AFL: Ross Lyon’s return to St Kilda nothing if not intriguing in 2023
The players have already been warned about what to expect with Ross Lyon. Leave anything in the locker and you won’t get a seat on the Moorabbin bus route. Tickets please!
AFL
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Leigh Montagna sent Ross Lyon a cheeky text message after his former coach was parachuted back into the St Kilda coaching role in late October.
It came more than 4000 days after Lyon had shocked the football world by defecting to Fremantle and three years after he has been sacked by the Dockers.
“I did joke with him (after Lyon was appointed), I texted him saying: ‘How many losses until we see the Old Ross back,” Montagna told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“He wrote back, saying: ‘Probably quarter-time in the (first) pre-season game’.”
It was lighthearted banter between two close friends who have ridden the dizzying highs and gut-wrenching lows of the AFL rollercoaster.
But in what looms as a season full of AFL coaching comebacks, the text contained a theme everyone seems to be asking.
What’s Ross Lyon 2.0 going to look like?
Of all the AFL storylines heading into 2023, it’s hard to think of anything more intriguing than Lyon reuniting with St Kilda.
Will he be the same fiercely driven, combative, ruthless coach who enveloped his St Kilda players in a “bubble”, giving little oxygen to anything or anyone outside it?
Or has the three years he has spent out of AFL coaching, immersed in television and radio roles, as well as a new career in property, mellowed his outlook?
Not even the man himself knows the answer yet.
Nor do the next generation of Saints players who were busily contacting Lyon’s former charges when he took over after Brett Ratten’s sacking, eager for a crash course on what to expect.
The answer back from Ross’ former players was invariably the same: Give everything you have got, and you will be right. Leave anything in the locker and expect to be challenged like never before.
As former Saints chief executive Archie Fraser, who played a leading role in appointing Lyon the first time in late 2006, said, “this is going to be a live miniseries we are all going to be glued to.”
“I think he feels like has got a bit of unfinished business, and I would rather have Ross Lyon with a drive to complete something, than try someone fresh again.
“Ross … with a chip on his shoulder … I reckon that’s a great thing.”
Grant Thomas, whose own sacking after the 2006 season led to Lyon’s first appointment, says Ratten’s shock departure with two years on a contract was the most brutal decision the club had made in years. And while he felt for Ratten, he agreed wholeheartedly with the decision.
“We’re not relevant yet (as a club),” Thomas said. “It has actually put us on the bus towards relevancy, but that is still a long way into the distance.
“You can sit wherever you want as long as everyone is on the bus.
“But I’m certain that if anyone stands in the way of the bus, Ross will just run them over.”
THE ENIGMA
Lyon is a complex character not easily definable, according to his former Footy Classified colleague Eddie McGuire.
McGuire has known him since Lyon was a knockabout kid from Reservoir making his way as a tough Fitzroy footballer in the late 1980s.
Asked if he believed the coaching fire burned in Lyon throughout his stint on Footy Classified, McGuire said: “It’s complex, a bit like the man himself.”
Lyon can be caring and comforting to those close to him, yet sometimes caustic and cutting to anyone standing in his team’s or his club’s pathway.
Take the week of the 2010 grand final. Driving home from the grand final edition of The Footy Show, Lyon caught a vision in his headlines. A man was sitting on the kerb with his head in hands, seemingly distraught about his life.
The easy thing would have been to drive on. Instead, Lyon pulled his car over and consoled the man for the better part of an hour before help arrived.
More than 40 hours later, after his team had fought out an epic draw with Collingwood, an exhausted Lyon was barking invectives across the dressing rooms, furious his counterpart Mick Malthouse had been allowed to conduct the first press conference.
He can be ice-cool at times, ‘retiring’ three players without their knowledge in the rooms after his last game as coach in 2011, knowing secretly he too wouldn’t be there the next time the Saints played.
Yet the loyalty he garnered from the majority of his players is as strong as almost any other modern coach.
Fraser said: “If you remember the situation, he took over from Thommo (Grant Thomas) and we all know the loyalty the players had for Thommo at the time.
“Ross almost took over in a hostile situation. It wasn’t the easiest of transitions. But he did it, and the players ended up loving him. I am sure it will be the same this time around.”
WAS HE ALWAYS DESTINED TO COACH AGAIN?
Ross Lyon started out as a $2000 part-time coach working for an hour or two on Tuesdays at Richmond under Robert Walls in 1996; now he is again one of the highest paid coaches in the game.
Money wasn’t the reason he turned his back on a role with Wizel Property Group, as well as media roles with Channel 9 and Triple M.
His urge to coach and chase that elusive premiership dream was about unfinished business, even though money has had to be a consideration for him ever since he lost a seven-figure sum in an investment that turned sour during the 2007 global financial crisis.
His return almost came at Carlton last year. He was initially feted to the point when many close to him felt he had the job.
“I think he would have taken the Carlton job,” McGuire said. “But it never quite got to that stage.”
Then, the narrative changed.
Lyon sensationally pulled out of the Blues’ coaching race, believing that a confidentially settled sexual harassment claim from his Fremantle days in 2018 was being used as a smear against him.
He showed rare emotion on Footy Classified, saying: “It needs to stop here … I’m disappointed in the timing of it. What I can say, and I said at the time when I addressed things in Fremantle, the duress and the hurt that a lot of parties were feeling, I felt terrible.
“There was a respectful and confidential resolution reached and designed to protect all parties.”
Michael Voss won the job; Lyon said the door may have been closed on his coaching career.
It hadn’t.
Ratten’s sacking less than 100 days after he had been reappointed bashed that door ajar again. And this time Lyon was happy to charge right back in.
