Seething Suns hit back at Lyon’s ‘offensive whinge’
Shayne Hope |
Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans has joined Damien Hardwick in condemning “offensive and out of order” comments about the AFL expansion club by St Kilda coach Ross Lyon.
Lyon sparked a war of words in a pre-match interview at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, when he referred to the Queensland outfit as “the AFL nepo baby”.
It was an apparent reference to the draft concessions and access to academy talent the Suns have enjoyed.
Hardwick hit back after his side’s gritty 19-point victory, firing up over Lyon’s “disrespectful” remark.
He urged St Kilda to “focus on their own backyard” and took a parting shot over the low crowd figure after only 13,486 fans turned up.
It was the Saints’ smallest crowd at the Docklands venue and their lowest attendance at a home game in Melbourne since 2002.
Still seething on Monday, Evans backed his coach and delivered a stinging response to Lyon’s “whinge”.
“I thought the comments were offensive and out of order,” Evans told SEN radio.
“Offensive in that the word (nepotism) implies corruption and favouritism. That really stabs at the club’s hard work over a lot of years.
“We haven’t always had the best history at stuff. We lost a lot of players, we had to rebuild, we knew we were going to reset through the draft.
“There was a lot of hard work to get to a position where we finally get some wins at the front end of the season.”
Evans also pointed to priority picks St Kilda were given to secure Nick Riewoldt (2000) and Luke Ball (2001) in the national draft.
“It would be like me getting up and saying, ‘The only reason they made the grand final (in 2009 and 2010) was because they were gifted Riewoldt and Ball and (Justin) Koschitzke’,” Evans said.
“There is so much work that goes into getting to that stage. Imagine belittling the club that was just gifted them.
“So we found it offensive and out of order.
“It’s unusual in a pre-game interview. It’s hard to see those words would just fall out at the particular time, so we didn’t like it.”
Evans crossed paths with St Kilda chief executive Carl Dilena at Marvel Stadium and voiced his opinion about Lyon’s comments.
“This seemed like a whinge that was out of order and we want to stand up for our club,” Evans said.
Hardwick, meanwhile, intends to have a “very strong conversation” with the AFL umpiring department after accusing St Kilda defenders of manhandling his key forwards.
Ben King, Jed Walter and Ethan Read managed just three goals between them against the Saints.
Coleman Medal contender King didn’t have a kick for three quarters, kept quiet by Callum Wilkie, but finished with two important goals in the final term.
Walter kicked one major from nine disposals and Read was scoreless from five touches before being subbed out in the third quarter.
Hardwick admitted his charges were down on form against the Saints but wasn’t happy with what he perceived as unfair treatment by opposition defenders.
“There’ll be a very strong conversation coming from my coaching panel to the umpiring fraternity this week,” Hardwick said.
“We didn’t get a hell of a lot of reward for our one-on-one contests.
“You can sit there and you want an even battle, and we understand that, but I thought our guys were manhandled all day today.
“They’re young and they’re inexperienced, so they’ll get better at handling it, but they’ve also got to be given a fair chance.”
Hardwick’s demands from the umpiring department will be straightforward.
“Just some clarification around what we can and can’t do, but more importantly how our players can combat it,” he said.
“Like, what do you want to see from our guys?
“We don’t want them to play for free kicks but we also want them to be able to run and jump at the ball.”
Hardwick will continue to back his three key forwards, with the Suns next meeting a Fremantle side set to be without key defender Alex Pearce through suspension.
Gold Coast sit third on the ladder with an 8-2 record for the first time in their 15-year history as they chase a maiden finals appearance.
AAP
