Lyon when he started stated in his first few days on the job that we needed ruckmen, to have more run through the middle and to improve our forward pressure.vacuous space wrote:Like what, exactly?.saintsRrising wrote:No my posts of support were because IMO Ross was doing those things that needed to be done to develop St KFC into successful club.
All of these matters he has systematically addressed.
Ruckmen: Traded for Gardiner and King. Obtained Clarke as a back-up ruckman through the PSD. For the future has secure McEvoy, Stanlet and MGrath..at least one possibly two I would see as making it.
Run through the middle: Gram now often plays there, along with CJ as a fast tagger. Ray has been a great aquisition. joey has blossomed though may well have anyway.
Forward Pressure: Went out and gained Schneider. Schneider is our leading forward for tackles along with Mini....and in his last year at the Swans laid 74 tackles. While many thought Schneider was just gain for his goal scoring abilities the bigger reason was that he could supply the complete package including applying forward pressure... facet we sorely lacked after Hamill went down.
McQualter is player that Lyon has turn arround...from a lazy player into a very disciplined unit that like Schneider is a tackling machine. Mini laid over 40 tackles last year and has improved again this year.
Milne is now much improved as well.
Defence I am not talking defence as in the back 6...I am talking about how the WHOLE team plays when the opposition has the ball. In this we have vastly improved and in particular against good opposition.
Two years,,, well 1.5 actually as we really stepped up last year mid-season. We have won something like 25 out of the last 27.
But yes Lyon inherited a team of downhill skiers with poor work ethic who rarely ever got anywhere near playing 4 quarters of football. When they clicked they could look very good...but too often through individual play. 2005 win was great...but it did take Banger playing probably his best game ever with 3 golas to inspire the team across the line.
It took Lyon a while to turn many of them around...
Roos' impassioned B+F speech calling for ALL the players to get on the bus feel on many deaf ears.
So look at all the KPI's and you see all being addressed and improved upon.
and lets not forget Lyon's fronting of Butterrs and the Board demanding that the player conditioning issues be addressed....which led to Ross Smith investigating the matter and then making recommendations on how to rectify it. Lyon's connection with Misson and knowledge of the swan's processes probably assisted as well.