hungry for a premiership wrote:I know there has been shiploads of discussion on the whole Lyon saga, and I could've presented my views on another thread, but I've decided to spew it all out right here and now, for I have reached the end of my rope. I just need to get this last speil out before I go and say goodbye, partially, to the saints.
In the past week, since Ross up and left, I've run the whole gamut of emotions: from the initial utter shock that he was leaving after saying he was staying, through to outrage and anger at his apparent snake-like betrayal, to sadness that we were 1.) losing a great coach and that 2.) despite our success together and all the wonderful things that st.kilda fc and Ross achieved together, the partnership would ultimately be remembered as a failure and a tragedy, because the business was never finally finished.
Then, I got past all that sadness, and I actually found myself becoming excited. Excited and eager to see where we could go now, who our new coach will be, how the group will respond. I thought of how an ageing Geelong responded to a new coach this year. I thought about Hayes coming back and Roo getting a full pre-season and a dynamite new coach and I started believing again.
I've realised, now, though, that that excitement and confidence in the club was merely an overeaction and an over-positivisation to counteract the sadness caused by the reality that this St.Kilda team has been dealt a stunning, and I believe fatal, blow.
You can put as positive a spin on it as you like, many on here have done a great job of making it seem almost like the best possible thing that could've happened to us, like it's really great for the club, that Lyon was in fact holding us back with his defensive gameplan and conservative selection tendancies, and now that he's gone we can finally thrive... Bollocks.
We are goneskies, fellow saints. This team will not win a premiership. We will go down the ladder, and our current position as one of the more powerful clubs will be lost as we start to truly struggle again both on and off the field. We've just witnessed one of the best 10 year stints in the clubs history, and now it's all over, with lots of success, but no flag to show for it. Now this team is gone, and it's still going to be another couple of years before this team's time comes to an end and the club can start to build a new team to challenge. The party is over, folks. We were going down anyway, but at least we had a strong coach we could back in to guide us through to our next phase of success. Now we are rudderless, heading for rough seas without a captain.
We, as a club, at this point in time, have been completely and utterly cut down. It is simply impossible for this current St.Kilda team to get to the same levels it has previously gotten to, because 1.) there is no chance in buggery that the next coach of St.Kilda will be a better coach than Ross Lyon, so he won't be able to get anymore out of them or get the team playing better than what Ross did, so the way they're coached can only get worse, 2.) the core of the group is past its physical peak, and 3.) the group bears scars of previous failed attempts which quells the burning desire to get back there.
Of course, this is all just my opinion, but I believe it. All this, however, all this, I could take, if I really believed Ross was all to blame for the way he left.
In the past few days, however, it has become clear that there are two sides to this story. Ross didn't just leave without being aggravated. No. The board is not the innocent victim who did everything right and were unfairly betrayed. No. Do you really think Ross Lyon, after 5 years of LOYAL service, would all of a sudden do something absolutely, completely and utterly out of character with everything he's displayed in the past 5 years for no reason at all, or just to be a prick? Of course not, at least, IMHO.
When Ross Lyon says "I was disrespected and offended by the board throughout the year," and Nettlefold says, "I don't know what he's talking about," who do you believe? Who has done more to earn our trust? Who is the more trustworthy character in general? Lyon, lyon and lyon again. Paul Roos says, "Lyon had reason to feel aggrieved at St.Kilda. The situation was untenable." Why would Roos make that up?
How many effing threads were there throughout the year that said, "the board should do the prudent thing and re-sign Lyon now." When we were 1-8, and Lyon said "I'm in for the long haul," we could've signed him up at a reasonable rate, it would have been a show of good faith in him by us to sign him when we were losing, he'd be happy, we'd be happy, and right now we'd all be enjoying a nice, quiet off-season for a change.
And then when word of the Melbourne offer came to light, and many, many people, not just on here, but in the media, said, "why, if you were the St.Kilda board, wouldn't you just sign him up now and end all the speculation and secure the short-medium term future of the club?" But they didn't.
And now they have egg ALL OVER THEIR FACE. And If they didn't sign him because they didn't rate him as a coach and think that they can get a better one or don't think he's right for us, then they should instantly resign or be forcibly removed on the grounds of gross incompetence.
It was the boards solemn duty to resign Ross Lyon beyond 2012. That's pretty much all they had to effing do to ensure the clubs continued strength. As a board, that was their main job. And they cocked it up fantastically. How on earth do they justify the year long delay they had in this area. No excuse is good enough for me.
And now Misson is gone. So we've lost one of the top 2-3 coaches, and one of the top 2-3 fitness gurus.
We're Gawn.
I won't be renewing my membership next year because I don't think the club deserves it. I'll go to a few games and support the players, and will continue to be hungry for a premiership, but now that the window is closed, I'll put footy aside for a bit and get on with my life. I'll watch us fall in the next few years and remember this watershed moment when the board COCKED UP by being weak and indecisive and ended 10 years of sustained success and hard work and set us back another 5 years from becoming the powerhouse club that St.Kilda should and will one day be. There will always be those who will say the board acted appropriately but the plain fact is, if and when our on-field success dissipates in the next few years, and if in fact it goes to absolute crap, cellar-dwellar territory, which it may well, we will all know that St.Kilda, yet again, has no one to blame but itself.
If u think we r gawn go join your brother Max at Melbourne.
