Paul Roos on Lyon's appointment

[Teflon]

From what I heard from some sports management folk recently, it was a case of Lyon saying it's my way or the highway, if I come back as coach. Sounds like Essendon and Carlton had a host of conditions attached if they were to take RL on, and the Saints basically said..whatever.

See this is my concern and it’s why I feel a little trepidation with Hayes and Goddard (guys that will essentially see RL as a mentor) alongside him with Enright only a baby in terms of coaching too.

Harvs on the other hand is a grisly, weathered, experienced assistant in his own right.

Obviously RL has the experience and cred as a senior coach on his own right… however, he has had a similarity to GT that I don’t like. That is that he seems so set on his own perception/plan that IMO sometimes he has blind spots to things that aren’t really working that well and he won’t budge on them.

My biggest worry with the coaching set up as it stands is, is there someone there could stand up to him and say look I know you like player X but he’s been out of form for a month and player Y deserves more of a run at it or something to that effect

Will be interesting to see if he’s more flexible this time around

The whole notion that Vort et al push (incorrectly) is that Lyon has surrounded himself with yes men is utter rubbish.
Enright was there already
Hayes was already on the way before Lyon was in the frame (it’s obvious the club, Blake on the Board who would no be doubt have insights from the playing group, we’re not happy with the previous sub-standard set up of Lade etc. Thank god I say.
Lyon has brought in Harvey - he’s a 10+ year, twice decorated as best AFL assistant coach in the league. I see no issue there.
That leaves Goddard (who I do have doubts on) but again, his role has been contained to an assistant development coach???
On Lyon himself yes he’s been autocratic in the past - great coaches often know what they want but that aside he’s already acknowledged this time around he can’t dictate the whole scenario. He’s 55 not in his 40’s I suspect he’ll need to delegate and lean on his assistants more but I’m not sure he can get away with operating as he has done previously.
That leaves Walsh. The other ego elephant in the room who doesn’t fear Lyon or the Board at all (he has industry wide respect why would he??)
Bassat has made a very astute appointment here.
I don’t see the GT/Butters comparison at all where Grant rode roughshod over everything
The club has taken a far more mature approach
Doesn’t mean we guarantee a flag but I expect at a minimum standards to lift along with a level of professionalism in football operations.
Oh and the list Vort keeps telling us all is hopeless, derelict, devoid of any capability blah blah blah
I don’t see it that way abd IF Lyon extracts the best from likes of Marshall, King, Hill, Clark, Coffield, Jones, Gresham, Higgins, Billings et al plus continues to bring on Windhager, NWM, Owens, Hayes, Sharman etc we might surprise this year….
Top 4? No
The club has also deliberately (I think a good move) acknowledged we need to hit consecutive drafts to bring talent through….they’ve obviously told Lyon he has time even IF we go backwards year 1. That’s good. No more top up players or trying to turn other club rejects into stars. Those rebuilds hardly work - the last great Saints side came from drafting
Thankfully we recognise it now
24 on I expect to see real improvement

But what If someone comes up with the idea for 6 minute abs?

Step into my office…