and improvement starts with the pre-season,’’ Lyon said.

Fact again, the Dockers have never been fitter under Lyon.

He changed training days. It’s now Thursdays off and train Saturdays, which also gave his team the extra “legs session’’ to add to the running sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“Those Saturdays, that’s 15 days extra we’ve got into them,’’ Lyon said.

“We know we’ve got more run in us and we’re a pretty good running team anyway.

“And because they came back fitter, we’ve been able to move more quicker into game situations, we’ve hit it a lot earlier than in any of my previous coaching years.

“So, more column, but more football and more competitive footy, so we’re really optimistic.’’

Last year, Lyon said his team needed to be a two-goal better team. They weren’t, although they didn’t drop their output in the lowest scoring season since the 1968.

It meant Hawthorn remained the benchmark, three goals better than the next best team.

“Anyway you package it, the Hawks put an offensive gap on the rest of the competition,’’ he said.

How do you close the gap?

“We can try to play three talls, position differently in front of the ball, do you play with drop off, not drop off ... we had a lot of those shifts towards the back end of last year as well.

“That’s why we were happy with the footy we were playing.

“In saying that, we didn’t get it done. We went out in straight sets, we’re a pretty proud group — and so are the Cats — and we’re not thrilled with that.’’

Fact again, the Dockers last year were No. 1 contested ball, No. 2 defence and No. 7 attack.

“Keep those two and try to grow the other again and we’ll see how we go. And we won 16 games. But it’s irrelevant, the past is bullshit. We’re about growth. We have a growth mindset.’’

He has identified areas of improvement, collectively and individually, one of which will be more kick and spread in 2015 and less down the line (2014).

Asked if more spread will combat the league-wide improvement in defence, Lyon is in his element. “There’s concepts and principles,’’ he said.

Asked to explain, he said: “Everyone talks about team rules, but I’ve got five defensive principles and that’s it.’’

And concepts? “Well, strategy really. Principles is this is how you want to defend and this is how you wan to move the ball.’’

One strategy is to redeploy Chris Mayne closer to goal.

Fact again, the Dockers have the oldest playing list.

They were in 2008, too. Back then, they also paid 100 per cent of the salary cap and finished 14th.

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon led his troops off the ground after the Grand Final. Picture: Andrew Tauber

So, they reworked list. They Kept Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands, David Mundy, McPharlin and Johnson as the core and went to the draft, and after the draft concessions came in for Gold Goast and Greater Western Sydney, used the rookie list to hit up the state leagues to recruit players such as Paul Duffield, Lee Spurr, Michael Barlow and Tendai Mzungu.

“Strategically, we’ve wanted to shift into the top four age and experience because history tells us it gives you a chance,’’ Lyon said.

“It’s not by chance, it’s a strategic move.

“And then you got to break down your list. Twenty-five and under, we sit in the top four for games into players in the competition. And the teams around us are GWS, Gold Coast and Port, and who’s that headed by? Fyfe, Hill Walters ...’’

The others behind them are Hayden Crozier, Lachie Neale, Cam Sutcliffe, Spurr and Tommy Sheridan who debuted in Lyon’s first year, he said.

He anticipates Michael Apeness (tall forward) will play games this year, perhaps with Tabberner also in the forward line, and he highly rates Alex Pearce, Brady Grey and Max Duffy.

Lyon, who is contracted until the end of 2017, is about to start his fourth season in charge.

He finished sixth in 2012, runner-up in 2013 and sixth again in 2014.

Asked if he believed in premiership windows, Lyon padded it away.

“I believe in hard work,’’ he said.

Asked, then, if there was a sense of urgency with the group, he said: “I think there is some urgency with the McPharlins and Pavlichs, but Nat Fyfe wouldn’t be thinking there’s (no) McPharlin we can’t win, Stephen Hill and Nathan Fyfe are not thinking if Pavlich doesn’t play we can’t win.

“They go, next up, let’s go, get behind me. That’s our mentality.

“I saw when Robert Harvey retired at the Saints, the Saints went through the roof, because people get to develop. It happens all the time. We want to write our own story and how you do that is working hard, working smart.’’

Which clearly is not part of Sylvia’s vocabulary.

Originally published as Fremantle coach Ross Lyon slams Colin Sylvia, but remains confident Dockers in premiership hunt