When Andrew Bassat found himself deep in conversation with Ross Lyon at a mutual friend’s 60th birthday party late last winter, the St Kilda president had already embarked upon his unconventional football review.
At that stage, the coach Brett Ratten was only one small question mark in a bigger overall problem. Bassat’s mounting fear as he neared the end of his fourth year in the job was that he had sanctioned the Saints’ ongoing mediocrity by failing to truly challenge the club’s decision-makers.
Zak Jones and Ross Lyon share a laugh at a recent St Kilda training session.Credit: Getty Images
The club had re-signed Ratten, but the team had faltered after winning eight of its first 11 games. Years of poor recruiting and list management were being again underlined by some on-field warning signs.
Bassat was harbouring doubts, too, about soon-to-be Saints CEO Simon Lethlean’s proposed new football structure. Then list manager James Gallagher and the football program’s boss David Rath were reportedly going to share the head of football role.
In a rare show of authority, Bassat had refused to immediately green light Lethlean and his team’s wish to pursue Jordan De Goey.
Intriguingly it was the administrative series of red flags that led to Ross Lyon – St Kilda’s most successful coach since Allan Jeans – emerging as the answer to a long list of questions emerging from Bassat’s old school review.
Lyon with St Kilda president Andrew Bassat at the announcement of the coach’s return.Credit: Getty Images
Said Nick Riewoldt this week: “There are coaches that can coach and that are good coaches. Then there are coaches that transcend an organisation. For him to step back into the role a complete overhaul had to accompany it.”
Seeing Lyon by chance at that 60th party led to Bassat questioning the former coach-turned-media commentator and businessman about his ideal football structure. The closest Lyon had come – he said – to administrative utopia had taken place at Sydney, where he had worked as an assistant to Paul Roos.
Lyon spoke of the strong connection he had witnessed between chairman Richard Colless, football boss (and later club CEO) Andrew Ireland and the senior coach. The Swans no longer espoused the traditional football director’s board role. None of the above was taking place at Moorabbin.
The social chat with Lyon was one in a long line of back-room conversations that punctuated Bassat’s review. A review that ultimately led to the AFL’s most dramatic back-room deal in years: Lyon’s return to the club he famously quit back in 2011 after months of contractual bungling for long-term security at Fremantle.
‘I was frustrated by the fact that a group of young men somewhere were missing out on his coaching.’
Nick Riewoldt
A review that repeatedly reminded the president he had to take a stronger leadership role or otherwise join a decades long line of well-meaning but ultimately unsuccessful St Kilda chairmen. And a review in which Bassat and Lyon are firmly holding the reins of a revamped organisation in which the bloodletting seems unfinished.
“I still have to pinch myself when I see Ross coaching St Kilda again,” said Riewoldt. “It took a lot of bravery on Andrew Bassat’s part. It took a lot of guts because he was uncertain of the outcome when he went about this.
“I’m so happy for Ross, and I’m so happy for the players and for guys like [Mattaes] Phillipou and [Marcus] Windhager. I suppose I wasn’t certain Ross would coach again the longer it went on, and I was frustrated by the fact that a group of young men somewhere were missing out on his coaching.”
Riewoldt watched the Saints’ milestone victory over Essendon last Saturday from his new home in Texas, where he is living with his family and working full-time in a new job outside football. When asked if he was keeping one eye on St Kilda as he embarked upon his new life Riewoldt responded: “Two eyes.”
Nick Riewoldt with Lyon in his first stint as coach.Credit: Vince Caligiuri
St Kilda’s longest-serving captain has been described as a key powerbroker behind the scenes who helped influence the Lyon appointment. Certainly, he was an outspoken critic at the time of the Ratten re-signing, describing it as a “false economy” given the worrying on-field signs and the availability of – among others – Alastair Clarkson.
Powerbrokers of a different nature including Gerry Ryan, Larry Benge and the Fox family were also becoming frustrated again at some of St Kilda’s poor decisions. By the time Riewoldt celebrated his 40th in October, several guests, including Lindsay Fox’s son David, were openly haranguing another guest – Lyon – about returning to his old home.
One key source of disappointment was the club’s long history of recruiting bungles – bungles Bassat had come to understand all too clearly as football experts he questioned did not hold back.
Lethlean later came on board with a series of so-called outside industry specialists where the review was concerned, but it was Bassat’s self-awakening that led to club’s most controversial overhaul since Grant Thomas’s departure in 2006.
But it was a more fragile and somewhat disillusioned Lyon who found himself contemplating a return to his old club – a return that seemed inevitable well before Bassat and Lethlean warned Ratten in October that his job was on the line.
Lyon was badly burnt by Carlton the previous year in a process where Blues president Luke Sayers headed down the Bassat unilateral road only to lose his resolve. That took place when some board members and influential outsiders voiced concerns about Lyon’s history at the Dockers, where the club reached a confidential settlement with a woman following an incident at a club function.
Essendon approached Lyon last September, but the Bombers’ approach was half-hearted, and Lyon supporters warned him that Kevin Sheedy was pushing heavily for James Hird to coach the club.
Riewoldt’s reference to Bassat’s bravery probably infers that Lyon was wary of entering St Kilda’s public calculations before Ratten was removed. But once that decision was made, Lyon did not hold back as Bassat, Lethlean and new football boss Geoff Walsh embarked upon the numbers game of the impoverished club’s bursting football soft cap.
Knowing he was re-entering the coaching arena, having been sacked after a series of poor-performing seasons at Fremantle and determined to have his own team in place, Lyon was paid significantly less than he had previously commanded. Lyon insisted on Sean Richardson, the high-performance psychologist and his long-time right-hand man, joining him and Lyon wanted his other close associate from his previous St Kilda days, David Misson, back in the other high-performance role.
Walsh only remained as football boss for four months but he and Lyon agreed on Stephen Silvagni – another close friend of Lyon’s – replacing Gallagher as list manager, but only with the experienced veteran football boss and recruiter Graeme Allan alongside him.
Rath, who found himself with little to do once the assistant coaching roles had been filled with a host of famous and largely St Kilda-centric names, quit last month to join Wallabies coach Eddie Jones at Rugby Australia. Misson has been given a season to prove himself in the head football role.
“It’s a different road for him this time,” observed Riewoldt of Lyon’s return. “What he inherited when he came to us the first time was a relatively established group of players and at Fremantle, it was similar. This time there is a lot less experience, and he’s a big part of the rebuild.”
Lyon and his team momentarily panicked when it appeared that a technical mishap may have exposed comments among his coaching group not meant for the ears of young footballers. But he need not have worried.
The senior coach is as hard as ever on his staff and has worked to set new training and lifestyle standards across the playing group.
If Lyon and St Kilda divorced prematurely the first time around, the decision to renew marriage vows after a dream start to 2023 looks set for an extended second honeymoon. Last Saturday against Essendon at the MCG he seemed back at home.
And the old-fashioned Bassat-led review that brought him there may have lacked procedure and paperwork, but currently looks inspired.
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