Thank You, Michael Nettlefold!

[Sainternist]

Our former CEO, Michael Nettlefold, saved us a lot of extra grief. By sleeping on whether to extend Ross Lyon's contract has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Five years on, the Dockers went and extended RL's contract with an extra five years! Were they completely insane? Now they are languishing at 0-5 (soon to be 0-6), without their Brownlow Medalist and are stuck with their gun for hire coach, who can't and will not help to rebuild their team. They will no doubt sack him, which will be no skin off Ro$$y's nose, has he will be able to take the money and run.

Who will be the next club silly enough to sign him up for a quick fix shot at a flag and no long-term plan? Richmond? Port Adelaide? God help them, whoever they may be.

Michael Nettlefold, I salute you for going against popular opinion and sticking your neck out for the future of our club.

P.S. Cannot wait to get a crack at the Dockers this season. I hope Ro$$y will be still squirming in his coaches box on the day.

[skeptic]

I always thought ppl were harder on the club for the RL thing then was warranted.

a) he was already under contract for another year
b) it was RL himself that stopped contract talks mid-season

I believe that the latter was calculated as means to try and leverage himself the best offer that he could...

What it all boiled down to was that Freo got him for an offer that I'm not sure we could have matched... but even if we could, RL didn't negotiate that offer. He didn't take it back to the Saints and say you've got 24hours to match this or I'm out.
He correctly identified that Freo were on an upwards trajectory and felt it would be best for him to take the deal... especially with many Saints at the end of their careers as he put it.

Personally, I think that whilst the Saints were made to look like amateurs and RL threw us under the bus to take the heat off himself... Lyon's mindset was always to try and get a better offer and he did.

Personally I didn't think then, and don't think now that the club really stuffed up in the slightest

[SaintPav]

I wouldn't write off Rossy yet, Sainternist. He's still a good coach and working class boy from Resevoir is a fighter

Netter's incompetence was not by design but it will probably work out better for us.

[Toy Saint]

I always thought ppl were harder on the club for the RL thing then was warranted.

a) he was already under contract for another year
b) it was RL himself that stopped contract talks mid-season

I believe that the latter was calculated as means to try and leverage himself the best offer that he could...

What it all boiled down to was that Freo got him for an offer that I'm not sure we could have matched... but even if we could, RL didn't negotiate that offer. He didn't take it back to the Saints and say you've got 24hours to match this or I'm out.
He correctly identified that Freo were on an upwards trajectory and felt it would be best for him to take the deal... especially with many Saints at the end of their careers as he put it.

Personally, I think that whilst the Saints were made to look like amateurs and RL threw us under the bus to take the heat off himself... Lyon's mindset was always to try and get a better offer and he did.

Personally I didn't think then, and don't think now that the club really stuffed up in the slightest

Agree completely, I never thought the club made a mistake at the time, and with the benefit of hindsight it was a blessing in disguise.

Mind you, I never really understood Scott Waters at the time, and hindsight probably tells us that was a mistake.

Those poor Docker fans must be really 'spewing', a 5 year contract for a team that is headed for an almighty crash.

Alan Richardson appears to be an excellent development coach and I'm delighted with his progress.

[Spinner]

Our former CEO, Michael Nettlefold, saved us a lot of extra grief. By sleeping on whether to extend Ross Lyon's contract has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Five years on, the Dockers went and extended RL's contract with an extra five years! Were they completely insane? Now they are languishing at 0-5 (soon to be 0-6), without their Brownlow Medalist and are stuck with their gun for hire coach, who can't and will not help to rebuild their team. They will no doubt sack him, which will be no skin off Ro$$y's nose, has he will be able to take the money and run.

Who will be the next club silly enough to sign him up for a quick fix shot at a flag and no long-term plan? Richmond? Port Adelaide? God help them, whoever they may be.

Michael Nettlefold, I salute you for going against popular opinion and sticking your neck out for the future of our club.

P.S. Cannot wait to get a crack at the Dockers this season. I hope Ro$$y will be still squirming in his coaches box on the day.

Keep telling yourself that. Do you forget Watters? That worked out well didn't it.

Ross will build - who says he can't. Has he had to do it yet?

5 years on your still waiting to be vindicated - but looks like the bitterness will never end.

[bigred]

Someone say Scott Watters? Biggest waste of time this club has ever conducted.

And that is saying something.



On Lyon, in my opinion, you don't let coaches, with his record, just walk. You also don't let them run the list into the ground on the way out.
The whole situation should have/could have been sorted well before any other club had the chance to poach him.

If he was forced into a rebuild that failed, then so be it. You roll the dice. We didn't even get the chance to see how he would handle it.

[Spinner]

I always thought ppl were harder on the club for the RL thing then was warranted.

a) he was already under contract for another year
b) it was RL himself that stopped contract talks mid-season

I believe that the latter was calculated as means to try and leverage himself the best offer that he could...

