Former St Kilda coach Scott Watters believes Ross Lyon needs to make significant change if Fremantle is to start climbing the ladder.
Watters, who took over as coach of the Saints after Lyon defected to the Dockers, believes the club needs to have a serious chat about where they’re going strategically.
“There’s talent and there’s a lot of kids on that list there are showing great signs, but then there’s tactics and it’s time someone within the Fremantle coaching staff actually made a statement about their offensive ball movement and their offensive structure,” Watters told Footy WA.
The criticism comes after the Dockers’ 54-point loss to Melbourne on Saturday night in a game where the side lost the inside 50 count 78 to 28 and had over 100 fewer disposals.
“The reason why that (inside 50 differential) happens is as you’re coming out of the back half, you have no forward line structure, no players in front of the ball and two marks inside 50 for the whole game,” he said.
“Give the young kids a chance to actually play as creative forwards because 28 inside 50s and 13 scoring shots is not acceptable.
“It’s time some comments were made about Fremantle because they’re a long way off.”
Former Coleman Medal winner for West Coast Scott Cummings believes the way Lyon coaches is contributing greatly to the desire for the game to be changed.
“Most of the time I loathe to blame the coach for the way guys go about winning the footy and contesting the ball, but this is a pure structure and set up problem the way Freo went about it last night,” Cummings said.
“This is the sort of coaching that’ll see us get zones next year. This is the sort of coaching that will see rule changes come to our game that we don’t want to see.
“I’ve never, ever had a bad turn with Ross Lyon, I love seeing Ross, but that sort of coaching is going to get our game flipped on its head and he’s done it his entire career without success. He needs to change.”
Cummings looks to Richmond and Collingwood as teams with “stubborn” coaches that changed the way they play and are now reaping the rewards.
“Is Ross able to put his stubbornness and maybe his ego aside to bring in a senior assistant, someone to challenge him? Someone to take on his ideals like Damien Hardwick did?” Cummings asked.
“Nathan Buckley was able to change the way he goes about it and the results have followed. They’re two really stubborn blokes with big egos too and they’ve managed to change the way they go about it.
“Can Ross do that?” he asked.
Watters doesn’t believe Lyon can.
“Historically, the answer is no,” he replied.
Watters also mentioned Peter Sumich who was at the Dockers in a senior assistant role, but quit the club at the end of 2016.