"The Bubble" by David Misson

[Gershwin]

I'm moving overseas and was going to throw this book away but if anyone wants it I will post to them (in Australia).
PM me name and address.

[Gershwin]

Book has found a new owner.

[mr six o'clock]

You can never have enough toliet paper !

[GrumpyOne]

You can never have enough toliet paper !

Harsh Sixer.

Found it a good read myself.

[St.Rob8]

I have had in on the shelf for a couple of years. The pain is still too raw for me to read it. Have to wait a while for the pain to subside. 2 years? 10 years? Not sure.

[Legendary]

Actually a very interesting read, particularly on Ross Lyon and the way he goes about things.

Will become a unique little snapshot of our history in the years to come.

Obviously less relevant now that Lyon & Misson left the club and we never won a flag under them ... but it certainly made great reading at the time it was released.

[Teflon]

I can't wait till pt 2

"Ross Lyons: The Double"

Read how Ross tanked Saints final, retired players without agreement all the while secretly wheeling and dealing with AFL clubs behind his clubs and managers backs!!!

Classy read.

[stinger]

You can never have enough toliet paper !

...someone gave it to me as a present....never read it....

[Eastern]

You can never have enough toliet paper !

...someone gave it to me as a present....never read it....

Do yourself a favor. Its a good read !!

[whiskers3614]

The part that said Ball could only play six minutes at a time in it?
Obviously Malthouse forgot to read it!

[plugger66]

The part that said Ball could only play six minutes at a time in it?
Obviously Malthouse forgot to read it!

As opposed to Dayne Swan who plays about 6 minutes at a time.

[clarky449]

The part that said Ball could only play six minutes at a time in it?
Obviously Malthouse forgot to read it!

As opposed to Dayne Swan who plays about 6 minutes at a time.

People pick and choose what they want to know. Its sad. Ross Lyons fault.

[BigMart]

Ball was mis-managed from 2006 until his departure

Armitage's developmentwas mis managed by Lyon's regimes

Kosi was in the early part of his career.. There are many others, but that's OK club new best at the time.... But that's just my opinion...both at the time, and now with the benefit of hindsight my view remains...

Dane Swan Rotates as often as he needs, and often his rests depend on where he is on the ground. He will run for 1 minute or 12 minutes ...... He will bench for 30secs to 3 mins until he is the next mid runs off

[8856brother]

The part that said Ball could only play six minutes at a time in it?
Obviously Malthouse forgot to read it!

As opposed to Dayne Swan who plays about 6 minutes at a time.

People pick and choose what they want to know. Its sad. Ross Lyons fault.

Spot on Clarky. Clearly, as you suggest, all Ross's fault.

[plugger66]

Ball was mis-managed from 2006 until his departure

Armitage's developmentwas mis managed by Lyon's regimes

Kosi was in the early part of his career.. There are many others, but that's OK club new best at the time.... But that's just my opinion...both at the time, and now with the benefit of hindsight my view remains...

Dane Swan Rotates as often as he needs, and often his rests depend on where he is on the ground. He will run for 1 minute or 12 minutes ...... He will bench for 30secs to 3 mins until he is the next mid runs off

Dane Swan rotates about every 6 minutes on average. I dont think he wears a watch and comes off every 6 minutes as Ball didnt either. All else mentioned continues to see you live up to what I expect.

[Sainternist]

It should be retitled to "A St.Kilda Supporter's Guide to Self-Flagellation".

[SainterK]

I can't wait till pt 2

"Ross Lyons: The Double"

Read how Ross tanked Saints final, retired players without agreement all the while secretly wheeling and dealing with AFL clubs behind his clubs and managers backs!!!

Classy read.

Pt 2 will be about Scott and entitled 'the cuddle'

[kosifantutti]

I'm glad "Bubble Boy" is gone.

[minneapolis]

I'm moving overseas and was going to throw this book away but if anyone wants it I will post to them (in Australia).
PM me name and address.

Hey Gershwin, where are you going? Any details?


Enjoy your adventure. Life is great.

[Gershwin]

I'm moving overseas and was going to throw this book away but if anyone wants it I will post to them (in Australia).
PM me name and address.

Hey Gershwin, where are you going? Any details?


Enjoy your adventure. Life is great.

Off to Glasgow, Scotland.
Those single malt distilleries better ramp up their production!!

[skeptic]

thought it was a fascinating read myself, full of good insights... granted I read it over a year ago.

to a degree you have to take it with a grain of salt as the author is clearly a big Ross Lyon fan and works very hard to portray him in a positive light. Having a high opinion of RL is fair enough but as over the 2 year period he never suggests even once that RL found something challenging or was unsure of an initial approach to a problem does make the account seem a little bias.

ITB clearly demonstrates what an amazing leader RL was. RL seemed/s to very quickly highlight what the core issues and problems in a situation/s are/were and was exceptional at getting the group to focus on the bigger picture. He seemed like an amazing motivator of men and is clearly very passionate, protective and loyal to the playing group who I imagine very much looked up to him as a father figure/mentor.

