Fremantle coach Ross Lyon opens up on his four Grand Final failures at the Dockers and St Kilda

THE COACH: ROSS Lyon opens up on his four Grand Final failures and why Fremantle can go all the way in 2014.

IT WAS probably a stupid question first up.

Did you review the Grand Final?

“Of course I did, no short cuts,’’ responded Ross Lyon, ever the professional.

“But there is more emotion attached to it, just the thought of doing it is not ideal — and you probably take a little bit longer to get it.”

Despite a belief Lyon is a process coach devoid of emotion, clearly he knows he has to confront the pain of the loss with the players, as well as why Fremantle lost.

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It’s why there were two parts to Lyon’s review edits.

The first largely involved the emotion of the day, including the post-game Hawthorn celebrations, which was shown to the Dockers players before they left for holidays. The second, the mechanics he called it, were shown when they returned.

“The first thing was to have a meeting with the players, check in, about the emotional fallout, how are you, about trying to re-set, gather yourselves and at a particular point of time we have to go to work again,’’ he said.

“Then when they got back, here’s some mechanics.

“The reality is on our world, in context, it’s not life or death. The sun came out, your family is there, your partners are there, but in our world, the footy world, it was a significant moment.

“We spoke about it, everyone’s going to handle it differently, there’s different personalities, you’ve got to give it meaning and move on.”

In victory as in defeat, Lyon is about the team, so yesterday _ almost five months to the day _ he wasn’t about to impart negativity on players or even reveal if he was required to deal with individuals who believed they played poorly.

Ross Lyon and his Dockers.

Hayden Ballantyne was probably in that bracket. Nathan Fyfe would rue missed shots.

“I don’t think anyone was particularly poor,” Lyon said.

“I thought we did a lot right, but when the game was up for grabs ... at the start of the third quarter we had some opportunities, and quite simply Hawthorn beat us in some one-on-ones, there were some high tackles and we kicked it back to them.

“At the end of the day, Hawthorn were better when it counted.”

And Ballantyne? “I hear everyone pointing out Hayden missing some goals, but my view is Hayden gave us a chance to win.”

Lyon is all about learning from the past to catapult into the future, and gives the impression he believes the inaccuracy discussion is a bit of furphy.

In Lyon’s four Grand Finals as coach, two stabbed him in the back because his players could not take their opportunities. Who’s really to know if, in 2009, St Kilda v Geelong, and last year, inaccurate kicking was ultimately critical. Lyon says his teams weren’t unlucky.

“No, failure is feedback, we need to get better,’’ he said.

“You get what you deserve in this game. You can’t execute, you can’t win. I don’t feel robbed, I think Hawthorn would’ve felt robbed in a way.

“I’m aware it happened,’’ he says of inaccuracy, “and I think it would’ve given us a chance, but as I said, when the game was up for grabs, the first six or seven minutes in the last quarter was a significant period for them. They went from 15 points (up) to 25 points.”

Lyon after last year’s Grand Final loss.

Asked if he would’ve done anything differently, he said: “There’s always bits and pieces, but nothing (significant) that springs to mind.’’

In Lyon’s semi-confrontational manner, he added: “I’m happy to hear about it.”

Lyon has made four Grand Finals without achieving success: Three at St Kilda and one at Fremantle. If it happened again and if this was an American sport, it would probably be coined the Lyon Curse.

Lyon said last year’s loss, and similar to the other three opportunities, was a motivating force, not debilitating one.

“My job is get to work, it fuels me to work hard and I want to improve,’’ he said.

“Do I get angry? Emotions are just feelings. Anger, happiness, it’s about what you do with them. Whatever I feel I just channel it into working.”

Lyon speaks of Hawthorn’s model of “sustained excellence”.

“That premiership was won over a three-year period. The prelim where they got beaten, the Grand Final where they got beaten and then they saluted. For two years they were the most dominant team.

‘’We’ve improved for two years and we’ve got the challenge, we need to sustain.

“I’m seeing a very enthusiastic, passionate group that on the surface hasn’t been seduced by the home-town parochialism that we’ve just been to a Grand Final.

“Clearly for the Dockers, there was significant wins and moments, but at the end of the day, we don’t want to be runners-up, it doesn’t satisfy us.

“You can live in the past and cry over spilt milk, or forge ahead and try to build something.”

Lyon said leaders like captain Matthew Pavlich, key defender Luke McParlin, ruckman Aaron Sandilands and midfield dynamo David Mundy had led the way with strong summer campaigns.

He sees improvement coming from recruits Colin Sylvia and Scott Gumbleton, and from the confidence and natural improvement of youth.

The balance between offence and defence, which was noted in the second half of last season, and the want to be more flexible with the players will define 2014.

Lyon wouldn’t buy in to the argument he didn’t play youth at St Kilda, or whether he has better kids now than he did when at Moorabbin. Suffice to say he played Sutcliffe, Spurr and Neale in the Grand Final, and Sheridan was first emergency.

“Players pick themselves,’’ he said. “Our kids are coming along pretty well.”

Nor did he agree that it seemed he played mature-bodied players as a consequence of his demanding style of football.

“I don’t know about that, I just pick the ones who can play,” he said. “AFL by definition is demanding. To borrow Denis Pagan, if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

“We’re a demanding environment, but our leaders and players like the environment because it’s theirs, they own it. Let’s be clear, I don’t set the standard at Fremantle, the players do. I just help them maintain it.”