St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has been dubbed a “dictator” by AFL legend Tim Watson.
With the Saints set to play their first game of the 2024 season on Saturday night against Geelong, Watson — a former coach of St Kilda — put the spotlight on the club on Channel 7’s Talking Footy.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Watson explains why Ross Lyon took control of Saints.
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Since Lyon began his second stint as coach of St Kilda last year, the club’s CEO Simon Lethlean, football boss Geoff Walsh, head of coaching David Rath, recruiting boss Chris Toce, list boss James Gallagher, recruiter Jarryd Roughead, head of performance Nick Walsh, head doctor Brett Frenkiel are just some of the high-profile names who have departed.
Lethlean’s exit from the club was only a month ago with reports suggesting that he wanted to have more say in football matters, which was at odds with Lyon and his team.
“I think what we can safely say now is that he’s got the team around him that he wants,” Watson said Seven’s Talking Footy.
“All those members of their staff have been moved on.
“Obviously, he’s got the power and he’s got the ear of the person who is allowing him to do this and build a football organisation the way that he wants to build it.”
Lyon is affectionately known as ‘Ross the Boss’ and is considered one of the most impressive coaches in AFL history who hasn’t tasted ultimate success.
But he is considered desperately unlucky not win a flag.
In 2009 Lyon’s Saints lost the grand final to Geelong by just 12 points after a ‘toe poke from God’ turned the game and, earlier, a Tom Hawkins’ goal was paid despite the ball glancing the post.
There was more bad luck for Lyon’s Saints in 2010, too, in which the first grand final ended in a draw but a bounce from hell prevented small forward Stephen Milne from scoring a goal in the last minute of the game. Collingwood then went on to comfortably win the grand final replay the following week.
Lyon controversially moved to Fremantle for the 2012 season and — once again proving that his methods work — took that club to their first AFL grand final in 2013.
Unfortunately for Lyon and Fremantle fans, the Dockers came up against a mighty Hawthorn outfit (that was kicking off a golden era with hat-trick of flags from four consecutive grand finals) and this time his team went down by 15 points.
Last year, after he returned to coaching following a three-year layoff — he powered the Saints back into the finals.
“I’ve always thought, if you get the right dictator, no matter where it is, it can be a good thing,” Watson said on Talking Footy on Wednesday night.
“He is a dictator in the way he likes to go about things.
“He has a very clear idea about what he wants to do, how he wants to achieve it, the people he wants involved, and now he will be able to say: ‘OK, there’s no excuses, now, I’ve got all the people there that I want … maybe haven’t got the players, yet, but I’ve got everybody in those really important positions in the football club so we can actually have a launch at some success.”
Channel 7 AFL commentator James Brayshaw — a former president of North Melbourne — said he always believed that the senior coach was “the most important employee” at a club.
“(The coach) has to to be happy with the people around him,” Brayshaw said.
And Geelong legend Joel Selwood, who played against Lyon’s St Kilda in the 2009 grand final, agreed.
“Surround him with those people so he can do his job,” Selwood said.
“The best coaches do that. They get who they want around (them) and they will blossom from there.”