What it all boiled down to was that Freo got him for an offer that I'm not sure we could have matched... but even if we could, RL didn't negotiate that offer. He didn't take it back to the Saints and say you've got 24hours to match this or I'm out.
He correctly identified that Freo were on an upwards trajectory and felt it would be best for him to take the deal... especially with many Saints at the end of their careers as he put it.

Personally, I think that whilst the Saints were made to look like amateurs and RL threw us under the bus to take the heat off himself... Lyon's mindset was always to try and get a better offer and he did.

Personally I didn't think then, and don't think now that the club really stuffed up in the slightest

That's got to be one of the biggest bulls*** narratives I've ever read. Just a made up story to justify the club stuffing up.

The clause was in the contract - do you reckon ross asked for it given he is so driven by money? No, It was for the benefit of the club and a blind monkey could see that they created a scenario where they believed they could not lose. They allowed him to leave legally, allowed another club to make a more attractive offer and had absolutely no plan for it happening.

Time to get over it and stop making up crap to justify it to your boring simple lives.

[saintspremiers]

Spanner - I take it you are a Lyon fanboi? There has to be one to take over plugsies mantel.

Personally, I'm loving watching Freo fail and celebrate all their losses.

Hopefully they will win a couple so as not to steal a draft pick from us eh Firey??

[satchmo]

That's got to be one of the biggest bulls*** narratives I've ever read. Just a made up story to justify the club stuffing up.

The clause was in the contract - do you reckon ross asked for it given he is so driven by money? No, It was for the benefit of the club and a blind monkey could see that they created a scenario where they believed they could not lose. They allowed him to leave legally, allowed another club to make a more attractive offer and had absolutely no plan for it happening.

Time to get over it and stop making up crap to justify it to your boring simple lives.

5 years on your still waiting to be vindicated - but looks like the bitterness will never end.

[ROLS-LEE]

Freo are tanking for Jesse Hogan or that Mccarthy kid.

[markp]

FWIW last week on one of the pre-games Malthouse couldn't have been more praising of where Lyon had gotten Freo over the last couple of years with the available list and said the slide was entirely inevitable.

[Linton Lodger]

Let's not give Nettlefold credit for some sort of ingenius insight during the Lyon matter.

Regardless of what's happening at Fremantle now, Nettlefold was a bumbling overpaid incompetent. The loss of Lyon was a giant cluster f**k by the Club. By the way Lyon was not under contract, remember the Club could get out of the contract with 12 weeks notice (meaning that it was in effect a 12 week contract). This clause was still in the contract of a Coach who had taken us to the two previous Grand Finals and still had the overwhelming loyalty of the playing group.

Then we were left without a Coach late into the post season, which limited our options. We then had a choice of Richo, Hinkley & Watters. Nettlefold chose Watters, I would suggest based on the fact that Watters told them what they wanted to hear. That resulted in a wasted 2 years with the wrong Coach.

Good riddance to Nettlefold and the Westaway crew.

[Spinner]

Spanner - I take it you are a Lyon fanboi? There has to be one to take over plugsies mantel.

Personally, I'm loving watching Freo fail and celebrate all their losses.

Hopefully they will win a couple so as not to steal a draft pick from us eh Firey??

I feel sorry for you if that's the case... You sound a lot older than me and if this I'll feeling is still lingering well I'm not sure what to think.

Surely worse things have happened over your football lifetime than a coach leaving to go to a club 10000 miles away. The hatred is unjustified and childish.

Enjoy it though - it's not like there's 9 other melb clubs in our faces over the last few decades with worse things happening.

Or.... you could start focusing your usually whinging on another target miles away because they got some concessions for starting a new team from scratch.

Perhaps make a whinging thread on it - that's your usual go.

[SydneySainter]

I'm happy to give credit where credit is due, but if Nettlefold and Westaway had their time again, I'm sure they would have done at least few things differently. How ever it's spun, the administration couldn't help but look like they were left holding their dicks.

Freo's list does seem to be on the decline and like with us in 2011, I think it may take a few more losses before Lyon is prepared to admit it to himself, but Lyon has more than proven that he's bloody good coach and it would be premature to write him off at this stage.

Where I will cut the administration some slack is that up until late 2006, Lyon had no history or personal attachment with St. Kilda FC and I don't think he had any interest in being part of what even he know was going to be a VERY slow rebuild. IMO, he's a career coach on a quest to become a premiership coach and I think it's very likely that he was always going to leave.

[bigcarl]

Reading the Shockers forum over at BigFooty is like stepping into a time machine.

Too defensive, too much left to too few, role players rather than footballers, kids can't get a go, can't kick a high enough score to win.

Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it and Ross falls firmly in that category. A very stubborn man.

But I wouldn't write Freo off just yet. They may make a late run for the final 8, but alas no premiership.

