“Mate, we’re on our knees, but we’re not bowed, we’ll be back and I’m with you, we’re not trading you”.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has moved to cut through the “noise” surrounding luckless forward Max King.
King made his long-awaited return last week after two years on the sidelines, only to reinjure his hamstring during the third quarter.
Lyon faced a tense press conference post game regarding the extent of King’s injury and why he left Marvel Stadium earlier than his teammates.
On Wednesday, Lyon said King had reason to be devastated after he had “left nothing on the table” in preparation and cheekily referenced his post-match push back.
“I think we all understand that’s being human, the devastation,” Lyon said in part.
“If you’ve given everything and it doesn’t work out, well, you are devastated, I’ve been there grand final days.
“In Max’s case, he’s given everything, given himself the best chance and then because you are emotionally vulnerable, you’ve left nothing on the table.
“Deep down, you’ve got great character because you know you’ve given everything and we had a really good conversation.
“I know someone expected me to jump in the car, miss the press conference and get to see Max down at Brighton, but that probably wasn’t possible because I wouldn’t have been at the presser.”
King’s return was after three knee surgeries across 2025 as well as calf and hamstring strains earlier this season.
Lyon spoke to King on Monday and pledged his support through another rehabilitation process.
“We had a really good conversation on Monday, and I said, ‘I might be a lot of things, but I support my players’,” Lyon continued.
“I said, ‘I’m all in with you here, mate, we’re all in this together and in the context of the real world, this is not a catastrophe’.
“‘I could catastrophise this myself and I am not going to allow you to, you’re a great family, we’ll get this right, it’s a hamstring’.
“We’ve experienced what he’s got: Liam Henry, Jamie Elliott. I remember there was a period Nathan Buckley did eight hammys in a row at the back end of his career.
“This is a bit different but when you’re back … Charlie Curnow played two games in two years, so is it ideal? No. Will we get him right? Yes.
“His knee is in great shape, what’s good is we all saw what he looks like and what it feels like, he smelt it.
“I said, ‘Mate, we’re on our knees, but we’re not bowed, we’ll be back and I’m with you, we’re not trading you’.
“Those with a seat at the table – our board, me, Max, his parents and his manager – we’re all in. Everyone else is just making noise.
“You haven’t got a seat at the table, you have no influence, you have no say. We’re in it together with Max and we’ll get through this.”
King’s recovery hit fast-forward this year after he escaped the Melbourne bubble and trained on the Gold Coast.
Lyon said St Kilda would consider taking King to Dubai or the Red Bull training facility – used notably by Christian Petracca and Travis Boak – in the US.
“(King) is seeing the specialist as we speak. You look at Dubai, is it Red Bull (training camp), is it that? There’s all of that,” Lyon said.
“When he got out of here and away from the noise – and I know everyone is concerned with his mental health – even though we keep making him the topic of conversation, bagging lots of things about it.
“But it really is opportunity for him, he’s got a long period now, he’ll do a full pre-season, be at our first day back ready to go.
“The real issue is the underlining deconditioning of an athlete after repairing cartilage, four months of no work, build him up for four months and then it tears.
“All players will tell you, if you get in the main program you become bulletproof almost, and if you’re out of it like this, it’s like a yoyo and you just need a bit of luck to get continuity.”
Originally published as AFL: Ross Lyon vows St Kilda will not trade injured star Max King