St Kilda captain Jack Steele has provided an insight into the “demanding” yet inspiring nature of Ross Lyon, revealing the Saints coach early in the pre-season had challenged him to lose weight.
The Saints have been the most surprising strong performer of the 2023 AFL season to date, winning five of their six games and conceding the least amount of points of any club to sit on top of the ladder with the best percentage in the competition.
It comes after St Kilda brutally sacked Brett Ratten in October last year, with Lyon returning to the club to take the coaching reins following his sensational defection from the Saints to the Dockers 11 years earlier.
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Lyon has developed a reputation for asking a lot of his leaders and senior players.
Asked if he’d felt those demands, Steele told SEN’s Sportsday: “Absolutely, yeah. He’s definitely challenged myself and the rest of the leaders at times and for the most part we’ve responded and led the way in the first part of the year.”
Steele said he and fellow leadership group member Seb Ross had been challenged by Lyon to get fitter during the summer.
“I suppose he didn’t know a lot about me when he first came into the club,” Steele said.
“I know for me and Seb Ross, we weren’t heavier coming back from the off-season, but we were sitting at about 90 kilos – that’s what we were playing at last year – and the first thing he said to us was: ‘We want to be a running team and we need you to be a little bit lighter.’
“So Seb and I got to work with losing a bit of weight and we‘ve been able to hold that off. It’s obviously contributed to the way we’re playing this year and our running capacity through the midfield.
“That’s just one example and I suppose the rest of the leaders would have their own. He’s just so demanding and he’s a bloke you don’t really want to let down. I’m glad he’s had that impact on the leaders and the rest of the group as well.”
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Steele said he’d made some tweaks in the gym and was “pushing yourself harder” on the training track, while he’d also made changed his diet in terms of how much he eats.
The Saints skipper said he’d been pleasantly surprised by his side’s strong start to the season – especially considering St Kilda’s injury issues – adding that Lyon had made a significant impact on the playing group.
“I didn’t think we’d be in this position at this time of the year, especially with the injuries we had coming into the season,” he said.
“The way Ross has come in and put us to work over the pre-season, got us running pretty hard – pre-season was bloody tough, it was one of the hardest I’ve ever had to do in my time in footy – but also the education piece as well, that’s the biggest thing for me.
“He walks into a meeting and you don’t know what he’s going to ask you … He can throw anything at you, so you need to be ready and know your stuff. A lot of us will sit there with our booklets and writing notes.
“I feel like he’s really been holding us accountable with knowing our gameplan and sticking to that.”
