Ross Lyon and the Saints were scolded after an ugly win against the Gold Coast Suns last week, but despite playing more attractive football against the Brisbane Lions on Friday night, they lost the match.
The Saints recorded their highest score of the season and also conceded their highest score of the year in their 19.12 (126) to 16.10 (106) defeat to Chris Fagan’s men at The Gabba.
After the match on Fox Footy, AFL great Garry Lyon wondered if the narrative surrounding St Kilda’s style of play would change after the Saints contested but lost an open, free-flowing match against Brisbane.
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Martin is not doing any media prior to game 300 | 02:43
“St Kilda achieved its highest score of the year; they scored 106 points, (but) they conceded their highest score, which was 126,” he began on Fox Footy’s post-match coverage.
“What will the story be around this? I’m interested in this. Last week the story (St Kilda’s win over Gold Coast) was a boring bore, it was poor – some of the more hysterical stuff – it was an indictment of the game.
“But they won. So now they come out and the game was a free flowing affair. They got their highest score (of the season), but they gave up the most they gave up all year and they lost.”
Collingwood champion Nathan Buckley said Saints fans would be more pleased with the way their club approached Friday night’s match.
“The narrative will be that ‘we didn’t win the game but that’s the kind of football we’d like to see’ if you’re a St Kilda supporter,” Buckley said.
“Let’s see a more transitional, expansive game. I’d rather see them score 100 points – let’s tighten up our defense a bit.
“That’s something for a week. If it happens for two, and then for three, and then for four, then it starts to wear off.”
Lyon interjected, “So you’d rather lose pretty than ugly?
Buckley replied, “No, and I think that’s a short-term thing. But losing pretty is okay in the short term, as long as you start winning pretty.
“St Kilda is still in the middle, and Ross (Lyon) will always coach a really good defensive structure first – that is fundamentally his philosophy.
“There will be elements he would be happy with and elements he would not be happy with.”
Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown praised St Kilda’s performance for much of the evening and noted Lyon would be “positive” about aspects of his team’s efforts.
“If you look at the score chart, (their) first quarter was terrible, I thought they were off,” Brown said.
“And then Brisbane scored pretty much the last four goals of the game. In between, St Kilda did a lot of good things.
“They defended well and moved the ball better than any team against the Brisbane Lions all year, and probably any team. 30 inside-50s for 20 scores, so a lot of good things happening there.
“No (Nasiah) Wanganeen-Milera, who along with (Liam) Henry are probably their most exciting attacking talents.
“So I think (Lyon) takes some positives from that. “It is clear that the way he reacted to his team – he gave them a strong spray – at quarter time he was not happy with their effort and their defensive responsibilities.”
In closing, Buckley returned to the bottom line.
“Ross Lyon’s job is to coach to win,” he said firmly.
“You want to win in a way that looks great, (but) the coaches just want to win, and sometimes you come across an opponent that you might have to coach.
“Other times you might want to coach it for an open match.”
The Saints remain two games behind the eighth-placed GWS Giants, who played two fewer games on Saturday.
