St Kilda accused of being “unwatchable” as ex-coach questions Lyon’s “outdated” method

Former St Kilda coach Scott Watters believes Ross Lyon’s coaching method is “outdated”.

The comments came after he was quizzed on this weekend’s clash between the Saints and West Coast by SEN WA’s Tim Gossage.

Gossage feels the Eagles are a great chance of beating the Saints at Marvel Stadium if interim coach Jarrad Schofield allows them to play with attacking freedom.

“I just think West Coast wins this game,” said Gossage on SEN WA Breakfast.

“If they can play 75 per cent of what they played against Brisbane, and we know what St Kilda are going to dish up. Make it a shootout for West Coast, don’t worry about if St Kilda want to get behind the ball and make it an eight goals to seven game.

“Take the game on and if you lose 25 goals to 22, it doesn’t matter. No drama. Just take the game on.

“What are your thoughts about the way St Kilda are playing at the moment? And what they’re doing to footy, because they’re very, very unwatchable.”

Watters, who took over at the Saints in late 2011 after the resignation of Lyon, responded by agreeing with Gossage’s opinion on the Saints.

He then delved a little further into what teams coached by Lyon have been like over the years while also giving the Eagles a chance of knocking them off in Melbourne.

“Look, they probably have been (unwatchable) for a long period of time,” the ex-Eagles, Saints and Dockers players said.

“Kick 12 goals and you win, it’s that simple. Against St Kilda they will try and slow you down, they’ll sit numbers behind the ball, they’ll put numbers around the stoppage.

“It’s very predictable what Ross Lyon has been doing and continues to do. It’s an outdated way to win games of football.

“If I’m Jarrad Schofield I am being very aggressive around our offence and literally setting the team a target. You kick 10 to 12 goals and you’ll almost have enough to win and that’s not unachievable with the talent that they’ve got.

“Some of their players are starting to show some really good signs. It’s been great to see Liam Ryan start to get back and take a littler bit more leadership within games.

“It’s pretty simple. Open them up, kick 12 goals and you’ll beat them because they’re not going to score any more than that. They never focus on it, they never have.”

The Saints could manage only 39 points in the wet in last weekend’s loss to the Crows in Adelaide. It was the second lowest Saints score under Lyon.

Across the course of the 2024 season to date, Lyon’s St Kilda side has scored a total of 1206 points at an average of 70.9 per game which ranks 15th in the league.

St Kilda currently sits 15th with a 6-11 record while West Coast is 16th with a 3-14 record head of their Round 19 clash.