Contrary to what many of his critics say, I don't believe a lack of loyalty contributed to his decision to leave.

What's also very interesting is the long held belief about RL's value on work rate. It's very easy to see why Lenny and Roo are the spiritual leaders of the club esp Lenny, as they are clearly the only 2 players at the club who's focus on their own preparation and work rate can be described as 100% meticulous. This is a big deal for RL and clearly a non-negitionable.
So much so that the book is fully of instances where team selections often came down to a player not 100% (which is not an unusual thng in AFL circles I'm led to believe) and a full fit player who is not as... dedicated and team selections predominantly favor the not 100% player. I'll apologise in advance as I can't recall examples having read this over 1.5 years ago.

To a degree this elaborated on my concern about RL's team selection which for long term readers of this forum was a major criticism of mine since mid 2010.

It seemed to me that he had a tendency to pick harder workers over potentially more talented players that didn't work as hard. I believe he favoired those he felt would get the best out of themselves. Whilst i can respect that policey, IMO where it breaks down is that the winning team isn't the one that works the hardest, it's the work that is the best. RL's major weakness IMO was that he seemed unable to motivate/groom or whatever a reasonable number of the playering group on our list to work to the standard he desired... as a result guys like McQualter, Jones, Gardiner and a few others frequently got played despite major and sustained flat patches whilst other players like McEvoy, Steven, Stanley, Armitage only played when injuries permitted and stallhed.

The business with Ball was very interesting. It seems clear to me that internally he wasn't rated highly and that there was a belief that he was not capable of sustaining the workload required play at the standard that they wanted. My view has been all along that the coaching team wanted him to leave and I feel ITB suggested that too.

[shmic_s]

Thanks Gershwin. Looking forward to the read.

Hope the move goes well. Cheers.

[sunsaint]

thought it was a fascinating read myself, full of good insights... granted I read it over a year ago.

<snip>
Contrary to what many of his critics say, I don't believe a lack of loyalty contributed to his decision to leave.

What's also very interesting is the long held belief about RL's value on work rate. It's very easy to see why Lenny and Roo are the spiritual leaders of the club esp Lenny, as they are clearly the only 2 players at the club who's focus on their own preparation and work rate can be described as 100% meticulous. This is a big deal for RL and clearly a non-negitionable.
So much so that the book is fully of instances where team selections often came down to a player not 100% (which is not an unusual thng in AFL circles I'm led to believe) and a full fit player who is not as... dedicated and team selections predominantly favor the not 100% player. I'll apologise in advance as I can't recall examples having read this over 1.5 years ago.

<snip>
The business with Ball was very interesting. It seems clear to me that internally he wasn't rated highly and that there was a belief that he was not capable of sustaining the workload required play at the standard that they wanted. My view has been all along that the coaching team wanted him to leave and I feel ITB suggested that too.

I will take your word on the book, one day I will get round to reading myself, but do you really think the book exposes Lyons' loyalty philosphy?
agreed he showed extreme (and argueably over zealous) favouritism to "his" players, but I just could never get a handle on his criteria
He outed THE best prepared player the club has seen in harvey, & everyone that played with him used Harvey as the yard stick.
I will argue he had at least one more year in him, and if kept I doubt if RL would even have contemplated Cousins.
But Harvey was old guard, and for RL to truly take-over he had to go.
Next people will always point the finger at GT for ruining Kosi's career by using him in the ruck, I would also maintain that RL smashed him into the round playing a guy constantly injured. SO yeah he would play an injured player, and maybe he was too old school, not coming to grips with the increased level of performance required in the game, and higher bench rotations => which leads to the Ball situation
I agree the coaching staff were "exiting" Ball, slowly on their own terms. And as Malthouse said, playing hardball with a back up reserves plalyer didnt make sense
But for me, the nail in coffin trying to work out RL's loyalty code came when he went behind the backs of his own management team and negotiated with Freo. Yes he is fully entitled to do so, but he was screwed two organisations at the same time.

[skeptic]

I see what you mean SS. All I meant by the loyalty comment was that it Lyon clearly was passionate about the club... which is something that a lot of the anti-lyon ppl try to dispell with the whole he left for money thing. He did of course and as a result will never be loved/considere amongst the Roo, Dal, Hayes, Monty etc group and fans will never consider him a true Saints man ala GT even though Grant is widely disliked.

I don't know that he outed Harvey. IIRC he left the decision to Banger. You may be right though. Rob doesn't seem to speak all that lovingly of RL in his own book

[saintly]

I see what you mean SS. All I meant by the loyalty comment was that it Lyon clearly was passionate about the club... which is something that a lot of the anti-lyon ppl try to dispell with the whole he left for money thing. He did of course and as a result will never be loved/considere amongst the Roo, Dal, Hayes, Monty etc group and fans will never consider him a true Saints man ala GT even though Grant is widely disliked.

I don't know that he outed Harvey. IIRC he left the decision to Banger. You may be right though. Rob doesn't seem to speak all that lovingly of RL in his own book

what did Harvey say about RL?