Stephen Milne has revealed he was almost traded from St Kilda at the end of 2006.
Essendon and Port Adelaide were both interested in recruiting the small forward, but it was Ross Lyon who convinced Milne to remain at Moorabbin.
Lyon’s arrival following the departure of Grant Thomas sparked Milne into life, booting 50-plus goals in four of the next seven seasons.
“I hadn’t been told face-to-face, but I kind of read the writing on the wall that I would probably get put up for trade,” Milne told The Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast.
"Obviously I had a little bit of interest from a couple of other clubs which I was pretty happy with, so I kind of met with them, but it took us a while for Ross Lyon to get appointed.
“Kevin Sheedy was senior coach of Essendon at the time and played a year under him in the reserves with Adam Ramanauskas, and I met Sheeds at the Hilton and he went through all my stats and averages and he was very, very keen - I said I am keen also.
"Through my manager Tom Petroro … Mark Williams was pretty keen at Port Adelaide and I said if the worst came to the worst I would love to move over there.
"He (Ross Lyon) said, ‘I believe you can play good footy for this club and I will give you a three-year contract. Just chase and tackle and we will go from there.’
“The next thing I had another 150 games under Ross.”
Milne, now 40, kicked 574 goals in 275 games for the Saints and is a dual All-Australian in 2011 and 2012.