St Kilda manager Ross Lyon apologizes to the team after an embarrassing audio leak revealed EXACTLY what he thought of his own players in the pre-season match
- Audio leak has some St Kilda players nervous
- It comes from the practice match against Essendon
- New coach Ross Lyon demands high standards
- The club uploaded the audio to the AFL’s shared Dropbox folder
- Lyon told certain players he was ‘honest and open’
St Kilda captain Jack Steele has admitted that “non-ideal” audio from the coaches’ box could be made public soon, confirming that Ross Lyon have already spoken to some players to prepare them for what they might hear.
The new Saints manager, known for being lively and vocal during games, wanted to ensure that a number of players were “comfortable” with what had been said in the box during Friday’s practice match against Essendon.
St Kilda accidentally uploaded their confidential managers’ box audio to a league-wide shared Dropbox folder last weekend, and the club proactively responded to the bug should the audio be accessed before it was removed from Folder.
Sensitive tactical information could have been exposed to other AFL clubs through the leak, but Steele said Lyon were also focused on allaying the concerns of certain players about comments made about them in the box.
“It’s not ideal, it’s not the information you want to hear about your club,” Steele said.
St Kilda captain Jack Steele has admitted that ‘non-ideal’ audio from the coaches’ box may soon be made public, before confirming that manager Ross Lyon has already spoken to individual players to prepare them for what they may hear.
Lyon are famous for demanding excellence from their players, and their intensity has been welcomed by the Saints’ playing group in pre-season.
Lyon will aim to finish in the top eight this AFL season for St Kilda as a minimum expectation
“But at the end of the day it was a mistake, and Ross addressed things (Wednesday) in the morning before it all came out, which to me was pretty impressive.”
“For him to get on his front foot and just hit him over the head was pretty special.
‘[In saying that] it’s not what you want coming out this time of year right before the first round.’
The Saints captain said Lyon were “quite open and honest” about comments involving some of their players.
He told us exactly how it was, exactly what happened. Only the audio from the coaches’ booth was leaked with footage from the game, so it really didn’t pull any punches in terms of information,” Steele added.
“Some things were said that he needed to address with certain people, just to make sure they were comfortable with what was said.”
Speaking at the AFL Captain’s Day at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Thursday, Steele said it took time for the group of players to adjust to Lyon’s more intense style in meetings and on matchday after his predecessor’s more relaxed approach. Brett Ratten.
“Ross is definitely all business, he really wants to win… I’m not saying Ratts wouldn’t want that, but he’s [Lyon] very serious when it comes to football and games like that, whereas Ratts always tends to take a lighter view of things,” Steele said.
“And there’s no right or wrong answer, they’re definitely different, it took us a while to adjust as a playgroup to Ross’s ways, but it’s been a nice and refreshing change for Ross to come in.”