MEDIA STREET
Lyon’s exchange with 3AW’s Shane McInnes after the Dockers’ 2013 qualifying final win over Geelong was one of footy’s most famous press conferences.
His “You’re Quite Brilliant, Shane” comment ended up being the name of his tactical segment alongside Matthew Lloyd on Footy Classified.
His first beef with the media went back to his Fitzroy playing days when an article in the Herald newspaper suggested he was standing out of footy for a season in order to join his former coach Robert Walls at Carlton.
He was nursing a serious groin injury and back issue, but then Lions coach David Parkin had a showdown with Lyon at the family’s Reservoir home.
Nine years ago, Parkin told this reporter: “I was going there to confront him about supposedly going to Carlton because I knew Robert Walls was talking to him. There was no doubt they were, but I took him at his word. He said he would be back when he was ready.”
True to his word, Lyon returned to Fitzroy the following year, but his frustration with the media bubbled away.
“He was always sledgehammer honest,” McGuire recalls Lyon the player, who was nicknamed ‘Whispering Death’ by teammates for his ability to hit the contest with gusto.
“If you got in between him and the ball, he would clean you up as soon as look at you. It was like it was with Ted Whitten … he would clean you up then drive you to hospital.”
“That’s why he was so good as a coach and in recent times why he’s been so good in the media. The insight he gave us in the media over the past few years has been amazing.
“He was fascinated in seeing how we went about getting the stories. He said: ‘I’ve been in this game all my life and I didn’t realise what happened’. He was astounded by the sources and seemed to have a new appreciation for the media.
“I will be fascinated to see how he goes about it. If they (St Kilda) lose the first few games, does he go back to ‘You’re Quite Brilliant Shane?”
DEFENDING ROSS
Lyon came so close to premiership glory as a coach that he could almost touch it. A toe-poke one year (2009) and the bounce of a ball (2010) proved the cruel finale in successive grand finals.
Add to that some inaccurate kicking at goal during the third term of the 2013 grand final, and Fremantle’s empty trophy cabinet might have a cup of their own.
Despite how close Lyon came at both St Kilda, and Fremantle, he has been lampooned by some for not being willing enough to add some attack to his maniacally defensive game plan.
Some of his past players bristle at criticism that his teams were too focused on defence that the imbalance left them falling short in grand finals.
They cite 2009 – when Lyon’s Saints won 19 straight games in the home-and-away season – as the perfect antidote to those ‘too defensive claims’.
St Kilda ranked No. 4 in terms of points for, with a percentage of 155.7.
Montagna believes we will see modifications to Lyon’s famed defensive strategies.
“All year doing Triple M (radio with Ross), he was big on how much the ‘stand on the mark’ rule had changed the game,” he said. “He is as aware as anyone of this and will utilise it.”
“He is smart enough to understand where the game is at … he has kept a close eye on it.”
Thomas has always admired Lyon, even if he hasn’t always agreed with his brand.
“I thought he should have gotten more from the talented group he had, but I am sure he has learnt from that,” Thomas said.
“I might have a bottle of red wine with Ross at some point, debating his balance between offence and defence. But there is no doubt he is one of the best coaches in the competition.”
Fraser is confident he will be as cutting edge in pushing boundaries as he was in the past.
“I think the beast that comes back to St Kilda is somebody who has probably got a bit more empathy, will still be demanding and will aim to get the best out of every player that plays for him,” Fraser said.
McGuire added: “What he has said is that he is not going to be in the weeds as much. I think he has realised how many cogs there are within the wheels and engines of the football world now.”
Lyon confirmed as much when he addressed a St Kilda past players’ gathering. He explained to them he would be focused on footy alone, and not the other things happening around the club, as he had done when he first walked into the club for his first stint as coach.
ASSISTANTS
Montagna was surprised that some eyebrows were raised when St Kilda past greats Lenny Hayes, Robert Harvey and Brendon Goddard became a part of Lyon’s coaching panel.
“Geelong brought back James Kelly, Harry Taylor and Matty Egan (last season) and that real Geelong flavour helped them to win a flag,” Montagna said.
“St Kilda’s version is Hayes, Harvey and Goddard and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you are bringing back the right people.”
Thomas agrees: “I don’t know if Rob, Lenny and BJ are the three best available people, but their understanding, empathy, love and commitment to the club would be unparalleled.”
“If it is good enough for Ross, then it is good enough for me.”
Fraser added: “I think St Kilda needs people who have lived through that recent disappointment. I reckon having lived through it, there is no one better than Lenny, Robert Harvey and BJ.”
McGuire said: “I love it. Get the best people and if the best people have their heart and soul invested in the place, it cannot be a bad thing.”
HOW QUICKLY CAN THE SAINTS BOUNCE BACK?
St Kilda’s 2023 task became harder with news this week that Max King will miss the bulk of the season after being forced to undergo a shoulder reconstruction.
But Fraser is “optimistic” about how things can pan out in the first year.
“Other clubs who perhaps thought that the four points against St Kilda might not be so tough might have to start thinking again,” Fraser said.
While Thomas says list management remains a huge concern for him, he loves the boldness of Lyon’s appointment.
“It’s not as if he has been out finishing for three years; he has been in the media, so he has still been up to his ears in it,” he said.
“I’ve been calling for standards to be set for a decade … I would be shocked if Ross isn’t really good at managing standards and getting that buy-in from the players.
“The club is 150 years old and to have won one premiership by one point (in 1966) is a reflection of who we are.
“That’s been my beef with St Kilda. We have been happy to play in the AFL, but we have not been serious about being in the premiership business.
“But I fully expect us to be back in the premiership business again (with Lyon’s four contracted seasons).”
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