Thomas sacking saved Milne from trade to rivals

[bigcarl]

Shock coach sacking saved Milne from trade to rival


https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 3e3c06b327

It’s behind the paywall and I can’t copy even the first few paragraphs, but basically, Milne says Thomas was down on him for not performing interstate.

He says Lyon saved his career and he regards Lyon as a father figure. However, he now has a good relationship with GT and says the perfect coach would have shared the attributes of both.

[roskilde]

Milney is my favourite Saint of the modern era but he is the type of guy who needed a good kick in the backside from time to time lest complacency set in. Threatening a trade could have been just a way of doing that.

[perfectionist]

Teams can be blessed if 18 yos behave as if they are 28. Alas, we seem to have more than our fair share of 28 yos who behave as it they are 18.

[mr six o'clock]

Have to agree with milne opinion.
Watching old GT coached games we had such talented sides and played great footy .
But even in games where we were well ahead , we were often very easy to score against.
A bit of Lyons lock down ability surely would have seen GT win us a flag .

[saynta]

Old news.

[Jacks Back]

Fake news

[asiu]

north , east , west ‘n south

just words

[saintspremiers]

Stephen Milne says Grant Thomas’ sensational sacking in 2006 saved him from a shock trade to Essendon or Port Adelaide.

The brilliant St Kilda goal-sneak had been told he would be traded and even met with Kevin Sheedy during the 2006 trade period after only seven seasons at the Saints.

Thomas was sacked due to a power struggle with president Rod Butterss, with new coach Ross Lyon extending Milne a lifeline when he signed on.

Thomas and Milne are now firm friends but the Saints senior coach had believed Milne did not play well enough in interstate contests.

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SACKED PODCAST WITH STEPHEN MILNE AND STEVEN BAKER FROM 6PM FRIDAY NIGHT

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Milne would play another seven seasons and 156 games for St Kilda including five years with 46 or more goals and finished his career with 574 goals from 275 games.

He revealed in the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast he was forced into retirement at the end of 2013 but says he could have been gone so much earlier.

“I hadn’t been told face-to-face, but I kind of read the writing on the wall that I would probably get put up for trade,” he said.

Grant Thomas was ready to move on Stephen Milne.
“Obviously during that year I was kind of on and off the ground as a forward pocket and kind of not performing in certain games and I knew something was coming. Obviously I had a little bit of interest from a couple of other clubs which I was pretty happy with, so I kind of met with them, but it took us a while for Ross Lyon to get appointed.

“I knew I would get somewhere but I didn’t want to go anywhere. I wanted to be a one-club player and I lived around the corner but for your dream of playing AFL footy you would go anywhere.

“Kevin Sheedy was senior coach of Essendon at the time and played a year under him in the reserves with Adam Ramanauskas, and I met Sheeds at the Hilton and he went through all my stats and averages and he was very, very keen. I said I am keen also. Through my manager Tom Petroro (I knew) Mark Williams was pretty keen at Port Adelaide and I said if the worst came to the worst I would love to move over there.

Ross Lyon made sure Stephen Milne stayed a Saint. Picture: Getty Images
“Now I treat Rossy as a second father and I remember walking upstairs to the office. He said, ‘I believe you can play good footy for this club and I will give you a three-year contract. Just chase and tackle and we will go from there.’

“The next thing I had another 150 games under Ross.

“I look back and have a bit of a laugh about it. I still speak to Thommo and there are no grudges there. We have a chat and a beer now and again, he is all good.”

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Milne has strong relationships with both Lyon and Thomas and believes combining the skill sets of both would have made for the perfect coach.

“Going back to Thommo, it was the camaraderie that we had. After every game we would go back for a BBQ and a catch up. We really played for each other and had a really had a close bond.

“Rossy is very methodical in his approach and structured, I think a mixture of the two would have been bloody brilliant. One was one edge of the scale and the other was at the other. They are both different and I am great mates with them both.”