‘This is bulls***’: Why Ross Lyon really walked out on St Kilda

St Kilda is reportedly set to jump back into bed with Ross Lyon with new details emerging why the initial break-up got so messy.

10/09/2011 SPORT: 2011 Elimination Final. St Kilda v Sydney Swans. Etihad Stadium. Ross Lyon

St Kilda and Ross Lyon are looming as either the fairytale football romance of our time — or a complete trainwreck.

The drums are beating louder by the day that the Saints are set to officially reach out to the former Fremantle mentor as the club continues to reel from the outcry that has surrounded the sacking of Brett Ratten.

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Multiple reports have suggested the club wants Lyon in the hot seat, despite chief executive Simon Lethlean and chairman Andrew Bassat on Friday insisting they had not had any contact with Lyon. Channel 7’s Tom Browne has reported the club could announce Lyon as its next head coach as early as this week.

Landing Lyon would be divisive news for the club, which has been widely condemned for the brutal nature of its sacking of Ratten after Bassat just months ago spoke glowingly of Ratten’s ability to lead the club in the future.

Lyon famously walked out on the club 12 years ago in an explosive divorce that saw him leave with a year still to sun on his contract.

The infamous saga included months of messy contract negotiations which ultimately resulted in the 55-year-old becoming disgruntled at the lack of support he claims to have received from the club’s senior powerbrokers.

Lyon’s recent comments explaining why he left the club are now back making headlines with the rift appearing to be mended in extraordinary circumstances.

The veteran coach said on Triple M in August he felt the club had “turned on him” at the time when a contract offer was taken off the table.

Ross Lyon in the red, black and white.

He said his wife Kirsten was left incredulous after one meeting with the coach’s management and left the room, saying: “This is bulls***”.

Lyon famously accepted a blockbuster $3.2 million, four-year deal with Fremantle after feeling betrayed when a story leaked about his refusal to accept a contract offer from the club.

“I had committed in my head to St Kilda without an offer and there was a lot of noise that Melbourne were interested in me,” Lyon said.

“I had a year to go (on my contract), we couldn’t come to terms and it had been going all year.”

He said a change of management soon uncovered that there was a clause written in to the contract he was on, which would allow him to leave with just three-months’ notice.

He said Fremantle approached him shortly after upon learning about the clause, which essentially made Lyon a free agent.

“Next minute it was in the paper. Don’t know how it got there. And that’s how Fremantle (got wind),” he said.

“(Fremantle CEO) Steve Rosich said I want to come to your house. I said I am not going anywhere. I was coaching St Kilda.

“But he came to my house and went through it. I dropped him back at the Rialto (Hotel) and said, ‘Thanks but no thanks’.

“Then we went and lost the first final. We lost and still hadn’t come to terms and Rosich rang again. He said, ‘I am coming to town’, and I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I am fine, I am not interested’.

“Negotiations with St Kilda were breaking down, they were going nowhere. And Melbourne was in the background and it was coming through Paul Roos and Garry Lyon.”

He said there were confusing rumours at the time about interest from rival clubs and it took a toll on wife Kirsten during a meeting with his agent Craig Kelly.

“I had a meeting with Craig Kelly. I asked Craig and he said, “(Melbourne) have got no interest,” he said.

Ross the boss. Picture: George Salpigtidis.

“He said, ‘No one has got any interest’, and we knew it wasn’t quite the truth, me and my wife.

“(Craig) said, ‘Don’t worry about it, do the 12 months and we will get you to GWS or somewhere else’. I went, ‘Yep, no problem’, and walked out. And my wife went, ‘This is bullshit’. I said, ‘Relax, it’s all good, that is what I am going to do’.

“So there was all this noise about Melbourne and I drove down to see (St Kilda CEO) Michael (Nettlefold) and this is the bit not many know and hopefully Michael remembers this.

“I said, ‘I am not going to accept what you have put there, I am going to do my 12 months’.

“And he said, ‘Ross, I don’t think we can do that’. I said, ‘What do you mean?’.

“And he said, ‘No’.”

He said the partnership fell apart completely the following day when the contract stand-off was leaked to media outlets, painting Lyon as being greedy for refusing to accept the new deal put on the table.

“And so then that night there were articles in the Herald Sun and Age saying ‘Ross is being greedy, Ross has been offered $800,000,’ Lyon recalled.

“I flipped out. And I rang Craig Kelly in the morning and said, ‘They can’t be trusted, I have had enough, I am out. I would rather dig ditches …’

“So I went to my lawyer and said, ‘I am done here’, and that’s when an offer came in (from St Kilda).

“I said, ‘I have had a gutful, I have been turned on, so in my head I am done’.

“Steve (Rosich) took my call and said we will come back to you with an offer at 6am tomorrow.

“It was fully guaranteed. And then the St Kilda offer came in but mentally I was out because of what had occurred. That is what occurred.

“And I rang Michael Nettlefold and said, ‘I am coming down to see you’.

“They had a board meeting (to approve Lyon’s three-year contract extension). He said, ‘What’s it about?’.

“I said, ‘It’s not good’. So I walked down, I had a letter, I said I am exercising my option. He said, ‘Can we talk about this’. I said, “I am done”. And I walked out and that was it. That is the full story.”

The story now has another new chapter with figures at the club identifying Lyon as the perfect option to add a degree of ruthlessness to its coaching program after Bassat last week said the club needed to shift its culture away from mid-table mediocrity.

Leading journalist Damian Barrett said on Monday morning there are senior St Kilda powerbrokers who view Lyon with the same reverence that Essendon figures have for James Hird.

“The obsession some people at St Kilda have over Ross Lyon is cult like,” Barrett told AFL Daily.

“Those people, now that they’ve got that opening, are doing everything they can to convince the club powerbrokers to go down that path.”

He went on to say: “We know why he walked out, that he wasn’t feeling supported and he did have that offer to join Fremantle.

“Now he’s going to walk back in.”

AFL Daily host Nat Edwards said the situation is like hooking up with an “ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend”, declaring “it never works out well”.

Originally published as ‘This is bulls***’: Why Ross Lyon really walked out on St Kilda