AFL 2025: St Kilda coach Ross Lyon on the future of stars and player unrest
Hours after a TV appearance in which Lyon played down reports about best and fairest Callum Wilkie's disenchantment and a $25m offer to Harley Reid, Lyon refused to be expansive on Wednesday in his weekly, AFL mandated, club media conference.
As the club circles Carlton ruckman Tom de Koning and GWS defender Leek Aleer with big-money deals, while trying to retain new AFL record holder Nasiah Wanganeen Milera, reports have emerged of turbulence among St Kilda players including Wilkie, Marcus Windhager and Rowan Marshall.
Lyon, however, dodged questions and queried the 'journalistic rigour' that went into the bulk of stories being circulated about his club.
'No (it's not upsetting), because you know it's not true, so nothing to get upset about,' Lyon said in response to the repeat reports.
'Locker rooms don't talk … every club is in the market, I have heard the same noise.
'I talk to my players every day but they're private conversations. There's disenchantment with me, (players) said, 'Ross you can be lighter, move a bit quicker, have some more exciting training drills for us'.
'Nothing frustrates me, to be honest, I'm not here for the laundry list of half-baked stories.
'There's not much credibility to it, to be honest.'
Lyon said he wasn't 'aware' of any player unrest with him as coach and wouldn't bite on what he called 'garbage' reporting of the club's offer to Reid.
'I don't get on my phone and go onto X and listen to garbage being reported with no rigour,' Lyon said.
'What's your journalistic rigour when you run with a story, I am not sure that was done.'
Windhager, along with close friend Wanganeen-Milera, who has set a new AFL record for most kicks in a season, is playing some career-best football as speculation surrounds his future.
Lyon was asked how he viewed Windhager's form and whether there was a specific area the 22-year-old had improved.
The experienced coach was brief in his praise of Windhager before calling his press conference short.
'(Windhager has) played pretty well, we keep picking him and he's an important young player,' he said.
'All our players have (improved), look, can I just put an overarching statement: I am not here to go list management pre-game, going into a Friday game.
'It's not why we call this presser, that's where you're heading again. I'm not prepared to dive into individuals who are contracted or out. Enough is enough, to be honest.'
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