[saynta]

Our former CEO, Michael Nettlefold, saved us a lot of extra grief. By sleeping on whether to extend Ross Lyon's contract has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Five years on, the Dockers went and extended RL's contract with an extra five years! Were they completely insane? Now they are languishing at 0-5 (soon to be 0-6), without their Brownlow Medalist and are stuck with their gun for hire coach, who can't and will not help to rebuild their team. They will no doubt sack him, which will be no skin off Ro$$y's nose, has he will be able to take the money and run.

Who will be the next club silly enough to sign him up for a quick fix shot at a flag and no long-term plan? Richmond? Port Adelaide? God help them, whoever they may be.

Michael Nettlefold, I salute you for going against popular opinion and sticking your neck out for the future of our club.

P.S. Cannot wait to get a crack at the Dockers this season. I hope Ro$$y will be still squirming in his coaches box on the day.

Good post, no I take that back. Great post.

[freely]

Speaking as just another sorry toerag with a boring, simple life, I also love seeing Freo lose. Watching Ross Lyon squirm in the press conferences week after week warms my sad, childish heart. I don't think my position is particularly strange: he walked out on us; I don't forgive him. Let's face it - getting all het up about anything to do with a football game is not the hallmark of mature sophistication. Childish flag-waving is the whole point!

Call it sour grapes (which it is!) but I'm also not minding Goddard's predicament.

[gone fission]

Thanks for being a complete cabbage Michael and taking home millions of dollars from the club for your unrivalled incompetence.

[Bunk_Moreland]

When your team is crap like ours is presently you become vindictive in your pleasure of other teams misfortune.

Richmond being crap

Freo being worse

Essendon destroyed

Essendon beating Melbourne

Port being crap

All makes our tawdry results a bit less unpalatable

[saintspremiers]

When your team is crap like ours is presently you become vindictive in your pleasure of other teams misfortune.

Richmond being crap

Freo being worse

Essendon destroyed

Essendon beating Melbourne

Port being crap

All makes our tawdry results a bit less unpalatable

The voice of reason, except you missed Carlton!

[degruch]

When your team is crap like ours is presently you become vindictive in your pleasure of other teams misfortune.

Richmond being crap

Freo being worse

Essendon destroyed

Essendon beating Melbourne

Port being crap

All makes our tawdry results a bit less unpalatable

The voice of reason, except you missed Carlton!

Haha! I'm absolutely in this category...loving Melbourne's 10 year rebuild too, karma has been sweet.

[The_President]

Our former CEO, Michael Nettlefold, saved us a lot of extra grief. By sleeping on whether to extend Ross Lyon's contract has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Five years on, the Dockers went and extended RL's contract with an extra five years! Were they completely insane? Now they are languishing at 0-5 (soon to be 0-6), without their Brownlow Medalist and are stuck with their gun for hire coach, who can't and will not help to rebuild their team. They will no doubt sack him, which will be no skin off Ro$$y's nose, has he will be able to take the money and run.

Who will be the next club silly enough to sign him up for a quick fix shot at a flag and no long-term plan? Richmond? Port Adelaide? God help them, whoever they may be.

Michael Nettlefold, I salute you for going against popular opinion and sticking your neck out for the future of our club.

P.S. Cannot wait to get a crack at the Dockers this season. I hope Ro$$y will be still squirming in his coaches box on the day.

This is so, so, so sad

[Sainternist]

This is so, so, so sad

It's incredibly sad how it all came down to that. We came a toe poke and inches away from a premiership and then it amounted to being set back another decade.

Not sure how anyone still has love for Ross these days. No one seemed to like watching us play under his coaching. The supporters were complaining like mad about his style, even when we won 20 games during a home and away season.

Anyway, the Prozac milkshakes are on me!

[Griggsy]

This argument will be finally settled ...in 5 years. With such mixed opinions of Lyon through the football community, one side will be vindicated. Either he pulls freo out of this hole or he sets them up for a demon like rebuild.

I don't think he can can and trading for a FF this coming offseason Is too little too late. I admit I take a small amount of pleasure out of what has happened.

On another note with freo. They have interest in McCarthy at gws and gws also have the 3 first round picks. If freo have pick 1 they should work out massive trade, gws has no need for 3 picks in round 1. (I know fyfe is off limits but there's probably a deal in there somewhere that should take but won't.)

[evertonfc]

Agree completely, I never thought the club made a mistake at the time, and with the benefit of hindsight it was a blessing in disguise.

Well summed up. I was nervous in 2011 that we'd hit the skids badly - and were going about our footy in a way that was already tactically behind others.

Our list needed a massive overhaul and Lyon was never the man to do it. He coached for the now; he hated young players who weren't developed and wasn't interested in teaching them how to play. He wanted ready-made players prepared to go into battle - which is why he always talked about recruiting players who'd "done their apprenticeship" elsewhere, and loved those he could get cheap: Dawson, Ray, Polo, Gardiner, Pattison, Jesse Smith, Birss.