The Lyon era in perspective (attempt at a balanced view)

[meher baba]

WARNING: ESSAY-LENGTH POST. NO ONE IS COMPELLED TO READ IT IF THEY DON'T WANT TO.

I never worshipped Lyon like some on here. I initially hated his style of coaching, his high-pitched, convoluted way of talking and his tendency to blame everyone other than himself when things went wrong. I wanted him to go away.

Then, as 2008 passed into 2009 and 2010 I was, like everyone else, highly impressed.

He did well, but I think many posters on here spiralled into a wish-fulfillment fanstasy in which Lyon "bled" for the club; wasn't a horrible mercenary like GT (who got the club to increase his salary and then took it to court), "In Lyon We Trust" and all that bulldust.

Lyon came as a gun for hire and left as a gun for hire. Personally, I don't really care what the coach, players and even the administrators think or feel about the club as long as they are good at what they do and give the greatest effort that they possibly can. Lyon brought those qualities to the club in spades.


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I believe that we have now reached the end of an era which began in 2000-01 when the Butterss-Thomas-Waldron regime came into power. The records of all three men are somewhat tainted in hindsight, but I still believe that collectively they were the best thing that ever happened to our club. They developed a long-term plan to make us into one of the top clubs and keep us up there. And - after a troubled start with the hiring and sacking of Blight and the strange circumstances under which GT was appointed - we saw that strategy begin to bear fruit from the 2004 streak onwards.

We were unlucky in 2004: the crowd invasion for Frasers' 100th goal, a few bounces of the ball late in the game, prevented us from making the GF. (These things happen: in the 2009 PF, our luck went the other way: a rather dodgy free kick to Riewoldt off the ball, a missed gettable shot on goal by Gia, and some enormous courage from Raph Clarke got us over the line. Then, a few similar bits of bad luck and missed opportunities robbed us of a GF win.)

In 2005, injuries - particularly those sustained by key players during the "whispers in the sky" game at Freo - killed us after a heroic effort in the QF and the first 3/4 of the PF. It appears that many on the Board interpreted the loss to the Swans differently and decided that we needed to change from our more attacking game plan to the more "scientific" defensive style developed by Eade and then Roos at the Swans.

At the end of another indifferent season with still more injury problems, they had their chance to strike and strike they did. Butterss and GT had fallen out and so our President did nothing to stop it from happening. Archie Fraser, who seems to have been a bit of a troublemaker, guided the knife to GT's back and then, a year later, into the back of Butterss as well.

In Lyon, the Board got just the coach they were looking for: a scientist with a strong emphasis on defence. A couple of seasons were perhaps wasted while Lyon and the team got used to each other (we can obviously never know for sure how we would have gone if we'd stuck with GT) and then, bang, we were travelling better than ever: albeit perhaps in an overall slightly weaker comp than in 2004-06 (but then, our team was also probably slightly weaker: no Gehrig, Hamilll or Harvey; albeit BJ, Joey, Fisher and Lenny reached the peak form of their careers in 2009-10, as did Milne to some extent, and other lesser players such as Mini in 2009 and Gwilt in 2010. And Schneider and Gardi strengthened us in important areas.)

The injury situation got better: perhaps Misson helped a bit (although, like GT, I don't really believe conditioners make that much difference to the overall injury toll). However, I think the big factors were Lenny and then BJ coming back from their serious injuries. And we stopped playing guys like X, Hamill and Gehrig and - for a while - Ball and Kosi, who were never even close to fully fit. GT, whose heart clearly rules his head, too often made the mistake of letting guy swho weren't right run onto the park for big games. Lyon rarely if ever did that.


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In my view, Lyon achieved as much in 2009-10 in terms of quality of output as any coach could ever hope to achieve. Tudor and SOS were obviously also important factors: we can never be sure quite how important. But Lyon always came across as the guy in control. He's tough and shrewd and determined.

Like GT before him, Lyon had a plan and he largely stuck to it. It was a vastly different plan: some would say better than GT's. Certainly, Lyon's plan was totally in tune with what the then Board was trying to achieve when it sacked GT: ie, moving to a more scientific, defensive approach a la the Swans which they believed at the time to be best practice and therefore most likely to get us a flag. And, after all, we had only won one of the buggers in over a century, so this was obviously a more important goal for us than for many other clubs.

