One of the more bizarre recollections of history.meher baba wrote:It's intriguing to watch the continuing demise of Fremantle under Lyon.
Like Saynta, I have never hidden my support for GT when he was coach. Looking back, I feel that GT's time in charge was the only time since the late 60s/early 70s that our team roamed the playing field with the swagger of champion team: the self-belief that enables us to keep taking risks and attacking our opponents. Teams with that level of self-belief - eg, what we saw from the Weagles on Saturday night - regularly crush weaker opponents, and always give the other top teams a battle. Even when they get 4-6 goals behind, they keep playing like they believe they can come back.
GT might not have been a technical wizz (although I think that he was better than some people thought), but gee he was good at instilling self-confidence in our players. However, rightly or wrongly, he lost the confidence of the board and the fans, and eventually he had to go.
Then we got Lyon, who was billed as a technical wizz. And, after the two years required to teach our players how to play his style of game, we started to do well again and made two GFs. But it was a different style of play: we strangled the attack of our opponents and half-strangled ourselves, typically winning low-scoring games by small margins. We won game after game in the regular season, but we struggled a bit in the finals. We were very lucky not to lose the PF to the Dogs in 2009 (hard though it is to believe now, we owed our win significantly to the heroic efforts of Raph Clarke in the final quarter), and then, while we were clearly a better side in the GF, we choked badly. Then, in the 2010 finals, we crushed Geelong as we should have done in 2009, but struggled again in the GF, only kept in the game by the Pies choking even worse than we did in 2009. But the Pies luckily held on for a draw, and then failed to choke in the replay and we were crushed. And then in 2011 we fell to pieces. And all through the time that Lyon was at the club, we never seemed to have anything like the swagger and confidence that we had under GT, or that top clubs like Geelong or Hawthorn have had over the past decade, or that the Bulldogs have now.
So, all in all, I have mixed feelings about Lyon. The guy can clearly coach very well within the rather tight parameters he sets himself, and he did take us to successive GFs, which is a big achievement. But I personally prefer the sort of coach who is not only a dab hand with the whiteboard, but is a leader of men: who can turn a group of talented players into the sort of unit that runs out each week expecting to dominate and destroy its opponents.
I don't know whether or not Richo will turn out to be this sort of coach. Obviously, Saturday night was very disappointing, but I for one really loved watching the way our guys had a red hot go at the Eagles. If we can actually win a few games playing the way we did, the confidence and swagger might eventually come. One can only dream.
You think we didn't have any swagger in 09 when we beating teams by an average of 45 points. We won 20 games in a row. It was only in the 2nd half of that year , ironically when Kosi got a little injured and lost a bit of mojo that we started to struggle. When Kosi was up and firing we were unbeatable. Two power fwds that the opposition simply couldn't match up on. Remember Kosi kicked 50 goals or thereabouts that year - most in the first half of the year. We had mojo and were kicking scores over 100 consistently.
It was when Roo went down in 2010 we lost our scoring ability. If pple recall correctly we SMASHED the Roos in Rd1 that year. Once Roo went down our scoring options dried right up. People also forget that Roo was THE premier fwd of the competition at the time. Were we too reliant on him? Possibly. Does that fall on Lyon? Yeah to an extent. We made a GF with the likes of Robert Eddy, Mcqualter, Peake, dawson, Milne's career really didn't kick off until Lyon arrived.
When GT was in charge he had a team that coaches dream about. Roo was MVP in 04, Ball was playing without OP (remember those days) Lenny was superb, We had Gehrig AND Hamill (when he got on the park) He had access to one of the greatest mids ever in Harves. This absolute rubbish about how Lyon inherited a champion team is a crock. Harves was on his last legs and retired at the end of 08. Gehrig left, Hamill left. Sure Roo was still a star, but his knees became an issue from 09 onwards. Suddenly Milney was the player we thought he could be whereas all GT did was shitcan him (instilling confidence????)
I'm not anti either coach. I will always be grateful to GT. His was a golden era that ended too soon. Ball getting OP I suspect was because he was pushed too hard and his injury had a huge impact on our group. Ball was star in 04/05. We had shocking luck with injury in the latter half of 05 but when most of the list was able to get on the park, our team was incredible. Losing that prelim final in 05 was unforgivable though. No way Lyon would have lost that game. To say that we were average in finals under Lyon really is laughable. Yeah we struggled in the 09 prelim, but we still won it! In 2010 we didn't crush Geelong at all. We won by 3 points. Cats were raging favorites that game and somehow we won. Pies were short priced favourites for the flag. They had SMASHED everyone by huge margins in both finals and also leading into the finals. In fact we were the only team that was able to compete with them in the 2nd half of the year in that GF. It was an incredible effort. To say a team choked just doesn't make sense. If they choked they wouldn't have come out like they did in every other game and kill the opposition off in the first 15 minutes. They played how they had been, but suddenly they met a team who was prepared to engage them. Collingwood players were on record as saying that was one of the toughest games they had been involved in ever.
GT always said he would leave if a better coach came along. When one did, he didn't want to leave. GT wasn't a poor coach. In fact he was brilliant for those young blokes coming through - and in fact was perfect for what the club needed at that time. I don't hate him either. He loved the Saints and still does. He did what he thought was best for our club and gave that era of players self belief that carried right through their careers. I'm not sure why ppl have to carry on about Lyon though. He did his absolute best to help us win a flag, and as I've said before, instilled professionalism in our group like no ther coach. It's no coincidence that the two best players from each club that he coached at have both said that he's the best coach they;ve ever had