By Jon Pierik and Michael Gleeson
It was typical Ross Lyon. Provocative, delivered with a knowing grin, and a not so subtle amount of deflection.
Talking to Fox Footy as St Kilda warmed up for Sunday’s match against Gold Coast, the Saints coach considered the task ahead and grinned as he assessed the opposition.
Not so sunny days: Ross Lyon has taken a swipe at Gold Coast, prompting the Suns to respond in kind.Credit: Getty Images
“I’m a bit concerned. Chock-full of talent, aren’t they? The AFL nepo baby,” Lyon said, prompting a surprised glance at the camera from interviewer Sarah Jones. “They’re really a go-forward team, straight lines, predictable … ” he continued, detailing how the Saints would have to combat the Suns’ runners and give their own forwards a chance against a Gold Coast team sitting third on the ladder.
The subtext was that the Suns, birthed and raised by the AFL, had been gifted all sorts of advantages by their parents (the league), including access to draft talent.
Lyon’s remark also sought to set up an alibi for the Saints, who went on to lose by 19 points.
His comments did not go down well with the Suns.
Coach Damien Hardwick told Lyon to worry about his own team, and why only 13,000 Saints fans turned up to Marvel Stadium to watch them.
On Monday, Suns chief executive Mark Evans picked up the cudgels, defending his club on radio against the accusation his club was the recipient of the AFL’s draft largesse in their determination to make the Gold Coast Suns a success.
Evans pointed to the Saints’ grand finals and wondered if they were not on the back of helpful draft access, securing Nick Riewoldt, Justin Koschitzke and Luke Ball.
The Saints did not want to publicly endorse Lyon’s provocative nickname on Monday – though he was only echoing similar public comments from club president Andrew Bassat in his speech at the club’s best and fairest count last year and again to this masthead in February. Privately, they remain in lockstep with Lyon. They are infuriated at perceived flaws in the national draft and, in particular, the denial of access to so much of the draft pool because of the priority access given to the four northern clubs through the northern academies.
So was Ross right? Are the Suns nepo babies?
A nepo baby is a person who gains success or opportunities through familial connections, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. In the entertainment industry, it’s often used to describe the child of a famous or successful parent.
The Suns, and Greater Western Sydney for that matter, are AFL inventions. The rationale for creating the clubs was to harness the growing markets of western Sydney and south-east Queensland. The AFL has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the expansions. So to that extent, yep, they are nepo babies.
Are they chock-full of talent? Yes, they have had enviable access to early draft picks. But it’s also true that their leading goalkickers this year are Ben King, twin brother of St Kilda’s Max whom the Saints got with pick four in the 2018 draft (the Suns got Ben with pick six), and Ben Long, the player the Suns recruited from St Kilda for a second round pick in 2022, which the Saints used on the now delisted Olli Hotton.
Ross has form
Earlier this year, Lyon seriously irritated the Crows when, before their first round match, he gave Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks a drive-by, offering that Nicks was under pressure entering his sixth season without playing finals. It was a rare break in coaching collegiality, and not one that the Crows appreciated.
What is it about the Suns that has the Saints upset?
The Saints are trying to rebuild their list and are frustrated by a system they believe favours the newby clubs, while established clubs are taken for granted, and can’t access the best players.
The problem, as the Saints see it, is the number of players already tied to other clubs through academies, meaning the pool of freely available talent in this year’s draft, in particular, is especially poor.
In the 2023 national draft, the Suns secured four players from their academy – Jed Walter, Ethan Read, Jake Rogers and Will Graham. The Suns traded intelligently to ensure they had the points to match rival bids. The Read bid, in particular, raised eyebrows; the Suns effectively paid two late second-round picks for a top 10 player. Overall, the Suns were able to turn what initially were two first-round picks [they had picks four and 22] into four.
