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Garry Lyon has slammed Melbourne’s inability to deal with expectation, saying that until they can handle the pressure of favoritism, they won’t live up to potential.
The Demons slumped to their fourth defeat of the season with a three-point loss to a struggling Hawthorn at the MCG yesterday, which saw them fall from the top eight, and are now level on wins with Carlton, Gold Coast and Essendon.
Lyon told SEN Breakfast that despite the addition of talented youngsters, and veteran recruits – such as ex-Hawk Jordan Lewis – there remains an inherent problem at his former club.
“They struggle to deal with expectation,” Lyon said.
“In every game this year, Melbourne have led, or been even in the last quarter. In every game.
“Their best football is as exciting as anyone’s in the competition, but Simon Goodwin’s greatest challenge is psychological – to get them to buy into psychologically buy into the fact that being a good side and a contender means you deal with expectation.
“The easiest thing in the world to do, is go out and play poorly early as they did – and Simon Goodwin questioned their preparation, get 36-points behind, you know what happens then? Expectation gone, so you play with freedom.
“They got to three-quarter-time (one-point down) and you know what came back at three-quarter-time? Expectation – and they didn’t deal with it.”
Lyon said that former coach Paul Roos was able to improve the overall mindset to a point where they were competitive, but they still have a long way to go before its good enough to be a contender.
“The hardest leap of all is to go from the middle rung to the top rung,” he said.
“They’ve got the capacity to play top-four footy.
“I said this last year. They have a great win, and they come up and against a side and they are massive overwhelming favorites and they fail dismally. That’s not a one-off, that’s a pattern.”
Melbourne heads to Adelaide on Saturday night to face the Crows, who are the rebound after their first loss of the season.