INCOMING St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has provided some insight into how the club will play stylistically in 2023 and beyond.<\/p>\n
Lyon was known as a defensive coach during his previous time at the Saints and the Dockers, but admits the league has evolved beyond that methodology.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need more than one gear, certainly,\u201d he said on SEN\u2019s Sportsday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re the quickest, but we\u2019ve got really good endurance athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a control and shape team. Second for uncontested marks in the back half and in the top two for uncontested marks around the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the trend now has been to go forward more quickly. The uncontested and control game is disappearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s times you need it, either through injury or time of the game or you\u2019re under pressure, but fundamentally that shape and control and uncontested mark game is [disappearing].<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Geelong were the trend setter and found that balance of going forward to the contest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon said he has been impressed with his assistant coaching panel, including the likes of Corey Enright, Robert Harvey, Lenny Hayes, and Brendon Goddard, adding that he has allowed them to shape the club\u2019s game-plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re training it. I stuck to my word, I threw the whiteboard to the coaches and said \u2018you guys come up with what you think and then we\u2019ll just fine tune it together\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest I thought there might have been an 80-20, they do 80 per cent, but Corey Enright has been really impressive on the team defence side, Lenny Hayes on stoppages, Robert Harvey on the ball-use.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve hardly tweaked anything. I really liked what they\u2019ve come up with. We were a stoppage dependent team. We want to improve our turnover use because you can\u2019t live on stoppage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve coached teams [reliant on stoppage] and it\u2019s too easy to negate in the big games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to be a go-forward team, use our run, be a pressure team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never coached perfection; we like a bit of chaos and I think it will suit us, so I\u2019m pretty excited about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been 12th and 12th for a reason. We\u2019re realistic. In the short-term we want to improve as quick as we can. I think there\u2019s room for development on the list.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the longer term we know we need to build our spine and capability and we went to the draft heavily this year and we went the year before and we love Marcus Windhager and Michito Owens, but prior to that for a variety of reasons, which is well documented and I can see the criticism, but two picks inside 30 in three drafts is concerning, but there was a reason for that and the club wanted to be competitive, but I think we\u2019ve got to move away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Kilda will part ways with list manager James Gallagher at the end of the year.<\/p>\n