{"id":526894,"date":"2026-03-08T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526894\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:17:10","slug":"ross-lyon-opening-round-press-conference-st-kilda-saints-vs-collingwood-magpies-content-with-not-tagging-nick-daicos-harder-scott-pendlebury-time-on-interchange-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526894\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross Lyon Opening Round press conference, St Kilda Saints vs Collingwood Magpies, content with not tagging Nick Daicos harder, Scott Pendlebury time on interchange, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon believes his side \u201chandled the heat\u201d in their two-goal loss to Collingwood to close out Gather Round,<\/a> as the Magpies\u2019 young and old faces ran riot throughout.<\/p>\n

In front of a buzzing crowd filled with 82,528 people, the Saints fell short of four premiership points after unveiling a quartet of star recruits during last October\u2019s trade and free agency period.<\/p>\n

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After being subject to less tagging attention than recent clashes, rival superstar Nick Daicos was the pick of the Magpies players on Sunday night after amassing 41 disposals, 11 score involvements, 811 metres gained and a goal assist.<\/p>\n

A more traditional midfield role in 2026 for renowned tagger Marcus Windhager \u2014 who has previously had the wood over Daicos \u2014 saw the three-time All-Australian at times run his own show through the defensive half of the ground, and play seemingly untroubled by later attention from young Saint Hugo Garcia.<\/p>\n

However, Lyon noted upon reflection how given their wish to play with a more structured system, he was mostly unfazed by Daicos\u2019 output.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould we have tagged Daicos? We\u2019re trying to display a bit more system… maybe? He had 41, but momentum is interesting. We sent someone to him for a little bit,\u201d Lyon told journalists during his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more about being accountable to yourself; I thought Garcia did that really well … I don\u2019t think that\u2019s why either one of them \u2014 whether it be \u2018Nas\u2019 or Daicos \u2014 why they got the points, and we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Pies silence critics against Saints | 02:09<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was more the overall \u2018letting them off\u2019, or they were a bit more efficient than we\u2019d like, and we were inefficient. They took their chances, and we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he played his part. I could be wrong … but I wouldn\u2019t have thought (he was the difference).\u201d<\/p>\n

A far more senior figure who showcased his impact in the first term was 426-game Magpies legend Scott Pendlebury.<\/p>\n

Lyon\u2019s counterpart Craig McRae told Fox Footy pre-game that he intended to ease the 38-year-old into the Opening Round finale off the bench, in a move that paid huge dividends before the first break.<\/p>\n

Pendlebury registered three consecutive goal assists from just 32 per cent game time by quarter time, before closing out the match with 10 score involvements from 55 per cent time on ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought his touches were quality. 400 games, he looked composed … (but) he had one kick in the first half. We didn\u2019t speak about him at half time, with respect to everybody,\u201d Lyon said, after pointing to his side\u2019s positive takeaways.<\/p>\n

“It’s About to Boil Over!” | 01:04<\/p>\n

\u201cOur centre bounce work was great, our stoppage work was great. Our front-half game was great … the real challenge is they\u2019ll aim to beat you off turnover and their outside game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHandling the heat, I thought we did that. But, you\u2019ve got to be organised off turnover when you\u2019re behind the attack. Sometimes, they beat us at the contest, but they obviously did that more than we\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take the 61 (inside 50) entries, we\u2019ll take the front-half game, we\u2019ll take our stoppage work … but clearly, the connection, contest, cleanness and taking full opportunities and converting them wasn\u2019t at the level.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrategically, they had 147 marks \u2014 98 of them were in their back half. The second quarter was interesting; they took 38 in the back half, but we had 21 (inside 50) entries to seven. So, we had territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took seven intercepts off those 21 entries, so the ability to get the ball to ground or make the right decision wasn\u2019t at the level. To be honest, it was really costly.<\/p>\n

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was well held by Harry Perryman in a hard tag deployed by Collingwood, and was restricted to his lowest disposal count (19) since Round 6, 2024 against the Western Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Where should St Kilda play NWM? | 00:52<\/p>\n

By extension, it was just the third time the 23-year-old superstar has had less than 20 disposals in a match since Round 9, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he started the game really well … Nas worked through it (the tag),\u201d Lyon added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have his best night, but he never gave up and kept working. He\u2019s got to work through that phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re in pretty good order, if we learn our lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

St Kilda will continue their chase for a maiden win in 2026 against Melbourne next Sunday afternoon at the MCG without Rowan Marshall, who sat out the final quarter with concussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda coach Ross Lyon believes his side \u201chandled the heat\u201d in their two-goal loss to Collingwood to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[262077,638,104527,64,63,689,55,639,262079,10133,262082,10143,12099,36882,647,677,262083,4873,10127,668,45078,262076,26888,262078,1820,19083,85,1122,26889,191303,262081,262080,660,698],"class_list":["post-526894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-acts-halt-hype","tag-afl","tag-agency-period","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-centre-bounce-work","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-consecutive-goal-assists","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-game-time","tag-lowest-disposal-count","tag-melbourne","tag-oceania","tag-pies-silence-critics","tag-post-match-press-conference","tag-premiership-points","tag-press-conference","tag-real-challenge","tag-ross-weighs-in","tag-rowan-marshall","tag-saint-hugo-garcia","tag-score-involvements","tag-scott-pendlebury","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-st-kilda-saints","tag-stoppage-work","tag-traditional-midfield-role","tag-two-goal-loss","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526894","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=526894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}