\n Club great Lenny Hayes has been appointed St Kilda’s General Manager of Football ahead of the 2026 AFL season.\n <\/p>\n
St Kilda Football Club is pleased to announce the appointment of club great Lenny Hayes as General Manager of Football ahead of the 2026 AFL season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hayes will work closely with Ross Lyon, who will continue to oversee coaching and list management. Club Executive Chris Ford, who has been in an interim football operations role, will also continue to support the wider program with football strategy and special projects.\u00a0
\u00a0
Known and loved by the Saints faithful, Hayes brings more than two decades of football knowledge and experience to the position.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLenny\u2019s career is so closely woven into the story of St Kilda, and we are thrilled to see him begin this new chapter with us,\u201d CEO Carl Dilena said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hayes first joined the Saints via pick No.11 in the 1998 national draft before going on to become one of the club\u2019s most admired players and one of the standout midfielders of the modern era.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He played 297 games in the red,\u00a0white\u00a0and black before embarking on a coaching career at Greater Western Sydney. After five years with the Giants, Hayes returned to Moorabbin and has been a key member of the coaching panel since late 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lenny Hayes is chaired off after his 297th and final game as a Saint in 2014. (Photo: AFL Photos)<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who has had the privilege of working with Lenny understands his natural ability to build strong, trusting relationships,\u201d Dilena said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis calm and measured approach, combined with his competitiveness and leadership, extends far beyond his achievements on the field and is a perfect fit for this role.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis experience as a player, coach and now administrator brings a rare depth of perspective and care to his decision making, and we are excited to see that come to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLenny will transition into the position effective immediately, and we move forward with great confidence in his capability and character.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hayes said he welcomed the opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving spent more than half my life working inside football programs, I am really excited to step into this role,\u201d Hayes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am looking forward to working closely with Carl and Ross and doing everything I can to help\u00a0maintain\u00a0a high-performance environment.\u00a0\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball programs are only as strong as the people within them, so my focus will be on ensuring our staff, and in turn our players, are in the best position to succeed on and off the field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
HAYES CAREER SNAPSHOT<\/p>\n
Drafted: Pick No.11, 1998\u00a0<\/p>\n
AFL debut: Round 5, 1999\u00a0<\/p>\n
St Kilda captain: 2004, 2007\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norm Smith Medal: 2010 (first grand final)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trevor Barker Award: 2003, 2010, 2012\u00a0<\/p>\n
All-Australian: 2003, 2005, 2009\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australian Football Hall of Fame induction: 2020\u00a0<\/p>\n
St Kilda Football Club Hall of Fame induction: 2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greater Western Sydney assistant coach: 2016 to 2020\u00a0<\/p>\n
St Kilda assistant and development coach: 2022 to present<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Club great Lenny Hayes has been appointed St Kilda’s General Manager of Football ahead of the 2026 AFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-399252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}