AFL 2024: Ross Lyon unmoved by pre-season predictions his team won’t play finals

When the AFL captains gave their annual survey results, there was a significant lack of confidence in St Kilda making the finals again, as they did in Ross Lyons’ first year of his second tenure at the Saints in 2023.

Only three skippers predicted a final-eight finish, a theme that has continued among pre-season punditry but one Lyon is both unfazed by and not really interested in.

As he prepared for his team’s opening-round clash with Geelong at Geelong, a match they will play without injured All-Australian gun Jack Sinclair, Lyon maintained his only expectation was to get increased effort from his players this season, and casting any predictions was not his job, and the pundits were often wrong anyway.

“Nobody tipped us last year to make the eight but if I spent my time pondering everyone’s summaries about us and predictions, I wouldn’t get much work done,” Lyon said.

“It’s not my job but it creates great interest.

“I remember driving to round 1 (last year against) Fremantle. I hadn’t coached for three years, I sort of felt some pressure.

“It’s always there. If you’re an AFL coach, club or player there’s always expectation – particularly expectation on effort.

“We pride ourselves on effort and never giving up and I thought we did that (last year). If that’s one of our measures, that will be the aim again.”

Sinclair isn’t the only absentee for the clash with the Cats, with key defender Dougal Howard missing after suffering a hamstring injury in the final pre-season hitout.

It’s a key loss given the confronting forward line of Geelong boasts big men Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron, with Zaine Cordy set to fill a breach having played a key role in St Kilda’s Round 23 take-down of the Cats last season on their way to the finals.

“Last time Cordy played and played well,” Lyon said.

“We’re fortunate to have both (Howard and Cordy). They both bring different strengths but they’re both really good key defenders within our system.

“We’re confident that Cordy will stand up.”

Draftee Darcy Wilson, taken at pick 18 last year, will make his debut against the Cats, with Lyon acknowledging the difficult first-up task but adamant good teams have to “win anywhere”.

“There’s nowhere to hide in this competition,” Lyon said.

“Really good teams win anywhere – they get on the road and they win, they stand up.

“But it’s not even about the winning really. We want to win but we want to play our brand, our footy and make our supporters proud.”