St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has been torn to shreds over his bizarre response to a journalist’s question in his post-game press conference.
Lyon danced around why the club made the eyebrow raising decision to bench Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera for so long in the fourth quarter of St Kilda’s 13-point loss to the Demons.
The Saints were locked in the game of the round against Melbourne on Sunday at the MCG when the call was made.
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After slotting his third goal of the contest to bring the margin back to 12-points, the game was well and truly up for grabs.
But then the 23-year-old was seen running from the ground and onto the bench. The call left Channel 7’s Brian Taylor seething.
“Why would you take him off? And he’s asking the same question — why?” Brian Taylor said.
“It is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. Time is running out!
“There is no explanation. He’s not even puffing. He’s ready to go, he’s going to rip the game to bits! Get him out there!”
Even the Saints star couldn’t quite believe the decision. But to make matters even worse, he remained parked on the sidelines for six minutes.
After finally getting back out onto the field, time ran out for the Saints as they fell to their second straight loss to start the season.
During his post-game press conference, Lyon was asked why the star player was left on the bench for an extended period of time.
His response was initially blunt.
“I’m glad you’re focusing on that,” Lyon uttered under his breath.
Lyon then spent the next minute plus talking about the entirety of Wanganeen-Milera’s game instead of answering why he spent so long off the ground.
“It was really simple – (Wanganeen-Milera) had a licence to go anywhere. He was getting tagged, so you just put (pressure) on a tag and you open up your forward line,” he said.
“I said, ‘mate, you can go and take a kick-in, you can go behind the ball, you can go to the stoppage or you can go (to the bench)’.
“Sometimes you’ve got to let them drive the car … but it’s a steep learning curve. We’re not a proven top-four team or finalist, and with a lot of experience to just edge him on a little bit better than we are.
“I thought he fought … I’ll take three goals from him.”
Watch the Saints coach avoid the question in the video player above
Lyon’s bizarre response to being asked a questioned countless fans wanted to get to the bottom of went down like a lead balloon with fans.
Sports reporter Trent Masenhelder wrote on X: “Deflection 101. A poor response from a perfectly reasonable question.”
Comm Games medalist Barrie Lester wrote: “Have you ever heard so much dribble.”
A third wrote: “Never ever takes accountability, avoided the question and put the onus on nas saying he effectively chose to stay in the goalsquare … so why bring him off? clocks ticking on Ross.”
A fourth added: “Ross Lyon has been out coached in his first two games. The team has gone backwards. Lyon has always made excuses and lacked accountability.”
It wasn’t just fans who were lashing out at the Saints with Kane Cornes taking a flamethrower to the club over the inexcusable mistake.
“NAS spending 13 mins of the last quarter resting in the goalsquare, kicking a goal with 11 mins to go, then coming off for 6.20, will be hard to beat as the dumbest move this season,” Cornes wrote on X.
Collingwood great Scott Pendlebury said the baffling call wouldn’t happen again if the club could rewind time.
“I think if St Kilda had their time again they would have said if you need a break, just stay in the forward line, don’t worry about playing too much defence until you’ve got the wind back and then get after it again, because six minutes is a long time for one of your key players to be off in such a clutch period of the game,” Pendlebury said.
The Saints will have a chance to capture their first win of the season when they travel to Sydney next weekend for a clash against the GWS Giants on Saturday afternoon.
