Coach UNFINISHED BUSINESS

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CursingFijian

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Greetings, fellow St Kilda fans!

Despite winning just one premiership in our 150-year history, St Kilda has a fiercely loyal and dedicated fan base. Our extraordinary fans have weathered many disappointments and setbacks over the years, yet we continue to return to the St Kilda well for more.

For us, it's not just about ultimate success on the field, but also about the journey and the small wins that come with being an underdog. We revel in the little wins and are continously hoping for incremental progressions by our beloved club. The prospect of a second premiership often feels like a distant dream, but many of us are deeply invested in the club. For us, it's not just about the destination, but also about the journey, the camaraderie, and the sense of community that comes with being a passionate St Kilda fan. And it is this unshakeable devotion that makes us truly extraordinary.

So we eagerly watch games, and we await news of what our club is doing to bring in new talent, improve our game plan, and give ourselves the best possible chance of success.

The remarkable Maya Angelou once said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." With this in mind, I invite you to join us in 'The Unfinished Business' thread, where you are invited to give us your hot takes from Ross Lyon's weekly post and pre-match press conferences. Ross Lyon is a very interesting interviewee, often blunt and to the point. But quite often he offers subtle insights into the coaching machination, that gets lost in the greater narrative. I thought it might be fun to post his weekly press conferences and see if we can uncover some valuable insights and revelations that Lyon shares with us during these interviews. As Maya Angelou advised, we'll take his words at face value, believing what he tells us the first time, and engage in meaningful discussion around them.

Be sure to stay tuned for the latest video footage, which we'll share as soon as it becomes available.
 
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ROUND 8 - POST MATCH

CursingFijian

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CursingFijian

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Very interested to hear that the coaching group wondered if they had used the nine day break to train a little too hard, and a few boys looked heavy in the legs. Also very cagey around the return of Max King (may or may not play in the AFL) but it sounds like Max has gone to another level of fitness.

"We all submit to the teams needs in the end. Including Max."
 
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Parkysp

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Think that may be not so subtle messaging to Max, not to just assume he"ll be an automatic in, and that the "TB" in RTB stands for "The Boss" (and True Believer, but lets not open the can of worms about who coined it first............I did, by the way!!)
"Yeah I've never seen him play under my watch"... velvet hammer glove. Love ya Maxy but I'm The Boss, so just wait until what I've decided".

Though the "what's best for the team" part that came after. If Max gets through the 2 training sessions and declares himself for to play then he's playing AFL this week I'd suggest.
 

CursingFijian

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"Yeah I've never seen him play under my watch"... velvet hammer glove. Love ya Maxy but I'm The Boss, so just wait until what I've decided".

Though the "what's best for the team" part that came after. If Max gets through the 2 training sessions and declares himself for to play then he's playing AFL this week I'd suggest.
I think that's what 99 out of 100 St Kilda fans would want to be honest. Proven AFL star (and at peak fitness according to the Boss) bring him straight back in. If we're concerned about match fitness then put Caminiti at sub and he can run on when needed.
 

CursingFijian

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Thank goodness there's no rules in this thread.

Does the winner win anything? Or do we let the cobblers cobble?

Looking forward to your history in language in response, chief xo
We're all winners when you grace our pages pordgie.

What did you make of Ross suggesting Max should talk with his parents about declaring himself available this week? Is that code for Ben King is coming?
 

George

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We're all winners when you grace our pages pordgie.

What did you make of Ross suggesting Max should talk with his parents about declaring himself available this week? Is that code for Ben King is coming?
Selection integrity down the drain, first we drop Cordy, run Pou into the ground and now players parents are on the selection committee. The sooner Ross packs up and goes the better we'll be.

We need somebody tough like Rodney Eade IMO.
 

CursingFijian

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Selection integrity down the drain, first we drop Cordy, run Pou into the ground and now players parents are on the selection committee. The sooner Ross packs up and goes the better we'll be.

We need somebody tough like Rodney Eade IMO.

 

sammm

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We're all winners when you grace our pages pordgie.

What did you make of Ross suggesting Max should talk with his parents about declaring himself available this week? Is that code for Ben King is coming?
It's interesting I don't watch that many pressers. I certainly haven't in the 10 years much. However I have never heard a coach saying maybe Max should talk to his parents.
 

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Verdun66

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Definitely the big take away from the Press Conference was training them hard in the 9 day break. Very interesting. After Ross saying they get a big break after games etc etc.

Maybe they flogged them given a 9 day break and it was North we were coming up against. A bit disrespectful to North perhaps but we do have Adelaide and GWS coming up so wouldn’t want to be a bit leg heavy for those games.
 

hayes

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In the last 10 years I watched probably three post match pressers. Since Ross came back I haven’t missed a single press conference whether it’s the weekly one on a Wednesday/Thursday or post match. He’s just a fascinating listen.

“I haven’t seen Max play under my watch” was telling. There’s a few who have been automatic ins based on nothing the past few years, for the first time since Ross left we finally have section integrity. Whether or not he actually believes that about Max who knows but there’ll be some nervous players running around for the Zebs.
 

CursingFijian

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On Jack Billings: He’s building. Needs to put together a body of work. Hasn’t played or trained fully for a long time.

On Max King: He Needs to train fully today and complete a full match sim then we’ll consider. He’s a really tall full forward and we could do with a bit of height.
 

CursingFijian

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"If you let go of the numbers, they beat us at contest."

"and then they popped and spread and we were disorganised"

"I'm really quite buoyant and optimistic we'll get back on the horse and get going"

"I don't spray players. Do you parent like that?"
 

Saintbloke

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I think Lyon has been out-coached, out-smarted in the last 4 games, though in the case of North, Clarkson's tactics were working but didn't have the players to see it through for four quarters. Looks to me like the coach and players got into a comfort zone, and now the reality has hit and they need a good kick up the backside to get us on track again. Yesterday's results showed we need more than Max King to win games.
 

gringo2011

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I think Lyon has been out-coached, out-smarted in the last 4 games, though in the case of North, Clarkson's tactics were working but didn't have the players to see it through for four quarters. Looks to me like the coach and players got into a comfort zone, and now the reality has hit and they need a good kick up the backside to get us on track again. Yesterday's results showed we need more than Max King to win games.


You can provide the framework but you can't play the game for them. That manic pressure and adherence to structure has been looking a lot looser every week. This is a big test because the players can go two ways. Absolutely s**t the bed like we did under Ratts or we go back to the work rate and structure that we started the year with.

In hindsight, when structures break down players fall back into playing on instinct. The old guys go back to bad habits and expose their short comings. The young guys don't have the bad habits yet so don't look as bad. Realistically the game plan has been undone by other coaches so is less effective and it gives the players the excuse to drop effort and structure.


Lyon needs to come up with some new ideas to counter the counter. We probably need a couple of easy kills. If we lose to GWS we probably don't come back from it. If we get 2 good wins we are back in business.
 

CursingFijian

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I think Lyons key position is that our entries inside 50 need to be going deeper, so that we can at least get the chance to defend against turnover and lock the ball in our front half.

Hopefully with Max King in the side that happens organically as we look for him deep and allow him to bring it to ground, and our smalls to either pounce or lock it up.

We turned a lot of ball over just forward of wing though and the crows quick rebounding just caught our midfielders in no man’s land. Not far enough forward to pressure the kick, not far enough back to help defend.

On a different note I think Owens is being overused in the ruck. He’s doing a reasonable job, but yesterday against the Crows bigger bodies I just felt like it really depleted his energy in the forward line.
 

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