Toast Ross Lyon returns to St.Kilda #UnfinishedBusiness

[Diehard Saint]

The best of Ross Lyon's press conference​

• "It's like a kid going to the dentist. It's hard to go back." - on returning to coaching
• "When I left, I dropped an iron curtain." - on his departure from the Saints in 2011
• "If you don't do the work, you're just a daydreamer, aren't you? We've got to put our work boots on." - on St Kilda's chances in 2023
• "They've got their doodle pens out and they're working now." - on his assistant coaches
• "When we were here (before), it was a condemned building. This is like Disneyland." - on St Kilda's new facility at RSEA Park
• "There's no victory lap here ... this is just the starting gun going off." - on his return

Personally really liked the ”You have my trust until you lose it“ or similar.

 

[Joffaboy]

Great to see you defending Murdoch.

Not defending anybody, defending the right not to be defamed or slandered.

 

[sammm]

I think Harvey is the forwards coach mate.

Enright - defence
Hayes - Midfield
Harvey - forward

Rath tactics/transition

Walsh GM of Football

Lyon Coach

mission - fitness boss

Carrol - player development.

Has Harvey been a forward coach before? I thought he was midfield or senior assistant

 

[Joffaboy]

Fair enough. I didn't like the way he squandered our richly talented, full of flair squad on a negative & dour style and made a captain of ours a Collingwood premiership player.

Dour style that scored so many points it would easily have been the top scoring team of 2022.
Take your burner and toddle off back to the Essendon forum.

 

[Diehard Saint]

I used to do them regularly. Because of the some on here I thought why bother. Will get down to training this summer, but will probably not bother on the forum.

Please bother.
Most people enjoyed the info because we can’t all get there.

 

[sammm]

Opinion / Sport / Crikey

One of Australia’s oldest footy clubs is yet to modernise its governance​

Ross Lyon is set to return to St Kilda as coach, despite sexual harassment allegations in his wake.

ADAM SCHWAB
OCT 24, 2022

While ESG (environmental, social, and governance) has morphed from niche to mainstream in what seems like a hot minute, not all institutions have taken notice. AFL club St Kilda, for example, appears less concerned about the governance part.

When it comes to sporting horror stories, few challenge the sustained mediocrity of the foundation AFL club. While most long-running hoodoos have been broken in the past two decades — Boston’s Curse of the Bambino, Chicago’s Curse of Shoeless Joe, or, more locally, the droughts of Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs — St Kilda’s run continues. Its sole premiership, by one point, was in 1966. Since then, the club has remained a never-ending governance and financial nightmare.

Last week, just months after re-signing former coach Brett Ratten, the club announced his termination. While surprising, the move wasn’t especially controversial. Due to the continuing ineptitude of AFL clubs making significant termination payments to sacked coaches, the league recently introduced a maximum six-month payout clause in contracts.

Within days of Ratten’s dismissal, media leaks started appearing suggesting the return of controversial former coach Ross Lyon. On Monday it was confirmed he would be returning to the club. Lyon left the Saints in difficult circumstances in 2011 before an initially successful, but ultimately disastrous, tenure at Fremantle. After four terrible years onfield, Lyon departed Fremantle amid alleged sexual harassment claims.

In 2018, Fox reported that “a hush-money payment of more than $100,000 to a former female staff member, which included a non-disclosure agreement, to settle a sexual harassment complaint”. It has also been reported Lyon told the woman he liked her “budding boobs” during a Fremantle club function. The woman was two months pregnant. She has previously alleged she was sexually harassed by Lyon when the then 51-year-old reportedly followed her throughout the event and made a series of inappropriate and crude remarks. Lyon has also had less relevant but well-publicised marital and financial issues in recent years.

But Lyon’s previous off- and onfield issues were quietly ignored by the male-dominated AFL media. Within hours of Ratten’s firing, former St Kilda great and media personality Brendon Goddard said on SEN that “there was ‘no reason’ why Lyon couldn’t walk back into Moorabbin after his infamous defection to Fremantle back in 2011”. The Herald Sun quickly followed suit, giving more credibility to the rumour. A few days later, the Nine papers reported Lyon’s comments that he was “very close” to signing up after his “heart’s been opened” — whatever that means.

While most AFL clubs take months to appoint a coach — forming subcommittees and appointing expert search firms like Egon Zehnder — Lyon went from disgraced former Fremantle coach to returning hero in the space of… five days.
How did this happen?

Five weeks earlier, former St Kilda president Lindsay Fox held his 85th birthday on a luxury yacht, ferrying the 400-person strong guest list from New York to Montreal. The guest list read as a who’s who of the Melbourne sporting, cultural and business elite. Attendees included property billionaire John Gandel, consultant and Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers, infrastructure tsar Rod Eddington, Melbourne Mayor Sally Capp, Linfox board members Bill Kelty, Simon Crean and presenter Eddie McGuire. Also on board were current St Kilda president and popular SEEK founder and CEO Andrew Bassat, as well as St Kilda fan and large donor Gerry Ryan (who also shouted guests a private showing of his musical Moulin Rouge).

