Four rounds in and Ross Lyon’s return to St Kilda is looking a masterstroke.
Arriving back at the club that he coached to two Grand Finals in 2009 and 2010, Lyon has breathed belief into a Saints side that’s undefeated through the season’s opening month.
Given the Saints were considered a rebuilding team prior to the start of the season and tipped for some short-term pain, Lyon’s ability to get the most out of his young group - particularly as several key players are out injured - has wowed the AFL world.
From the outside looking in, it looks like the Saints are playing disciplined but with a level of freedom in attack and SEN’s Josh Jenkins got a greater understanding for how the side is flourishing early after bumping into assistant coach Corey Enright.
“It looks like he (Ross Lyon) has changed a lot from the looks of things,” Jenkins told SEN Crunch Time.
“If the proof is in the pudding then the pudding looks pretty tasty.
“They’re just playing the game the right way at the moment, I imagine that the coaching staff - and I managed to bump into Corey Enright in the supermarket just before - and I asked him how they’re going so well with so many injuries.
“I think the coaching group has identified, ‘Well we don’t have our full complement, so let’s simplify it and let these young guys play the game the way they best know how’.
“Asking (Mitch) Owens, (Jack) Higgins or some of these guys to step up and play a role of a senior players who is not there is only going to lead to failure.
“They’re just not comfortable doing that, so they’re letting them play the way they know how and that’s what they’re doing.
“Who would have guessed the Saints would have been the most exciting team in the league this year.”
While Lyon has been one of the game’s most successful coaches over the last 15 years without winning it all, SEN’s Tom Morris believes he could be an improved product in his third stint for spending time working in other areas of the game following his Fremantle departure in 2019.
“I’m fascinated by Ross Lyon,” Morris said.
“In his stint at St Kilda a decade ago he’d shut the blinds at the Seaford facility so the staff couldn’t watch training in case they’d leak information out.
“Ross Lyon 3.0 is talking at his press conferences now speaking about the club existing for the fans.
“He spoke about how he loves being a part of the show with the broadcast partners, he was interviewed before the game in the coaches box - he never would have done that a decade ago or with Fremantle.
“He’s worked in the media, he’s been outside the bubble … he was a very good coach already, but I wonder if he’s an even better coach having been outside of the system for a couple of years.”
Lyon and the 4-0 Saints face their toughest challenge yet in Round 5 when they face the Magpies in Gather Round on Sunday at the Adelaide Oval.