Ross Lyon is set to be unveiled as St Kilda’s new coach as early as Monday after emerging from another secret Saints meeting with key figures on the weekend.
The Saints in the coming days are expected to confirm that Lyon, 55, is the club’s replacement for Brett Ratten, who was brutally sacked just under a fortnight ago despite signing a two-year contract extension earlier this year.
Lyon, who has the best win-loss ratio of any Saints coach in history after leading the club to 76 wins from 121 games, took part in a rapid series of intense meetings with St Kilda powerbrokers last week.
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He was then spotted on Sunday by 7 News Melbourne emerging from the luxurious Bayside home of Saints chairman Andrew Bassat, along with incoming footballer operations manager Geoff Walsh and Saints football director Jason Blake. It was reported the Saints were putting the finishing touches on his contract to return to the club 11 years after his sensational departure.
“Mate it’s Sunday morning and you doorstop me, have a spell!” Lyon said as he emerged from Bassat’s home.
But when asked if he’d been locked in as Saints coach, Lyon told 7 News Melbourne: “You know what? All good things come to those who wait.”
Lyon’s likely return to St Kilda means he’d become the first coach since David Parkin to return to an AFL club for a second coaching stint. Parkin coached Carlton to two flags in the 80s and then came back in the early 90s, leading them to the 1995 premiership.
It’s also set to end a three-year absence from the senior coaching ranks for Lyon after he was sacked by Fremantle at the end of the 2019 season following a 184-game stint there.
Prior to his eight-year tenure at the Dockers, Lyon coached St Kilda for five years, with the side desperately close to premiership success in both 2009 and 2010.
His departure from the club at the end of the 2011 season shocked the football world, with Lyon exercising a clause in his contract to leave the club and join Fremantle immediately, which sacked then-coach Mark Harvey to bring Lyon in.
President tells how Ratten lost his job | 01:06
Lyon’s name had been repeatedly linked to vacant coaching jobs in his time out of the game, with Carlton and Essendon key among them.
In both instances, Lyon expressed a hesitancy to commit to an intensive process, saying he was “wary” and “cautious” of entering the senior coaching ranks again.
Lyon last week said his “heart’s been opened up” to fall back in love with the Saints.
MORE TO COME
