‘Culture’s not fixed’: AFL coaches address Swans crisis
Oliver Caffrey |
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon believes clubs are “only as good as your next moment”, as the AFL world continues to process the Sydney scandal.
Speaking after the Saints’ season came to an end on Thursday night, Lyon, unprompted, referenced the crisis engulfing the Swans.
Lyon spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Sydney, including the club’s drought-breaking premiership year of 2005.
“As we’re seeing around the league, right, culture’s not fixed,” Lyon said after St Kilda’s defeat to Gold Coast.
“You’re only as good as your next moment, and the standards you deliver, and that’s on and off the field.
“No culture is fixed, and in perpetuity, it’s a product of all the people in there and a common set of behaviours and actions that you see on a daily basis.
“Once you start going away from that, well, the culture changes.”
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell earlier this week admitted to speaking to his players about “remembering the expectations we have on ourselves and making sure we continue to live up to them”.
AAP understands several other AFL coaches have also addressed their players in the wake of the Pullman Hotel scandal, which is the subject of an ongoing police investigation.
But Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge hasn’t felt the need to talk to his playing group about the situation.
“Like everyone else, I’m just in a bit of a state of shock with it,” he said.
“What we do in any workplace is try and build trust and have that at the forefront of our hearts and our minds.
“But as we know, with human nature, sometimes things go wrong.
“I don’t want to question our group and talk about something that’s outside of our club.”
AAP