Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut Lyon said there\u2019s \u201cno more, no less\u201d pressure to turn things around quickly after an aggressive off-season splash ahead of Saturday\u2019s must-win clash with GWS. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something I\u2019m focusing on. Always bringing in new pieces, together you\u2019re working,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo those pieces, there\u2019s been a lot of noise apparently, but it doesn\u2019t come up in my algorithm. I\u2019m not really across everything, except I hear the (Saint) media department tell me there\u2019s been a lot of noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon suggested he was able to block out the scrutiny, but added \u201cI can fine tune my algorithm so it feeds me that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Swans Year of Redemption’ | 04:06<\/p>\n
Asked about the likelihood that St Kilda\u2019s big names would be seeing some of the criticism, Lyon joked: \u201cWe\u2019re going to tweak their algorithms!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Saints boss said Wanganeen-Milera and De Koning knew what they signed up for and \u201cit\u2019s not our job\u201d to prepare them for the added stresses of AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just support people. That\u2019s why AFL football is abnormal,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like what (media) do, you\u2019re not under scrutiny. You choose AFL football, you choose stress, you choose anxiety, and you choose being in the arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to be in the arena \u2013 I know what\u2019s coming \u2013 but you\u2019ve got to write your own story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opening round criticism continues | 02:58<\/p>\n
Lyon backed both stars to respond, noting they\u2019d \u201ctraditionally written really strong AFL stories\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all only as good as our next moment. The moment you don\u2019t handle the stress and anxiety, it\u2019s time to give it away,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep leaning into it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s AFL \u2013 it\u2019s high performance and it\u2019s abnormal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want normal, then you step to the other side of this microphone and the other side of the fence on the ground and you pursue mediocrity in your life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys are pursuing excellence, and with that comes a lot of critique.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Wanganeen-Milera\u2019s disposal count well down from 29.9 last season to 18.5 through two games in 2026, Lyon said there should be a focus to get the ball in the superstar Saint\u2019s hands more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with any team, get it in (your best player\u2019s) hands. Nick Daicos had 23 handball receives the week before (against St Kilda) and <\/p>\n
was lauded. The next closest on the ground was 11,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo clearly a good strategy is to get it in the hands of your good users. It\u2019s not always going to look perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Lyon hit back at some of the Wanganeen-Milera scrutiny by highlighting the 23-year old still hit the scoreboard with thee goals against against Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kicked three goals \u2013 66 for the year, where would that rank him among the key forwards? It would rank him no. 1 wouldn\u2019t it?,\u201d Lyon highlighted.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us are perfect. We don\u2019t want to be 0-2 \u2013 we are. The only way to get out of 0-2 is to improve your football and win.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you dive in, the football analysis bar diving into the individuals and the win-loss narrative, there\u2019s different analyses.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the injury front, the St Kilda coach said Liam Ryan was \u201ca bit sore\u201d but would train on Thursday after hurting his shoulder against the Demons.<\/p>\n
Asked if Mattaes Phillipou\u2019s quad setback was just a cork, Lyon responded: \u201cIts that what\u2019s been reported and put on the AFL website?<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless you know something different, I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says it\u2019s not the club\u2019s job to protect its highly-paid superstars from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,272805,64,63,689,55,639,16716,684,247300,86688,10145,7492,272801,272802,677,272798,668,272800,272804,85,1122,26889,272799,7200,1117,660,272803],"class_list":["post-551461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-aggressive-off-season-splash","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ball-movement","tag-ben-cotton","tag-daniel-hoyne","tag-football-analysis","tag-garry-lyon","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-highly-paid-superstars","tag-lucrative-off-season-recruiting","tag-oceania","tag-off-season-recruiting-drive","tag-press-conference","tag-quad-setback","tag-ross-lyon-press","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-st-kilda-saints","tag-star-scrutiny","tag-sydney-swans","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-victoria","tag-win-loss-narrative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551461","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=551461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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