St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has received the backing of his club\u2019s chief executive after a group of Indigenous players \u2013 including star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera \u2013 took offence following a comment made at training earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Lyon made the comment when three Indigenous players lined up together for a drill, saying, \u201cI love the brother-boy connection, but we all have to remember, we are part of the bigger team here\u201d.<\/p>\n
The players raised their concerns with the coach the following day and the matter was dealt with internally, but became public when journalist Caroline Wilson raised it on Channel Seven on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Lyon said he had misjudged the moment. \u201cWas I being flippant? Could it be described as casual racism? I learned a lot out of what happened,\u201d he told Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t land where it should have landed, and I have to wear that, and I take full responsibility for what I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
When approached by media at training on Tuesday morning, the coach accepted his mistake. \u201cCulture is really important and behaviour is really important and I made an error unintentionally, resolved it with my players and I\u2019m thankful for their support,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n
Saints chief executive Carl Dilena said it was a \u201cpretty innocent oversight\u201d by Lyon that meant no harm, but it was important to assess whether comments were racist by how they are received.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019d be people out there going, \u2018Oh, did it really [cause offence], was that very serious?\u2019 And Ross didn\u2019t think anything of it at the time,\u201d Dilena told SEN on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is very challenging, and as we\u2019ve seen in various instances, it\u2019s how it\u2019s received more so than how it\u2019s delivered. That\u2019s always the challenge with casual racism or unconscious bias. People don\u2019t think of it, but probably need to be more aware of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. Photograph: Morgan Hancock\/AAP<\/p>\n
Lyon was reportedly emotional and offered to consider his position of senior coach when he spoke with a group of players at the club, including Bradley Hill and Wanganeen-Milera, three days after the incident.<\/p>\n
Dilena said he only learned of the matter on Monday night, but he was happy with how it was handled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that he\u2019s running a pretty safe environment with our First Nations boys where they were comfortable to raise it with him and discuss it and just sort it out harmoniously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just sorted it out between themselves like any mishap and it was a positive outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Kilda sit 12th on the ladder after seven games. 59-year-old Lyon is in his second stint coaching the club, having held the job since 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has received the backing of his club\u2019s chief executive after a group of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-635352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635352","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=635352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}