Almanac Footy: What We Have Here Is A Whirlwind Of Smarm
As an AFL fan of some sixty-odd years its natural that your emotions do tend to flow with the ups and downs of a season but also you become a direct reflection of your chosen coach, which in my case is Ross Lyon.
If you’re a Collingwood fan, you’re blessed to have the positive energy of Coach McRae or if you’re a Brisbane fan you its easy to feel a sense of contentment having the humility and calmness of Coach Fagan.
As a St Kilda tragic, Coach Lyon has taken me on an exhilarating ride of powerful footy, woeful inconsistency, nail biting wins, inexplicable losses and press conferences that go from smug to prickly and downright disrespectful.
He’s hard to like and it frustrates me that his football intellect is the only over riding factor that keeps him in a job, makes him credible and terrifies the media.
He’s never won a flag but he never seems to receive the same level of attention other coaches do when The Saints lose. Lyon is highly respected by his peers but is treated like teflon by the media and never seems to be challenged assertively when we struggle.
His teams run a fine line relying on dour and exhausting defence which transitions into an explosive rebounding attack. Combine that with what appears to be his constant search for perfection and history has shown that at The Saints and The Dockers his message has a three to four year expiration date.
I hate it when he tells us how hard he works because it simply dismisses what the other coaches do. No one denies he’s all over his business and everyone else’s for that matter but maybe that’s been an issue for him, delegating and people management?
Ross’s first stint at The Saints produced some of the most exciting footy I’ve seen us play. Like any Saints fan the disappointment of 09/10 still haunts us but I didn’t expect the coach to disappear into the night in 2011! It was tough not to question his character.
His return to the club at the expense of Brett Ratten and another payout, was like the return of a past girlfriend who had dumped me for someone else in the past!
Unlike Ross’s first tenure, he’s inherited a talented young team in need of developing. In his first year in 2023, we unexpectedly made the elimination final. Ross clearly set his expectations to within the player’s capabilities, they bought in and over achieved.
2024 was a different story and there was that ‘year 3-4 look’ that we had seen previously raising its ugly head prematurely. Suddenly the teeing off at assistants and prickly press conferences came back to haunt us.
That edginess has continued this year. I spent two hours on the bus and train from Ballarat on my 62nd birthday to witness the debacle versus the Suns. Thankfully I was able to catch up with my eldest daughter so it wasn’t all bad!
Lyon’s comments regarding the ‘Nepo Baby’ were a classic ‘Rossism’. He never says anything off the cuff. It’s always rehearsed and delivered with purpose. His timing is usually critical to the delivery and in this case it just happened to be prior to the AFL presidents meeting which was being chaired by the Saints president.
Other times Ross defers to ‘Captain Smug-mode’ and treats journalists and fans with utter contempt. If he was a young coach I’d give him the benefit of the doubt, but not anymore. His ‘Nepo Baby’ comment left the opportunity for Damien Hardwick to retaliate with his retort regarding the 13,000 crowd that attended the game.
Following Ross for this many years now can be infuriating but never boring. I’ve put together a Ross stream of consciousness just for fun or madness…not quite sure.
“I don’t live in the 100+ point games, overarching strategic plan we’re on, it’s their high end players, it depends on what mindset I’m in, we’ve had 25 list changes in 2 years, from 5th oldest to 5th youngest, the strategic vision we’re executing on, I get texts all the time…Barry Breen…stay the course, break the glass a bit nexus, highlights the maelstrom of the comp, opinion doesn’t become fact does it?, we know what the promised land looks like, how much do you know about stay ahead mids?, swivelling and turning?, hemmed in skinny, I live in a world of action right?, we know where we’re at and we’re not deviating, I don’t sense or feel anything, the getters get and the runners run, it’s system it’s pressure, we wanna build from the inside, we can go into semantics, our environment sits in the top quartile, that’s not in the public domain is it?, I don’t need to respond, I’m not sure what you want me to say to that, what is a litmus test?, I’m not here to validate your opinion, that’s a long winded question and an inappropriate one, look at what you stand for as a journalist.”
Ross, you’ve got the bulk of our next premiership under your stewardship right now. Can we please have less subterfuge and more action you so readily proclaim?
There is an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David and friends attend a wedding where the groom dislikes Larry and the feeling is mutual. After the groom charms the ladies and swans past the group, Larry states, “Ladies and gentlemen, what we have just witnessed is a whirlwind of smarm”. I think of it every time I hear Ross.
No matter how smarmy Ross gets, if he delivers our next flag, it will all be forgotten. He can do this! Go Saints!
To read more from Ian Wilson click here.
To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help things keep ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – click HERE.
About Ian Wilson
Former army aircraft mechanic, sales manager, VFA footballer and coach. Now mental health worker and blogger. Lifelong St Kilda FC tragic and father to 2 x girls.
- Web |
- More Posts
Yes, agree totally.
Ross is Chauncey Gardener the idiot savant oracle played by Peter Sellers in the “Being There” movie. Ross had one good idea – maniacal, hyper-organised defence that he has rinsed and repeated for decades. Everything after that is bluff and random chance.
