Mattaes Phillipou’s manager under fire over deleted tweet criticising Ross Lyon
A St Kilda player has landed in an awkward spot after his manager launched a blistering spray on Saints coach Ross Lyon.
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St Kilda youngster Mattaes Phillipou has landed in an awkward spot after one of his manager’s openly took aim at coach Ross Lyon.
Phillipou was dropped for the Saints round 9 clash against Hawthorn, a game they lost by five points.
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The loss is their fourth defeat over the past five rounds and drops them down to 14th spot on the ladder, only ahead of Hawthorn on percentage.
A day after the defeat, Phillipou’s manager Ned Costello went on the attack with a blistering spray in the direction of Lyon.
“@davidking34 tell me who in the forward line has improved under Lyon? (Mitch) Owens, (Max) King, Phillipou have gotten considerably worse under Lyon. When they came in young and just played, they looked exciting. He is destroying them,” the tweet read.
Costello later deleted his account.
Nine’s Tom Morris reported Costello ‘regrets’ his actions, which included ‘liking’ a post from another X user who claimed Lyon tries to control the club’s football department.
“I’ve just spoken to his manager (Costello), he said: ‘it was an emotional response from the couch, and I have no knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes’,” Morris said on Footy Furnace.
The since deleted tweet came on the same day that former Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes launched a withering attack on Lyon.
Cornes zeroed in on a trait he has noticed from the coach’s post-game press conferences in the wake of losses.
“I just think he’s turned into an excuse machine,” Cornes said on Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show.
“After every loss I’m sitting there going which excuse will Ross come up with after a loss.”
The show then replayed a series of press conferences following St Kilda’s defeats to the Hawks, Bulldogs and Port Adelaide.
“It’s not an excuse, but we’ve had a lot of tight games,” Lyon said after the Hawks game on Saturday.
“We get four messages a quarter and with three minutes to go you can’t send the runner (out).
“In my previous iterations you could use the runner almost at will. You see things you want to fix and things you want to do and people say kick more goals and you get those opportunities but it’s still limited.
“It’s not an excuse but if you think about the pressure (on coaches) that goes on, you can pick up the phone, shift some stuff and maybe score better.
“It’s interesting. We’re like neutered dogs right, we can sit there and see stuff and you can’t fix it. It’s very difficult, but it’s not an excuse.”
The following videos then showed Lyon complaining about a free kick count against his side in the loss to the Power and then the short break the Saints faced before taking on the Dogs.
“So kicked 53 points yesterday and the runners was the excuse, the inability to use the runners,” Cornes said.
“Against Port Adelaide it was the free kick count.
“And against the Western Bulldogs it was a short break.”
Cornes then stated what he would prefer to see from Lyon in his messages to fans and the media.
“I think the problem for Ross is he’s got to explain what the game plan is and how they’re going to score more,” he said.
“So they average 74 points for the season, yesterday they took 117 marks and kicked seven goals.
“Hawthorn had kicked eight goals to three-quarter time, didn’t kick a goal in the last quarter, yet the Saints weren’t able to run over a bottom-four side and get it done.
“They‘ve got to come up with a game plan and he has to describe that.
“Don’t worry about the excuses, just tell us how you’re going to adjust your game plan to try and score and challenge the best sides.”
Next up St Kilda host Fremantle on Saturday night, before clashes with the Demons, Eagles and Suns.
Originally published as Mattaes Phillipou’s manager under fire over deleted tweet criticising Ross Lyon
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