Sacked Fremantle coach Ross Lyon believed he had no choice but to leave St Kilda

Sacked Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has opened up on his acrimonious 2011 departure from St Kilda. While some accused him of “duplicity and deceit”, Lyon felt he had no choice but to leave the Saints.

Ross Lyon reveals why he felt he had no choice but to join the Dockers.

Sacked Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has lifted the lid on his shock 2011 defection from St Kilda, saying the Saints left him with no choice but to leave.

Lyon was accused of “duplicity and deceit” after signing a deal with the Dockers behind the back of AFL super agent Craig Kelly because Kelly’s company, TLA, also looked after the affairs of then Fremantle coach Mark Harvey.

But Lyon has revealed how he sought repeated assurances from the Saints to be paid out in full — rather than a mandatory three-month settlement — if they decided to move on him.

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Ross Lyon went behind the back of his agent to leave the Saints in 2011.

Explaining the blindsiding of TLA for the first time, Lyon said his previous manager had inserted a clause into his contract giving him the right to give notice if another job offer came up.

Lyon said he had shifted to TLA on the advice of his friend, Stephen Silvagni.

“Fremantle reached out and I said, ‘I’m not interested’ but then some other things happened at the end of the year,” Lyon told the You Cannot Be Serious with Sam, Mike and Don podcast.

“I remember Ned (Kelly), TLA, they were like, ‘Mate, just do the year (2012) and then we’ll put you somewhere’.

“And I was like, ‘Mate, I’ve got three young kids, I’ve got a responsibility’. And I said, ‘Are there any other clubs interested in me? And they go, ‘No’.

“I knew that Fremantle had reached out and I'd shut them down.

“My wife said, ‘This is bullshit, we’re going in to see the lawyer’. So we went to see my lawyer and he said, ‘You’ve got a clause that you can execute’.

“And I said, ‘Well, this club (Fremantle) is really keen, I’ve told them ‘No’ and from there it was done in 48 hours.

Ross Lyon has opened up on why he left the Saints.

“So my view was … really I’d been to two Grand Finals, finals series and still couldn’t get a guarantee at St Kilda and I was like, well, ‘What do I have to do there?’

“So I was like, this isn’t looking good, I need to secure my future.

“Nobody has really heard all of that and I’ve got it all written down.”

Journalist Gerard Whateley wrote at the time on the ABC website: “Ross Lyon’s defection from St Kilda to the helm of Fremantle will stand as the low point on a football landscape riddled with dishonesty and treachery.

“He jilted the club that trusted him … he left without a word to his players — a group he had driven, maniacally at times, into a bubble that might have been entirely unhealthy in the quest for the ultimate.

“Whatever honour Lyon had collected through an industrious and earnest coaching career was shed before he boarded the plane across the country.”

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Lyon, 53, also revealed he had an unofficial approach from Melbourne in 2011.

He said that he doubted he would ever coach again.

“I’ve had no thought to coaching. (Adelaide football director) Mark Ricciuto reached out just to have a chat … that was ages ago, around September, and I said ‘Look I'm not interested’.

“It was very informal.

“As we sit here today I think it is more unlikely than likely.”

Asked hypothetically to choose a team he’d want to be coaching this season other than Richmond, Lyon nominated Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood.

But he declined to shed light on the sexual harassment allegations levelled against him by a female Fremantle staffer which surfaced towards the end of his time at the club.

“As I said at the time, I was really saddened that the club, my family and myself, everyone got swept up in that,” Lyon said.

“There was a Workcover claim and all parties have requested strict privacy.

“I’m not going into the details … and I’m not in a position to comment any further.”

Lyon said he was hopeful troubled Dockers forward Jesse Hogan, who has taken a leave of absence from the club, would play AFL at some stage this season.

Originally published as Sacked Fremantle coach Ross Lyon believed he had no choice but to leave St Kilda