Why that was the “wrong time and place” for Ross Lyon runner ‘excuse’

Ross Lyon didn’t want to use it as an excuse, but he did happen to bring it up after St Kilda’s loss to Hawthorn.

The Saints coach bemoaned the fact that he was unable to send a runner out onto the ground in the final three minutes of his side’s eventual five-point loss in Launceston.

Lyon said he was able to send out a runner whenever he pleased in his former stints as head coach of the Saints and Fremantle.

But the rules in 2024 allow just four visits from the runner per quarter, plus after every goal. This clearly frustrated Lyon as he was unable to make the moves he wanted to late in the game.

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley pondered why Lyon would have felt the need to bring that up at his post-match press conference.

“He mentioned three times that it’s not an excuse,” Buckley said on SEN Breakfast.

“This would be something that Ross has put on the table. Coaches don’t have much of a public forum outside the press conference.

“We’ve seen Chris Scott have a crack about holding the ball, some of the interpretations and decisions.

“Ross has gone with this. We see it as deflection, don’t we? There’s potentially a little bit to that, but I don’t know if you can be that calculated.

“This is obviously something that has been a stone in Ross’ shoe. What modern day coaches have done, they use the players who have been rotated more and the messages go through the players and to the playing group on-field, rather than the runner.”

Despite denying on multiple occasions that it was an excuse, Lyon could have picked a better time and place to deflect St Kilda’s subpar performance, according to Kane Cornes.

He feels Lyon has used excuses at other points this season and this is just the latest ploy to try and take away from his underperforming team.

“There's a time and a place, though,” Cornes said.

“I watched this game and I sent a text message to the producers at the AFL show I do on Saturday night and I said, ‘I wonder what excuse Ross will have for this loss’, because I've seen it all year.

“It's been a free kick count against Port Adelaide. It's been a short day break.

“Now it's runners and his point is actually right - kick more goals, you get more used to the runners.

“It’s not as if scoring and the lack of scoring is a problem that just bobbed up in the middle of the Hawthorn game.

“This is a discussion we've had all year about the Saints. So surely you fix that during the week, not mid game.

“I thought it was a strange time to raise the issue.

“After you've kicked 53 points against a bottom-four side that’s smashed with injuries, that doesn't have their captain (James Sicily) - that was the wrong time and place.”

The Saints were beaten for a fourth time in their last five games to slump to a 3-6 record which has them sitting 14th on the ladder.

Lyon’s outfit next host Fremantle at Marvel Stadium on the Saturday night of Round 10.