Last year, the Suns took academy product Leo Lombard at No.9 in the national draft, one spot behind the Saints’ first pick, Tobie Travaglia. And this year the Suns have access to impressive academy products Zeke Uwland, Beau Addinsall, and Dylan Patterson. The hard-running Uwland, who has shone at half-back and on a wing, is a possible No.1 selection. Jai Murray, Cooper Collins, Addinsall and Max Hudson are also in contention.
The Suns also have access to Kalani White, the son of former Melbourne ruckman Jeff White, under academy rules. White has yet to determine where he wants to play next year, but other clubs assume he will go to the Demons.
The AFL’s draft value index has been toughened to make clubs pay closer to market value for players and thus make it more difficult for clubs to take multiple academy players. Some clubs want this bidding system tightened further still, particularly for the top teams.
Are the northern academies unfair?
The young Suns and Giants will have no access to father-son players for years, unlike the rest of the competition. They are in non-traditional states, have to travel and fight enormous structural disadvantages. The northern academies are their one key free kick.
Unfortunately for the Saints, their ex-players are yet to yield offspring of the sort of elite talent that has benefited Geelong and Collingwood, in particular.
The AFL and northern clubs argue that to develop the code in new markets you have to incentivise those clubs to produce local talent.
The AFL needs a return on investment, so demands success for these new clubs. That must come at a cost, and that cost, the Saints would say, is them.
What about the Saints’ advantages?
The Suns would say the Saints have a structural advantage in having been a foundation club. But for a club with a more than 125-year history and just one flag, the Saints can also reflect on their own management decisions: pulling out of Tasmania; moving to Seaford then back to Moorabbin; being funded by the AFL to a level beyond other Victorian clubs; poor drafting decisions.
The Saints received $26.1 million in AFL funding in 2024, behind only North Melbourne ($26.4 million) among Victorian clubs.
Gold Coast and GWS both received more than $34 million in AFL funding in 2024, and even the Brisbane Lions received $30 million.
St Kilda had clearly the highest level of variable funding among Victorian clubs from 2012 until 2021, despite a supporter base that has historically been larger than North Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne.
The Giants topped the AFL funding ladder in the decade to 2021, followed by the Suns, the Lions and St Kilda.
What about the other academies?
The northern academies are the main focus of the Saints’ ire , but the Next Generation Academies are perceived as a bigger problem.
The remaining AFL clubs, outside of the four northern clubs, have access to talented players from non-traditional backgrounds in certain allocated zones.
But critics of the NGAs say qualifying rules are rubbery, access to players generous, and that the system has led to a thoroughly compromised draft.
Having players tied to northern academies and NGAs means more than half the best players in this year’s draft will be removed from the general draft pool.
So, the Saints are trying to rebuild through the draft in a period when access to talent has never been more restricted.
Still, the Saints have had at least one academy win. In 2023 West Coast was frustrated to miss out on Lance Collard, who had been in their NGA. He was taken by St Kilda with their second round pick, selection 28. Under the NGA system as it was then, teams could not match bids on one of their tied NGA prospects inside the top 40 in the draft.
The Saints this year have access to talented NGA prospect Kye Fincher.
Why is St Kilda splashing the cash on players?
St Kilda have struggled to land big name players. They have offered Blues ruckman Tom De Koning a seven-year deal at $1.7 million a year, made a multi-year, $1 million per season offer to GWS defender Leek Aleer, and have waved their cheque-book at bayside boy Miles Bergman to move home from Port Adelaide.
The Saints justify the big numbers on the basis that they have to pay overs to attract elite talent. And if they can’t access elite players in the draft, they have do it with cash. It’s a fair point. Whether that is the Suns’ fault is another matter.
What now?
No doubt, the Saints will keep fighting in the hope the AFL tightens access to the northern academies. The Saints will continue to do what they can to rebuild through the national draft and via recruiting.
The Suns, meanwhile, will defend their patch, and argue it’s a bit rich for the Saints to argue a club that has yet to make the finals is holding them back. They will continue to harvest the talent in their backyard in the hope it leads to a breakthrough premiership, which would be a first not only for the AFL but for any sport on the Gold Coast. Should they do it we can guarantee the Saints won’t be cheering.
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