However, I personally remain somewhat disappointed that the club moved away from the 2000-01 vision of striving to become one of the top sides and stay there. 2004 was the first time I ever saw the club metaphorically walking with a swagger and looking the rest of the football world straight in the eye: even in the late 60s/early 70s we presented more as an underdog club that had had some success. But, in the mid-2000s, we took on the AFL establishment and got up their collective noses. We ran out on the field and utterly crushed some of the glamour clubs like the Blues, Pies and Hawks: ground them into the dirt.

We moved away from that vision in 2006 for a range of reasons: some good (wanting desperately to win a flag, GT really not being up to it technically as a coach, etc.) and some bad (the Butterss-GT feud, Archie Fraser's machinations, the AFL and football media's collective attitude towards GT).

The result was that we almost got there: as close as you can possibly get without making it. In the decade since GT took over at the end of 2001, 7 clubs have played in GFs and 6 have won one or more. We are the sole exception, and we managed to draw one. I'll never regret that and I'll always be highly complimentary to Lyon for the huge role in getting us almost all the way there. And to Butterss-Waldron-GT-Bevo and others for assembling the list and instilling the faith: it wasn't simply the case that we had enough high draft picks to inevitably get to the top: the Blues, Tigers, Freo and the Demons have had a lot of high draft picks and haven't come close yet.

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But Lyon (aided by Drain and Peake, Nettlefold and others) now leaves a legacy of too many recycled "role players", wasted draft picks, damaged morale, and style of football which is as boring as batshit to watch.


It's time for the club to try to turn the clock back to 2003-04 and, failing that, right back to 2001-02 and a total rebuild. We need to go back to the goal of long-term success as a club. Not so much to win a GF next year or the year after (although that would be great), but to strive long-term to be seen as one of the AFL's glamour clubs: the boys from the beachside who play a dynamic, attractive and winning style of football. Retain the tough defence that Lyon taught us, but bring back some of the desire to crush our opponents that GT brought to the club. Go back to recruiting the best available talent, not just players to fill "roles".

The club needs to be daring, confident and aggressive: a bit lairy, a bit Frankston, a bit Shane Warne (indeed, I'd consider trying to get Warne involved in some way).

I don't know who the right coach for that mix would be. Not Malthouse: too old now, IMO. Scott Burns or Leigh Tudor might be all right. It's a pity the Scott brothers aren't triplets. The club needs to be patient and to make sure they find the right guy. But they shouldn't try to be too safe. And certainly nobody who has had anything to do with the Swans!!

Go Saints! Onwards and upwards!!

[ThePunter]

A good post.

I don't expect us to win more than two games next year. We will win more games than that, but I don't expect us to beat anyone except the new clubs.

And that has me really happy. Because the expectation is gone, and with it, the pressure. Footy will get exciting again, insomuch as we don't know what is going to happen.

Despite the hysterical bleatings of blokes like Hutchy, we're a pretty well run footy club. Nine consecutive years without a losing season. Look at some of those teams: the 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2011 versions aren't too flash for talent. The club is in the habit of winning games, and not bottoming out.

Collingwood won a flag last year built on lower-end draft picks, but their best player in the GF they won was Pendlebury, and their best player of the eight GF quarters was Dale Thomas. They did that by tanking, and you'll never convince me they didn't tank.

However, Geelong & Sydney have won flags without bottoming out. It can be done if you get in the habit of winning. We have that habit, and you would think the current group has the hunger. Now they'll feel cleansed as the coaching staff is turned over.

So, I'm really looking forward to next year, especially now Nettlefold has ruled out going after Malthouse. Just going to the footy without expectation. Some will be tough, but the club will endure.

(This has probably now become the "essay-length post thread".)

[philtee]

Nice post meher baba.

[Junction Oval]

One could say, an interesting historical read

[OneEyedSainter77]

Great reads Punter and MB.

Some solid points and I agree with most of what both of you said.

Moving forward form here and like you Punter, I'd like to belive we can be a successful club without having to resort to tanking or any of that rubbish.

This is the new St Kilda, here to stay.

[desertsaint]

We need to be a lot robert harvey - honest, massive work ethic, not to be satisfied even when we reach our utmost potential!
Face our 'deepest fear' and overcome it!

[FortiusQuoFidelius]

One could say, an interesting historical read

yeah... you just did!