ROSS Lyon might not be the flavour of the month in Western Australia, but at least one Victorian club could benefit from his services according to The Herald Sun journalist Jay Clark.

Pressure on the Dockers to consider Lyon’s position as senior coach reached boiling point following Saturday’s humiliating 133-point loss to Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.

AFL legends including Tony Shaw, Cameron Ling, Jude Bolton and Kane Cornes – among others – voiced their doubts over Lyon’s ability to drag Fremantle out of the mire.

But Clark said Carlton and possibly Lyon’s former club, St Kilda, could mount a case for luring the veteran coach back to Victoria.

“If you were Carlton and Brendon Bolton does or doesn’t work – and maybe you can include St Kilda in this as well – would you start laying the foundations for a poaching raid in attempting a recruiting coup on Ross Lyon?” Clark asked the SuperFooty Podcast.
“You know in two years he’s out of contract. He is one of the best coaches in the game (and) we know he’s been subject to a secret move before. I just wouldn’t be surprised in a year of two’s time Ross Lyon is in navy blue.”

The Herald Sun journalist Mick Warner disagreed, pointing to Fremantle’s poor form since 2016 as reason enough to draw a line through Lyon’s senior coaching career.

“I wouldn’t do it if I was them. I think Ross’ time is over,” Warner said.

“They’ve lost 48 of 71 games, Fremantle.

“They had 73 tackles, Geelong, to 61 tackles to the Dockers. How do you get out-tackled when you lose by 133 points? Lachie Neale had 11 of those tackles so you do the maths.

“(Their) average losing margin (is) 54 points.

“I know he’s got two years to go and if they were going to sack Ross, they would’ve done it in the sexual harassment storm and they didn’t.

“I would’ve thought Ross and his CEO, (Steve) Rosich would have to be under a bit of pressure, just going by the talk-back radio in Perth over the weekend. You can’t cop that.”

Warner also criticised the notion put forward by Lyon after Saturday’s disastrous loss that teams could not rebuild within two years.

“Do you look around and see it’s been done in two years anywhere?” Lyon probed The West Australian journalist Shayne Hope when asked whether Fremantle’s rebuild was on track.

“I (would’ve) said ‘well actually Hawthorn rebuilt, Ross, in about eight weeks’,” Warner said.

“Sydney and Geelong – they’ve never had to go down.”