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Ratten’s tenure came to an end aboard that luxury yacht — with Ryan, Fox, Bassat and McGuire moving towards installing McGuire’s good mate Lyon (who also works for McGuire’s production business on the Footy Classified program). The media around the appointment was masterfully controlled by McGuire. Meanwhile, St Kilda’s newly appointed CEO overseeing the shambolic process is Simon Lethlean, himself no stranger to scandal.

The appointment of Lyon was even more controversial, given he had been overlooked for the coaching role at Collingwood, Essendon and Carlton — all three clubs undertook actual coaching professional independent appointment processes, but these didn’t take place on a six-star cruise charter.
While AFL football clubs are usually small in terms of revenue (most generate less than $100 million annually), their significant public presence has meant most have made strides towards professionalising their administration and governance. It appears that perennially struggling St Kilda remains the exception, where coaches are hired and fired by a cabal of elderly billionaires aboard a superyacht.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR​

Adam Schwab
COLUMNIST @LUX_SCHWAB
Adam Schwab is a former corporate lawyer, angel investor and the co-founder of Luxury Escapes, a Melbourne-based travel company. He has written for Crikey and SmartCompany since 2005, hosts the From Zero podcast, and is the author of Pigs at the Trough: Lessons from Australia’s Decade of Corporate Greed. He is a board member of Private Media, the publisher of Crikey.

Even I think that is ridiculous. Drawing long bows.

 

[sammm]

Ross is gunna be on Triple M in a minute

Anyone got the podcast up for this?

 

[BrutThough]

BrutThough can you sniff out the radio interviews during the day? I'll try find a few of them later

Simon Lethlean opens up on today's Ross Lyon appointment - Sportsday

The St Kilda CEO spoke on the appointment and what the future of the club looks like moving forward.

omny.fm

Former Saint Adam Schneider joined Dwayne to discuss the Ross Lyon signing - Monday (24/10/22)

Catch up on Adam Schneider's chat with Dwayne who said it was "Very exciting" Ross was back at St Kilda and that it could spark change for the good at the club.

player.whooshkaa.com

 

[Moquo]

Who is Brady McArdle? Such wit!

replace the s with f, and the h with k

 

[Joffaboy]

Please bother.
Most people enjoyed the info because we can’t all get there.

If I do them Diehard Saints, I will PM a some forum members and will copy you in.

 

[sammm]

At long last Grant will have nice things to say about the club. At least for 1 year. Once the honeymoon is over , then maybe not

 

[Diehard Saint]

With RTB back we might be able to anymore.

Doubt it. Times have changed.
Ross developed the bubble largely due to all the negative publicity we were getting in those days, basically to protect the players.

 

[Moquo]

Typical journo beta-male vibes.

never heard of it, but it does look like a bit of a schwab

 

[Diehard Saint]

I didn't hear the presser, am on the Sunshine Coast this week. What was said about that?

Sammm, the presser is posted on here somewhere on this thread.
Do yourself a favour - watch it. You won’t have any more doubts that the club has done the right thing here.

Lucky you, enjoy the Sunshine

 

[gringo2011]

View attachment 1542419

Byrnes and Allison already getting the vibe that he doesn't treat the Sandy players the same as his stars?

 

[Registered User]

Anyone got the podcast up for this?

Oops. Ross wasn't on, either due to a phone problem or me not listening properly :-(

All I can give ya is Montagna and Brownless talking about it

Leigh Montagna Analyses Ross Lyon's Return To St Kilda - The Rush Hour with JB & Billy

omny.fm

 

[King_Steele]

Byrnes and Allison already getting the vibe that he doesn't treat the Sandy players the same as his stars?

 

[Diehard Saint]

Harves worked under Ross in 2011.

Also if what I heard today is true.

The assistants won’t necessarily be line specific.

So, following what his mate Chris Scott has done - as that was posted on here a little while back.

 

[Diehard Saint]

I've got a feeling he'll be out on his arse begging Clarko and Ratts to adopt him so he can finally realise his dreams of wearing the Tesco's carrier bag.

Seriously.

We've got a new coach people - can we wipe the slate clean with our current whipping boys, Billings, Hilly and Clark and let’s see what next year brings?

( Yeah, I know you were joking - or at least I hope so. )

 

[Antz]

How long has he signed for guys? I can't see this being reported in any of the articles.

 

[Mowman]

How long has he signed for guys? I can't see this being reported in any of the articles.

4 years

 

[DougalHoward]

How long has he signed for guys? I can't see this being reported in any of the articles.

4 years

 

[sammm]

At least we should expect this level of effort under Ross next year;

I remember that one.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

If I do them Diehard Saints, I will PM a some forum members and will copy you in.

Will see you down there Joff. Going to have to pull the kids out of school for day 1

 

[sammm]

Harvey confirmation and more Ross talk 40 seconds in

Re didoro, ha ha.