‘Not the vernacular’: Derm questions rare Ross excuse… and reveals what’s really ‘hurting’ Saints

Fox Footy’s Dermott Brereton has raised an eyebrow at Ross Lyon’s travel excuses after St Kilda slumped to its third loss in as many games.

Despite injury decimation, Port Adelaide withstood a late Saints storm to send the travelling team packing on Friday night at Adelaide Oval.

Through the campaign’s first seven rounds, St Kilda has made trips to Geelong and Canberra in addition to a pair of separate Adelaide sojourns.

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After starting the 2024 season 2-2, Lyon’s men have dropped three consecutive matches to sit precariously at 2-5 following their latest shortfall.

But while a team that qualified for finals the season previous might have expected to be sitting in a better spot, Sydney Hall of Famer Gerard Healy said the Saints are on par.

“I think they’re at where they expected to be at, to be honest,” Healy told Fox Footy Live on Friday night.

“They’ve lost a couple of close games, they can’t kick a (big enough) score, they’ve got some injuries — Max King’s not helping them.

Asked if after making the finals last year they expected to be 2-5 after seven games, Healy said: “No, probably not.

“But, you know, a goal here and a goal there, the way they’re playing at the moment, one or two goals either way can (change the result).

“They’ve got a couple of injuries. When I saw them play against Collingwood in Round 2, that was the best I’ve seen (them) play for a long time.”

Among St Kilda’s biggest outs are King (knee), ex-Docker Liam Henry (hamstring), Brad Crouch (knee), Mason Wood (collarbone) and Hunter Clark (calf).

“They lost their wingman (Henry) they got from Fremantle, who was a fantastic player (before his injury) and will be for them (going forward),” Healy continued.

“King’s been out, hasn’t really solidified, and they coped pretty well with some injuries (against Port) I thought, St Kilda.

“Their effort was there; it’s just their lack of skill and their lack of polish is hurting them.”

211-gamer Brereton assessed the manner in which the Saints registered their scores.

“I thought that right at the end they got enough of the footy and they were getting reasonable looks — even in the last quarter — but just the polish to pull it off (lacked) as they went forward,” Brereton said.

“They kicked a couple of really good, scrappy, fighting goals, but (they lacked) that real polish. They labour their goals rather than bang, bang, bang, bang, bang … It’s graft that gets them their score.”

During his press conference, Lyon was at his quirky, cheeky, quietly combative and almost frustrating best, as he answered reporters’ queries on Friday evening.

“One thing (Lyon) was (as a player), he was a combatant,” Brereton said. “He wanted the fight. He went looking for the fight, he went seeking contact.

“He wanted the fight, and you could see there, just then (during his presser), he was itching for someone to give him a really, really bad question, and he wanted to gun at them.”

Asked by Fox Footy’s Ben Dixon if St Kilda’s 2023 finals berth was “a fluke”, Healy wasn’t falling for it.

“How do you fluke making finals?” retorted Healy. “I don’t think it was a fluke, they played finals.

“I don’t think it was a fluke. I think they played really well; I think all their good players were playing at their best.

“I don’t think (Jack) Sinclair has been playing at his best, I don’t think (Callum) Wilkie has been, (but he was) better tonight.

“I mean, you have your ups and downs in seasons, and right now, the Saints, they’re losing close games. Last year they won close games, and it is that close in an even competition that can determine your fate.”

Brereton lauded Lyon’s coaching pedigree before calling out his contradictory stance on travel struggles.

“I’m a Ross Lyon fan,” he said.

“Do I love the way he coaches? I think he coaches excellently. Do I like the way his team performs under his coaching? Not exactly, but he’s a fantastic coach.

“He’s a great leader of young men. One thing I will say about Ross is, forever and a day as a coach, he’s always said ‘we are, under me, we are an ‘anywhere, anytime’ (team)’. Even at St Kilda he’s uttered those words.

“So, for the first time in his entire coaching era, he’s come out with the ‘we’ve had three interstate trips in a row, we’ve had three (quick) turnarounds’.

“He said, ‘for a young group, we are battling with that’. Now, this is a man who, for 20 years, has said ‘we’re an anywhere, anytime team’.

“That’s not the vernacular of ‘anywhere, anytime’.”

Brereton wondered if Lyon and the Saints might receive a hushed apology from the league’s fixture-makers.

“I’m just wondering, at some stage do the AFL turn around and give him a quiet call and say ‘keep this to yourself, Ross, (but) we might’ve given you the rough end of the pineapple in the first six weeks’,” Brereton said.

“That (fixture) is a hard ask.”

Concluded Healy on St Kilda’s jam-packed draw: “It’s proved to be pretty hard. Last week (against the Western Bulldogs) we saw the evidence of a side that was fatigued.”

The Saints will play three of their next four matches in Melbourne, with their Round 9 bout with Hawthorn to come in Tasmania.