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Loss a wake-up call: Lyon

17 July 2010

ST KILDA coach Ross Lyon has described Saturday afternoon’s 48-point loss to Collingwood as “a nice little wake-up call”.

Coming into the match on the back of seven consecutive wins, a sluggish St Kilda outfit was unable to match Collingwood’s intensity and attack on the ball throughout.

After kicking the first goal of the match, the Saints were convincingly outplayed as a fleet-footed Collingwood side kicked the next five and never took its foot off the accelerator.

The win catapulted the Pies into top spot on the ladder for the first time since 2006 and left many pondering if they had now assumed premiership favouritism ahead of St Kilda and Geelong.

While Lyon didn’t comment on where he saw his side ranked in the race to the flag, he said the result provided a good opportunity to assess areas it needed to improve on ahead of September.

“I’m not sure what I feel. You’re always disappointed, but we’ll go away and assess it and draw some accurate conclusions,” he said.

“I feel we’ll move forward with a purpose and it’s a nice little wake-up call; we just got outplayed today.”

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse took a gamble during the week in picking a small, quick side and the move paid dividends as St Kilda was consistently beaten to the ball and struggled to counter the Magpies’ run.

Coupled with the Saints’ inaccuracy in front of goal, kicking a wasteful 6.16, it summed up a dark day for Lyon’s team.

“I don’t think (inaccuracy) was the issue. You can have those days at the ‘G in these conditions against quality opposition,” he said.

“I think Collingwood played very well, I thought they pressured well, and caused a lot of turnovers - we were always on the back foot.

“They played quite hungry and were pretty aggressive and we were on the back foot. It was hard to get back from there on a difficult day.”

However Lyon was happy with the continued progress of skipper Nick Riewoldt in his return from a long injury lay off.

Riewoldt tore his hamstring off the bone in the corresponding fixture earlier this season and although he was far from his dominant best, he showed he would again be a force when he regained match fitness.

“I don’t think Riewoldt had too many opportunities. I think in the second half he was a lot more dangerous, we only had 15 entries to half time so it’s pretty hard to judge your key forwards,” Lyon said.

“I think he’s working and building and we move onto round 17 pretty quickly and he’ll just keep getting better.”

Key midfielder Nick Dal Santo was a late withdrawal from the match with back soreness, but is expected to be fit for their clash with a revitalised Hawthorn at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

Source: www.saints.com.au

Saint Michael Gardiner takes control at a ruck contest

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