Mr Fonebone
Club Legend
Agree with this. Freo will never climb back up the ladder without major changes to coaching and medical/conditioning staff.Pardon the intrusion.
I genuinely don't understand why you would want a man like Ross Lyon coaching your football club when the game style he peddles is nothing short of putrid. Ross Lyon's teams have always been the absolute worst in the AFL to watch without exception and he has shown little signs of changing. Nevermind that Ross has had Freo treading water in no-man's land for about three years, I simply can't see why you'd want to voluntarily condemn yourselves to supporting a coach who will with 100% certainty render your football team absolutely horrid to watch, regardless of what level of success he achieves with it.
Most non-St.Kilda/Freo fans realized long ago Ross Lyon is a football fraud and a blatant charlatan. To their credit, some Freo fans have also woken up to this while others tragically remain under his spell. It is absolutely no coincidence the two clubs Ross has preyed on have not won Premierships in the lifetimes of most of their supporters, as he is essentially a con-artist who feeds off the desperation of his victims and in St.Kilda & Freo found two perfect saps for his con.
Why even bother going to the trouble of recruiting Hogan & Lobb when Ross Lyon's shambolic & outdated gameplan will never get the best out of them? If you think Ross coached a team containing Riewoldt, Kozi & Milne that struggled to score but will magically reverse the constant trend of his entire coaching career and suddenly have Hogan kicking 70 goals a year then I really don't know what to tell you, other than to say you probably deserve to watch the miserable spectacles Ross is sure to provide you.
He is a one-trick pony who's only trick is to convince his players to outwork the opposition and play every game at finals intensity, something that can never be sustained over four full quarters or the entirety of an AFL season which is why his teams always play like crap in the finals, because they're outta juice by that stage while opposition's pressure ramps up in September, nullifying Lyon's one trick advantage. Nor for that matter does Ross still retain his pressure king title, a baton that has long since passed to Hardwick & Richmond.
Please do yourselves a massive favor and kick this stupendously overrated coach and ordinary human being to the curb where he belongs. Football will be infinitely better off without him, and you'll taste your first genuine breath of excitement for your team's prospect in years. You don't deserve to suffer under Ross Lyon and you don't have to.
Lyon is yesterday's news. He has not adapted to the modern game and his coaching philosophies belong to a different era.
As far as the injuries side of things, when was the last season we had that wasn't ruined by injuries? Certainly not in Webber's tenure. The season has not even started and already Sandilands, Bennel, Blakely, Shill, Dixon, Cox, Switta, Logue and some other dude are down with injury. I shudder to think where we will be at by the mid season bye.
And dont get me started on the resigning of Sandi, Ballas and Bennell.