Ross Lyin’

When Herald Sun journalist Scott Gullan spoke about then St Kilda coach Ross Lyon’s place on the AFL landscape during the Sunday Inquisition on ABC Grandstand last weekend, there was every indication Gullan believed Lyon would soon move on.

The Saints had been eliminated from the 2011 finals series the night before by an inspired Sydney Swans outfit.

Lyon had used his post-match press conference to talk about an era ending at St Kilda. He also ‘retired’ four players along the way – three of whom didn’t know they were, in fact, ‘retiring’.

Gullan’s perspective was that if, indeed, Lyon chose to take his leave of the Saints and seek opportunities elsewhere, there would be no bad blood.

He’d been a loyal servant, bought relative success to the football club and, afterall, there’s no shame in a coach stepping aside given he follows the appropriate protocol.

“No-one’s going to pot Ross Lyon,” he said.

Gullan can not have guessed at the happenings of this Thursday evening where the goldfish bowl of St Kilda football has been so belligerently pawed at by a mangy cat keen for an easy feed that it now lies upside down on the rug with a big fucking mess spewing forth.

But given the clandestine manner in which Lyon’s defection west is reported to have come about, people are going to ‘pot’ Ross Lyon.

It’s going to be vitriolic, downright nasty and maybe even libelous.

Football people are already questioning the man’s character and moral compass. There will be name calling and terse words. St Kilda people will spit on the floor at the very mention of his name

Lyon has burned a big bridge on his way west and, although we’re still firmly in knee-jerk territory here, he’s probably cut the boat in half, too.

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and those who know where my football allegiances lie will also know that a knock for the Saints would normally bring a smile to my face.

Not this time, nah-uh. Here’s a man who has royally shafted the football club he claimed, as recently as Wednesday, he was loyal to.

Don’t cry about the virtue of loyalty, I hear you cynics say. Not in this day and age where money talks and career lengths are finite.

But at 44-years-old, Lyon may coach for another couple of decades.

This is less about money than it is culture, one of those godforsaken buzz words bandied about so lightly in sporting circles.

Any coach demands loyalty, honesty, transparency from his players – and the players should be able to expect the same in return.

Well, taking this example alone, expect none of the traits listed above from Ross Lyon.

I’m about as happy with this blight on football as Collingwood premiership hero Craig Kelly, now head of Elite Sports Properties, and until this evening Ross Lyon’s manager.

Lyon, of course, in his all-knowing, smug and swaggering way has taken it upon himself to land the Fremantle contract – without ESP’s knowledge. They were busy dealing with another couple of clubs who were interested in Lyon’s stewardship.

Staggering, right?

Well, not really, when you consider the ‘fact’ that Lyon’s negotiations must have coincided with, at least, the last few weeks of St Kilda’s season.

Remember the trio of players ‘retired’ on Saturday night? Now put yourself in their shoes and consider the absolute bastardry of Lyon’s words in ending their careers prematurely and publicly.

Maybe he didn’t want them on his list for 2012. But there’s a chance, slim though it may be, whoever coaches St Kilda next season would have found a place for them.

Lyon must have known he’d be moving on in a matter of days, but he went ahead and pulled the trigger regardless.

I’m reminded of the scene in The Godfather Part II where Michael Corleone takes his brother Fredo for a short boat trip on the lake.

But even that isn’t a great fit because Lyon is not Michael Corleone.

If he was he’d coach teams playing smash and grab footy and not a team that has made an art form of ‘going to the mattresses’ and trying to bore opposition teams off the park.

And he didn’t ex his brother(s) for the greater good of the football family, either.

Because surely no-one with an ounce of moral accountability would rob a man of his livelihood while lining up a no-doubt fatter purse for himself at a rival club the breadth of the continent away.

Truth is we may never know why Lyon acted the way he did towards those soldiers of his following the Swans’ defeat.

Maybe he wants Steven Baker et.al. at Fremantle next season. Somehow I doubt it.

Because there’s no way Lyon would want to weaken the Fremantle list by bringing in a dour hack like Baker. Therein lies the real doozey.

By acting the way he has and dealing in the most underhand of manners, Lyon has inherited himself a list ‘on the up’, with more talent across most lines than he had at his disposal at the Saints.

What this says about the Dockers’ board is also a juicy poser. Clearly, they’re comfortable having a deceitful and self-serving individual running their football department.

They better be happy with a team playing the league’s least attractive footy, too, because to this point of his coaching career, that has been Lyon’s legacy.

The conjecture has long stood that given a better run with injury next year, Freo will climb back into the eight and make a real pest of themselves come finals time.

Lyon has a good record as a coach, no doubt. He learned from a premiership winner in Paul Roos and drove St Kilda to three Grand Finals in two seasons – and surely there aren’t many coaches who can lay claim to that feat.

Regardless, Mark Harvey must be spitting bile.

The raw figures don’t tell a great tale for Harvey in charge of the Dockers, but there’s little doubt he is, or was, building something.

Now Lyon is the king of that particular sandcastle, but I doubt Harvey will be sitting on Cottesloe Beach, crying into his meaty hands for long.

He’ll get picked up and will be coaching again soon – by 2013, if not sooner.

If there could be a silver lining for Harvey it must be that the AFL coaching scene is particularly unsettled at present and there are jobs out there. That said, there are plenty of other candidates who’ve got a jump start on Harvey in terms of brushing up the CV and checking the ‘wanted’ ads.

Whereas Harvey is nothing but the unlucky loser in this little slice of footy soap opera, it seems Ross Lyon is the overlapping section of a Venn Diagram framing the relationship between ‘underhand tactics’ and ‘poor bloke’.

Perhaps the surprise tonight is not that Ross Lyon has walked away from the St Kilda Football Club – the writing has been on that particular wall for most of the 2011 season.

In one of my early outings on Twitter, back as far as April 11, I tried to engage Gerard Whateley on the subject of Lyon and his future at the club he’s helmed since 2007. Whateley had questioned the Saints' ability to change tempo, kick goals and play a brand of footy to rival that played by clubs in the upper echelons of the AFL.

My hypothesis then was that Lyon’s position would become untenable if he refused to change tack. Likewise, I believed the club would not sit idly by if the team failed to climb the ladder.

Rather than that, though, Lyon called his own shots, made his own deal and jumped into bed with the Fremantle Dockers. May that marriage of convenience sporn nothing but illegitimate performances and aborted flag tilts while St Kilda fans sit back and enjoy the sight of their club playing football with verve and joy under a 'team first' coach.

Because, like lifetime Saints fan and long time Lyon detractor Shane Warne said on The Footy Show tonight, the only real losers in this whole state of affairs are Dockers fans, shafted by club management and left with a rogue running the show.

"I think the only person that's disappointed at this stage in my family would be my son, because he barracks for Freo."

 

Photo by Morne de Klerk/Getty Images AsiaPac