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Ross Lyon (born 8 November 1966) is a former Australian rules football player for the Fitzroy Lions and the Brisbane Bears, and is currently Coach of the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
[edit] VFL/AFL career[edit] Playing careerLyon was recruited from Reservoir Colts and debuted in the VFL with the Fitzroy Football Club in 1985; he became renowned for his toughness as a forward and midfielder, although restricted by injury setbacks. Lyon went on to play 127 games with the Lions in the No. 29 guernsey before moving to the Brisbane Bears in 1995 but played just two games before injury forced his retirement at the age of 29. [edit] Coaching career Lyon became an assistant coach at Richmond under Robert Walls in 1996 and was retained in a full-time role when Jeff Geischen coached the club from 1997-99. He moved to Carlton in 2000 as an assistant under David Parkin and later with Denis Pagan. During this period he spent time at the Blues' affiliate in the Victorian Football League, the Northern Bullants. In 2004, Lyon was appointed an assistant coach at the Sydney Swans in charge of the midfield under Paul Roos. He was considered an integral part of developing the discipline and work-ethic that lead to the Sydney Swans premiership in 2005. In 2006 he was shortlisted as a candidate for the position of coach of the St Kilda Football Club for the 2007 season. Although some considered him a surprise candidate [1], Lyon was appointed for three years after a lengthy application process.[2] Upon becoming coach of the club, Lyon hired his own assistants, with close friend and AFL Team of the Century fullback Stephen Silvagni, former Kangaroos and Hawthorn player and Melbourne assistant coach Anthony Rock, former Carlton assistant coach Tony Elshaug and former Fitzroy and Hawthorn forward John Barker all being appointed in assistant coaching positions. Lyon also recruited veteran ruckman Matthew Clarke to the club and oversaw the recruitment of six rookies for the first time in the club's history. In St Kilda's history, Ross Lyon is now the most successful winning coach by percentage with 64.75% since taking over in 2007. [edit] 2007 seasonLyon began his first season as coach with a victory against Melbourne in Round 1 of 2007 and the Saints then won four of their first seven games. Injuries hit the club badly in Round 8, however, with St Kilda having only 24 out of a possible 38 players to choose from against the Hawthorn Football Club. Lyon was criticised for flooding excessively and many became angry with the more defensive style of St Kilda over the subsequent weeks [3]. After an upset victory in Robert Harvey's 350th match in Round 12 against West Coast, Lyon proceeded to guide his Saints to win three out of the next four matches and draw a game against the Western Bulldogs. This left the Saints in eighth position on the ladder, a spot the side was unable to maintain after narrow losses to reigning grand-finalists Sydney and West Coast in the remaining five rounds [4]. The club narrowly missed playing finals for the fourth consecutive season, finishing 9th with 11 wins, 1 draw and 10 losses for the year. Despite missing finals action the Saints finished the year strongly, winning 7.5 of the last 11 matches [5]. Lyon oversaw a team in transition in his first season as coach, with a significant part of the Saints' squad from the 2004 and 2005 seasons having retired or moved on. During the 2007 trade period, St Kilda were widely considered to have traded very well, picking up Geelong premiership ruckman Steven King, Geelong forward Charlie Gardiner and Swans pair Adam Schneider and Shaun Dempster for draft selections 26 and 90 [6]. [edit] 2008 seasonSt Kilda started the season strongly by winning the 2008 NAB Cup, defeating the Adelaide Crows by five points at AAMI Stadium. [1] Despite this strong showing the Saints went on to have a mixed first half of the season with five wins and six losses. After this, however, their fortune improved and they sealed a spot in the finals. The mixed season drew both criticism and praise at differing times towards Lyon, from supporters and the media.[citation needed] His game plan has been described as one championing accountability, similar to the Sydney Swans model by Paul Roos.[2] Lyon's surprise move to drop midfield star Nick Dal Santo (as well as Stephen Milne) from the side was due to them not meeting these "benchmarks".[3] Arguably, it was a turning point in the Saints' season, as they went on to win the next four games following this move and it was considered a strong message by Lyon.[citation needed] In the finals St Kilda lost to Geelong and then defeated Collingwood before being eliminated by Hawthorn, the eventual premiers, by 49 points in the preliminary finals. [edit] 2009 season Lyon was pleased that Essendon, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs gave the Saints a challenge but stated that St Kilda still needed to beat Geelong when the teams to met in Round 14. All season long, Lyon has maintained that Geelong is the team to beat and his argument did not change after St Kilda defeated Collingwood by a record margin of 88 points: “There is a benchmark team in the competition called Geelong. They’ve won 48 out of 50 and we need to win another 41 to try to catch them”, Lyon said.[citation needed] Lyon said he understood why the Saints were winning so much praise from but insisted the side was not getting ahead of itself: “I’ll trot out the line...it’s not a line, it’s a fact. It is a really big business and it is exciting in Melbourne. We are a winning team. We love the fact we are winning. We expect articles to be written”, he said.[citation needed] “For every club there are expectations set high and set low. There are expectations generally by the media and the fans. Just because they said it doesn’t make it right or accurate. Fremantle were written off and they’ve won three in a row.”[citation needed] Lyon said a big reason for the Saints’ success so far was stability, having used just 25 players in seven games: “Everyone laughed when I sat here after an Essendon game (in 2007) and we lost another couple (of players) with hammies and I said we were missing some meat and potatoes in our program”, Lyon said.[citation needed] “We got the right people and the club put the resources and the money into it. The players have duly delivered with their work ethic and built strong bodies, strong through the hips and the hammies.”[citation needed] Lyon said he was happy to have the spotlight that came with playing in the unusual timeslot of a Monday night: “The nation was watching, it was a Monday night experiment for the time slot”, he said.[citation needed] “We knew it was going to be a really good crowd. Collingwood are a big club. They were a club under siege. Their coach had been criticised and they had lost some key players before the bounce which we were aware might happen."[citation needed] “We see ourselves as a growing club and Collingwood have a big membership base. We see ourselves right up there (as a drawcard)."[citation needed] “We are a top-four side from last year and have been preliminary finalists three times in the last five years."[citation needed] “We’re aiming to be a really aggressive contested team that scores heavily and defends well. You walk out of there and (we) ticked those boxes tonight, which is pleasing.”[citation needed] But they were defeated in Rounds 20 and 21 against Essendon and North Melbourne respectively. [edit] References
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