Players either love or hate him. If you are part of the core group he is the benevolent father. If you don’t meet his needs he blanks you.
Yeah nah. Time for St Kilda to get a Plan B (and a couple more marking forwards based on seeing them beaten by the Eagles a few weeks ago – rabble).
Hi Ian
I am not a follower of AFL but I do follow your articles – whatever the subject. I do recall you had a scathing article last year?? about Ross Lyons and his after match responses to significant team defeats. I am sorry you put yourself through this type of pain year in/year out. I guess it must be good for the soul.
I must be in the minority but I have always been a massive fan of Ross Lyon. He gets the best out of his players like he did with Zac Dawson. Former rookies in Sinclair, Marshall and Wilkie have gone to an even higher level under Lyon.
Many successful coaches haven’t been likable. Lyon could have easily been a 2 time premiership coach with St Kilda in 2009 and the 2010 Drawn Grand Final. He did well getting Fremantle to the 2013 Grand Final.
What he did with St Kilda’s game plan in 2009 was remarkable, winning 19 games in a row, coaching St Kilda, after St Kilda were 5-7 in 2008 and were then thrashed by Hawthorn in the 2008 Preliminary Final.
When he left St Kilda after 2011, honestly I didn’t blame him. St Kilda, unfortunately were in decline, having lost to Sydney in the Elimination Final.
St Kilda didn’t want to sign him up on an extended contract, which I happened to agree with at the time and he was then poached by Fremantle, for an offer he couldn’t refuse.
What he did with St Kilda in 2023 was very good. None of the football experts predicted St Kilda to play finals that year, with many injuries and a much more inexperienced and less talented list, than he had in 2009 and 2010. Last year was disappointing, but St Kilda finished the season well, winning 11 games and beating finalists in Sydney, Geelong and Carlton.
Although St Kilda has only won 5 games out of 12 so far this season, it’s not bad considering St Kilda has had a horrendous draw playing 6 of the top 8 and now the Western Bulldogs for the 2nd time and then Collingwood in the coming weeks. They have already played in Adelaide 3 times this year, Perth once and Alice Springs once.
Let’s also not forget that very important key position players in Max King, hasn’t played at all this season and Dougal Howard has hardly played any matches so far this season. Also, Josh Battle was a huge loss, leaving at the end of 2024.
Let’s hope St Kilda can keep NWM from next season and that they can get TDK, so they can potentially have a tall forward line in 2026 consisting of Marshall (sometimes TDK), King and Sharman. If St Kilda can get TDK, TDK could do amazing things to their system.
St Kilda unfortunately couldn’t do anything under Watters, Richardson and Ratten (at the end of 2022) when St Kilda’s onfield performances fell apart, before Ratten was sacked.
Bassat then got his man in Lyon back and I was feeling pretty, pretty good about it and still am.
Lyon, along with the game plan devised by his Assistant Coaches, will hopefully take St Kilda to their 2nd premiership by 2030.
Lyon coaches actions on the field. Therefore St Kilda don’t think, don’t hope, do!
You know I’m a big fan of yours Anon, but I’m going to respectfully disagree with you here.
Your comments are accurate however I have spoken to players who played in 09/10 who hated him and played out of spite. I’ve also had a bit to do with Sam Collins who recently commented on him.
Lyon was also allegedly involved in sexual advances charges before settling out of court in Fremantle.
Yes Riewoldt and others have stuck fat with him but I think he’s got no plan B and hasn’t evolved to the current game. It’s been a long time since those grand finals and there’s no doubt his game plans wear thin with the players after a while.
We have so many terrific young players at the moment, I’m just concerned he will self immolate again like he is prone to doing.
And any chance he can speak with some respect for the press and the fans? I was there at the GC game. I reckon 13K crowd was pushing it. It was more like 10K. You can make as many excuse as you want but I’m positive it has a lot to do with Lyon.
Go Saints! and thanks for the feedback as always.
You’re right Ian and I probably should have expressed myself better. I am a fan of Lyon as an actual coach, not his personality, or his behaviour in press conferences, which your article has really focused more on. Even I was surprised and embarrassed to learn after that match that he would bring up his Gold Coast comment. Apart from the comment itself, assuming the opposition knew about that comment before the match, it would only fuel Gold Coast to perform even better. Don’t poke the bear. Just as well, they only lost that match by 19 points. It could have been closer, if not for bad kicking for goal by St Kilda.
However, I wish there was a better platform for Lyon and even Bassat, to make their point even stronger about the advantages teams like Gold Coast get from their academies, but more importantly, the disadvantages that St Kilda continually get in terms of fixtures, lack of father and son picks that other teams have previously benefited from, how a Tasmanian team would make St Kilda worse off, and if I want to go back even further, how Hawthorn benefited instead of St Kilda, on getting St Kilda’s Mornington Peninsula zone from the then VFL, after St Kilda won the 1966 premiership.
