Fremantle coach Ross Lyon delivers Nick Riewoldt tribute

ON a day of tributes for retiring St Kilda star Nick Riewoldt, it was his former coach Ross Lyon who produced something out of character.

Ross Lyon and captain Nick Riewoldt following the 2010 AFL Grand Final.

IT takes something special to lure Fremantle coach Ross Lyon to social media.

The retirement of Nick Riewoldt certainly did that, as Lyon took to Twitter to applaud the St Kilda star on a fine career.

Great player even better person #ThanksRooey

— Ross Lyon (@RealRossLyon) July 31, 2017

Riewoldt enjoyed arguably the most success in his career under Lyon. The Saints made back to back Grand Finals under the now Freo leader. Heartbreaking though was the fact that they were beaten by Geelong by just 12 points, before following that up with a draw against Collingwood the following year. St Kilda would then go down in the replay.

An analysis of Lyon’s twitter habits is entertaining viewing.

Lyon doesn’t mind a spray and given the platform is used by many to do exactly that, it’s unusual to see the Fremantle boss has only tweeted four times since opening his account in February 2013.

His last tweet since the Riewoldt tribute was in December last year, which was a bizarre promotion for Rixx Eyewear. Lyon shared a photo of himself in sunglasses, tweeting “Ho Ho Ho, Merry RIXXmas everyone”.

ho ho ho - merry RIXXmas everyone 😎 pic.twitter.com/o3EeZaGvpO

— Ross Lyon (@RealRossLyon) December 22, 2016

The Dockers coach has certainly shown he is a fan of Riewoldt with his heartfelt tribute, but Lyon does not follow the St Kilda man on Twitter.

In fact he only follows two accounts in total — his club, the Fremantle Dockers and former star Matthew Pavlich.

He did follow a third account once upon a time, the AFL Player’s Association, but he has since unfollowed them.

He has only tweeted four times since 2013, and has 5,533 followers — quite impressive numbers considering the productivity.

Lyon previously used social media to celebrate his contract extension with the Dockers in March 2016, telling fans to prepare for him to lead the charge until 2020.

Strap yourselves in

— Ross Lyon (@RealRossLyon) March 3, 2016

That prompted some hilarious responses at the time.

Geelong Cats star Patrick Dangerfield tweeted “I play for an opposition side but I’m strapping in Ross” in reply, using the hashtag #rossisboss, while the official AFL twitter account asked if Lyon could follow them — something he has so far failed to do.

Lyon opened his Twitter account with a tweet telling all to “watch this space”, then waited over three years to deliver his next tweet.

Dockers head coach Ross Lyon walks to the rooms.

AFL clubs have been known to run accounts for their coaches and perhaps someone at the Dockers forgot the password, explaining the long absences. Or maybe we’re over analysing the whole thing.

LYON SHUTS DOWN DARCY

AFL legend Garry Lyon has hit out at Channel Seven commentator Luke Darcy for his comments on Hawthorn’s recent resurgence.

Darcy feels the change in form is credited to the natural progression of its young players, rather than coach Alastair Clarkson’s tactical nous.

“I think sometimes the masterful wizardry, the change of game plan and he’s got a new web going and he’s adjusted all that, I think there is a lot of myth in that,” Darcy told Seven’s Talking Footy.

“That stuff evolves, it is not on a whiteboard. Those things morph organically as the year goes on.”

But Lyon could not disagree more with the former Western Bulldogs player’s assessment, saying Clarkson deserves all the credit for Hawthorn losing just one of its past six matches.

“He (Darcy) has lost the plot,” Lyon told SEN Radio.

“I showed some vision last night that showed 12 blokes lined up in eight metre spaces. That just organically happened did it?”

Originally published as Fremantle coach Ross Lyon delivers Nick Riewoldt tribute