Lyon, Saints eye more upsets as AFL finals ‘Grinch’
St Kilda won’t play finals this season but coach Ross Lyon is more than comfortable throwing a few spanners in the works for his rivals.
After a 17.6 (108) to 8.7 (55) thrashing of top-eight hopefuls Essendon at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, Lyon has set his set sights on upsetting the red-hot Brisbane Lions.
Further games against premiership aspirants Geelong and Carlton lie ahead in the last month of the home-and-away season.
“I’m happy to be ‘The Grinch’,” Lyon said.
St Kilda have won three of their past four matches, with victories over Sydney and Essendon proving they are capable of shaking up the finals mix.
The Saints completely dismantled the Bombers, taking a huge tally of 133 uncontested marks to control possession, and scored from 23 of 43 forward entries.
“You don’t get uncontested marks if you don’t run and work hard,” Lyon said.
“Bar the second quarter I thought we were able to sort of pin them a bit, ground position-wise.
“Our centre-square bounce work has been as good as it’s been the last couple of weeks.
“It’s a little win here. We’ve just got to keep improving. That’s the space we’re in.”
While St Kilda’s recent form has “validated” their hard work and pleased their coach, Lyon is left with a sense of ‘what might have been’ this season.
A run of narrow defeats earlier in the campaign cruelled their chances of playing finals again, after reaching the top-eight last year in Lyon’s first season back at the helm.
“That frustrating period … I look back now and geez it’s (four) under six points and then there’s an eight (point loss),” Lyon said.
“That’s a bit of our own doing, our own fault, there was some personnel (issues) and you’re playing some good teams.”
St Kilda improved to 8-11 with their win over Essendon and host Brisbane at Marvel Stadium on August 4.
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