I guess I should be grateful that St Kilda are still in the AFL, playing home games in Melbourne, after being in the VFL/AFL since 1897, and as Andrew Bassat has pointed out, hopefully off welfare, in the future. The draft and salary cap generally has helped St Kilda. Only 2 wooden spoons in the last 37 years in that period in 1988 and 2000, better than the unfair playing field of 4 wooden spoons in a row from 1983-86, just prior to it.
Perhaps like Andrew Bassat, St Kilda’s president, who appointed Ross Lyon as coach in 2023, I was more enamored with what Ross Lyon had actually achieved as a coach of St Kilda during his first stint as St Kilda’s coach, from 2007 to 2011.
Unfortunately, especially in today’s game, the press conferences are more prevalent than ever and coaches should be required to display more etiquette. I know it’s different, but at least Lyon in his after match press conferences, gives credit to the opposition. Other coaches don’t.
Obviously, I’m not aware as much as yourself as to what goes on behind the scenes and of course, you have personal experience of what it’s like as a VFL player generally.
I guess I was also caught up, perhaps like Bassat too, that Lyon, regardless of his behaviour, is more likely than any other present day coach, to specifically take St Kilda to its 2nd flag and hopefully he still can.
Successful modern day coaches like Clarkson and Hardwick have had many flaws in their personality and behaviour too. Chris Fagan is an exception.
As you alluded to, Fagan comes across as an extremely likable person but even his name was brought up in the Cyril Rioli racism scandal with Clarkson, when Fagan was at Hawthorn.
It’s no excuse, but it helps that Brisbane and Collingwood have the players, in the case of Fagan and McRae, and your team has won recent premierships. I realise, however, it’s more about their personalities.
Once again, it’s no excuse, but I was watching the Agenda Setters on Channel 7 a few weeks ago, and Caroline Wilson claims that Ross Lyon has been directed by St Kilda to make disrespectful statements generally in some of his press conferences, to make St Kilda’s predicament more known. She believes that the AFL will make changes regarding the next generation academies and future father and son picks that Bassat blasted about in the St Kilda Best and Fairest function late last year.
Although in a different era, I had the pleasure of meeting the late and great Ron Barassi, when I was growing up. He was a thorough gentleman off the field but really, the players playing under him would have been really scared of him, when he was coaching them as his demeanor as a coach was very forceful. You wouldn’t want to make a mistake as a player and be singled out by him in the quarter, half time and three quarter time breaks.
Anyway, having mentioned all of the above in great detail, there’s only one thing left to say. Carn The Mighty Saints!
Fantastic summary as usual mate. Like you I only want whats best for the club. If Caroline is right then its a stupid and desperate thing to do and it backfired. In the end I dont think Lyon comes under any of the scrutiny the other coaches do. Caroline is probably the most fearless but even she has fallen under his charm …or smarm! Go Saints !
I certainly don’t carry a candle for Ross the terrible boss; fancy having to turn up to work every day to cop his cant and dross. Still, his obvious smarm seems a pretty good way of dealing with the same from the drivellers, chancers and cankers that make up the AFL press.
Porcine slobs that can’t see their toes let alone touch them, or shiny, toothy getaheads, they are universally inept, craven, doltish and the rest. In a trade where only excellence will do that’s gotta stick in the craw. Smarm’s a perfectly reasonable defence seems to me.
Good comment re “never won a flag”. Our bloke at Port is copping it from all and sundry and also has not won a flag, but old Ross seems to occupy some sort of legendary position, for reasons unknown. Ken Hinkley fronts up with integrity, good humour and honesty every week and the media mauling should go in other directions, in my view. As Matt says, more a reflection on the media than Ken.
It amazes me how Ross manages to get the media in the post-match pressers eating out of his hand.
Even after bad St Kilda losses.
Is what Chris Fagan said recently on the AFL website worse that what Ross Lyon said in this article?
To me what Chris Fagan has said is far worse. Chris Fagan had the audacity to say “I’m hoping those numbers we saw last year, via St Kilda, don’t become a reality. I saw that as a bit of a danger for the game. I think the best players in the competition deserve to be paid the most money and that’s not the case at the moment. That’s not an insult to Nasiah. I think he’s going to be a really good player and how far he goes I don’t know. And TDK (De Koning) has shown a lot of promise for a long time but hasn’t probably played up to expectations, and they’re getting paid extremely well. I’d rather see the better players get all the big money.”
I completely agree with Nick Riewoldt’s reaction, pointing to Brisbane’s father-son guns (which include dual Norm Smith winner Will Ashcroft) and access to their academy players and said: “Maybe if other clubs were able to do those sort of things, you wouldn’t have to overpay players to bring them into your club. I thought it was a pretty-off-the-mark comment.”
Fagan hasn’t apologised for his comments, as Riewoldt had wanted him to. To me, I honestly think that Ross Lyon’s comments in this article is a complete storm in a teacup compared to Chris Fagan’s comments, which warranted an article of its own.
For the record, I happen to like Chris Fagan as a person and I have a soft spot for the Brisbane Lions. I was very happy that they won the 2024 and 2025 Grand Finals by big margins.