Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans and Damien Hardwick hit back at Ross Lyon for ‘AFL nepo baby’ comment

Just hours after Damien Hardwick hit back, Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans has doubled down on his club’s response to Ross Lyon’s ‘AFL nepo baby’ comment – and he’s not happy.

A war of words has erupted between Gold Coast and St Kilda after Ross Lyon referred to the expansion club as the AFL’s “nepo baby”.

Speaking on Fox Footy in a pre-game interview, the St Kilda coach was asked how his side would handle the Suns’ impressive depth that has lifted the club to its best start to a season in its history.

“I’m a little bit concerned. They’re chock full of talent aren’t they. The AFL’s nepo baby,” Lyon said.

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick didn’t hold back when asked for his response to the comments in his post-match press conference.

Hardwick suggested the Saints should be concerned with looking after “their own backyard” after a disappointing crowd of just 13,486 people showed up to Marvel Stadium for the St Kilda home game.

“It’s a little bit disrespectful I think,” he said.

“Trust me I’ve been at Richmond and have come to the Gold Coast.

“We don’t get a lot.

“What St Kilda should do is make sure they focus on their own backyard instead of trying to bring everyone else down.

“They had 13,000 here today.

“We’ll just focus on Gold Coast, they should focus on themselves.”

St Kilda has been vocal about the AFL’s northern academies in the past, with president Andrew Bassat labelling the system as “rubbish”.

In Sunday’s win, the Suns had nine academy graduates in the side and they are expected to win big again in November’s draft, with first-round prospects Zeke Uwland, Dylan Patterson and Beau Addinsall all aligned to the club.

Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans crossed paths with St Kilda CEO Carl Dilena at Marvel Stadium on Sunday night where the two briefly discussed the comments.

“I was walking along with him for 20 or 30 metres,” Evans said.

“I’m not sure if he had heard the comments by that stage. I told him we thought they were offensive. He didn’t offer up much at that point in time. We don’t really care.

“We get a lot of things said about us, as does every club. We aren’t so worried about that. But this seemed like a whinge that was out of order and we want to stand up for our club.”

Damien Hardwick. Picture: Michael Klein

Ross Lyon. Picture: Michael Klein

Like his coach, Evans was fuming over the comments.

“I thought the comments were offensive and out of order,” he told SEN.

“Offensive in that the word (nepotism) implies corruption and favouritism. That really stabs at the club’s hard work over a lot of years. We haven’t always had the best history at stuff.

“We lost a lot of players, we had to rebuild, we knew we were going to reset through the draft.

“There was a lot of hard work to get to a position where we finally at some wins at the front end of the season and I think it would be like saying, Ross is an outstanding coach and St Kilda have had some good moments in their history, grand final in 2011 – it would be like me getting up saying ‘the only reason they have made the grand final is because they were gifted (Nick) Riewoldt and (Luke) Ball and (Justin) Koschitzke’.

“There is so much work and effort that goes into getting to that stage. Imagine belittling the club that it was just gifted to them.

“We found it offensive and out of order. It is unusual in a pre-game interview. It is hard to see that those words would just fall out at that particular time. We didn’t like it.”

Sunday’s crowd was the lowest for a St Kilda home game at the venue in the club’s history.

Lyon was quizzed on the turnout after the match.

“Timeslot, interstate (club), low membership following of an expansion club,” he said.

“Our performance against West Coast the week before.

“It all goes into the melting pot.”