St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has given a frank account of the “delicate” pre-game situation that saw Tim Membrey pulled out of the Saints’ elimination final with GWS on Saturday.
Just hours before St Kilda’s season was abruptly ended by the Giants in a 24-point loss, the Saints released a statement to confirm the late exclusion of power forward Tim Membrey from the team “due to a personal health matter”.
Speaking on radio before the game, Saints assistant coach Lenny Hayes was asked about Membrey’s absence, but wouldn’t be drawn on the finer details.
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“In this situation, we really need to respect Tim and what he’s going through,” Hayes said.
“He’s got a mental health challenge at the moment that’s sort of reared, and that’s all I can really say out of respect to him.
“He’s in really good hands at the moment and our thoughts are with him. There’s not too much more we can say, but for us, we need to focus on the game at hand.”
But speaking to Fox Sports on Monday night, senior coach Ross Lyon gave a first-hand account of exactly what happened behind the scenes, from his perspective.
“It’s a delicate situation,” Lyon said.
“First, just to all the Saints fans and football people, Tim’s in really good care, ongoing care, and we’re really optimistic that, ultimately, he’ll be in good shape again in the near future. Our support for Tim and Emily is unwavering and the AFL has leant in and buying in.
“I got a call at quarter past eight in the morning from the club doctor … And then I made a call to our GM and then our CEO and understood things fully,” he said.
“Then it was: ‘We’ll bring in (Anthony) Caminiti outside the 26, we need special consideration’ — and then you’re flagging (it with the) AFL, Giants — we went that path. In hindsight, maybe we would have played (Dougal) Howard, (Ayce) Cordy forward just to be able to contain all information and protect the day, our players. But because we didn’t do that, once there’s an oil spill, media release, communicate (what happened).
“And then there’s a lot of chatter with your group. So, I made the decision (that) when everyone arrives at 1.30, (I would bring them) in (for a meeting), shared what I could — because we always do — and then, ‘Anyone got any questions that we can answer?’
“And then if anyone doesn’t feel they’re up to the challenge, there’s an emergency Ryan Byrnes ready to go, because there’s some people close to the situation. Tried to just get rid of legitimate conversations that would have occurred otherwise.
“One player said today, ‘It’s just a bit confusing just trying to figure it out’, but that was the situation we were in. So, (it was) unique, (there was) no rule book, but just try and be as honest (as possible) and get the ability to reset.”
Lyon admitted on game day that the news had “rocked” his side “a bit”, from which they were seemingly unable to recover, going down to the Giants in front of their home crowd.
But speaking on Monday when the dust had settled, the Saints boss said it was “no excuse”.
“You can’t quantify what effect (it had),” he said.
“It was not ideal, but it was certainly no excuse. Some of those closest to Tim felt it didn’t affect them, like Seb Ross.
“We had the tools in the palette to pull out, but we didn’t apply them how we should have.”
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