Demons legend Garry Lyon turns flamethrower on AFL club

Garry Lyon has turned a flamethrower on an AFL club over a “dog’s breakfast” situation that has blown up in its face.

Footy legend Garry Lyon has turned a flamethrower on the Demons over the “dog’s breakfast” situation the club has stumbled into with Clayton Oliver.

Oliver, who is contracted until the end of 2030 with Melbourne, reportedly wanted to shift to Geelong for next season after meeting players at the farm of Cats ruckman Rhys Stanley last week.

Watch every game of the NAB AFL Women’s Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >

The Demons were widely criticised on Monday after list boss Tim Lamb said adamantly the club has never planned to trade the unsettled midfielder despite widespread reports suggesting otherwise.

Geelong list boss Andrew Mackie also declared the club’s interest in Oliver was only “fleeting”.

Leading reporter Sam McClure said on 3AW on Monday night it is still Oliver’s preference to make an immediate move to the Cats.

Oliver last week also liked an Instagram post that speculated he was moving to Geelong along with Bailey Smith and Jack Martin.

Sarah Jones, Garry Lyon and Nathan Buckley with Fox Footy. Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Fox Footy analyst Lyon said on Tuesday morning the Demons had poorly managed the situation.

“It’s been an absolute shemozzle,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.

“But in the end it would appear Clayton is going to stay. He’s got this long term contract. The upside is still significant. If he was going to go, the return would have been negligible for someone of his standing.

“I know his standing’s been diminished in the last 12 months. Some self inflicted and otherwise. But you just have to draw a line under it and get on with it.”

Melbourne chief executive Gary Pert reportedly reached out to rival clubs to assess their potential interest in Oliver, who has endured two trouble-plagued seasons.

But at the club best and fairest on Friday night, which Oliver attended, Melbourne president Brad Green was unequivocal in declaring there would be no trade.

Pert’s approaches to other clubs also came despite coach Simon Goodwin wanting to keep the four-time club best and fairest winner.

After all that it seems Clarry isn’t going anywhere. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

When asked about Pert, Lyon said he understood the club’s need to gather all the information available about the trade market – but also believes the club made a huge mistake.

“How you garner that information would appear to me to be Melbourne’s greatest mistake in this and they should be held to account for the way they went about it,” he said.

“It’s been a bit embarrassing. It’s been frustrating. The supporter base is absolutely disillusioned. But the garnering and gathering of the information to make a decision on whoever is at your football club is essential. The way they’ve gone about it has been no good and only added to what has been a really poor 18 months.”

Lyon went on to say: “Don’t get me wrong. Melbourne have made this a nightmare of an issue, but, essentially, clubs are asking questions all the time.”

He said Oliver also has to take some responsibility for why the situation has got so ugly.

Kane Cornes also labelled the Demons a “shambles”.

Speaking on AFL Trade Radio on Tuesday, Cornes said: “I just don’t believe a word he (Lamb) says” about Oliver never being up for trade.

Kane Cornes isn't buying Melbourne's handling of the Clayton Oliver trade rumours.

Oliver is contracted until 2030. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“I think we all agree it’s been a shambles, the way that this whole thing has been handled,” Leigh Montagna told Fox Footy’s Trading Day.

“The whole year for Melbourne has been a shambles, and it continues to be the case with some of the comments … it’s been a tricky situation.

“I don’t see the trade going ahead. Melbourne are going to back in Oliver, back in Petracca, back in some sort of camp over summer to get together and all buy in and fall back in love with each other.”

The Herald Sun’s Scott Gullan said: “I don’t reckon this one’s dead. There’s a week, it could go all over the place again.

“This was a fire sale from the start. It was a cultural issue, you draw a line in the sand. ‘It’s a big contract, we want to shake things up, get Melbourne going right. You’re the ones that came to us’.”

Clayton Oliver at Melbourne’s best and fairest. Picture: Mark Stewart

Lamb, Melbourne’s list boss, was defiant that Oliver was never going anywhere, despite meeting the Cats.

“Our position has never changed. We’ve never been trading Clayton and we won’t be,” Lamb said.

“There’s always conversations at this time of year and I’m not going to go into the details of who spoke to who,” he said.

“But clubs ring us, we ring clubs. It doesn’t mean that someone’s going to be traded.”

But while the Cats missed Oliver, a move for wantaway Western Bulldogs star Bailey Smith is on, with discussions having already taken place and Mackie is confident it will happen.

“We’ve had a couple of chats with (Bulldogs list boss) Sam Power. We intend to trade him in,” he said.

“We’ll see where it gets to. Hopefully, it all lands well for both clubs.“

— With NCA Newswire

Originally published as Demons legend Garry Lyon turns flamethrower on AFL club