Ross Lyon makes revealing Carlton, Collingwood claims in live TV interview

Former St Kilda and Fremantle mentor Ross Lyon has confirmed he is willing to accept a call from Carlton about its senior coaching role and revealed he turned down an approach from Collingwood in an extraordinary live television exchange.

Lyon revealed on Sunday a conversation with AFL legend Leigh Matthews had seen him warm to the idea of returning to the senior coaching ranks in 2022, but has previously steered clear of categorically ruling himself in or out of the running for roles at either Collingwood or Carlton.

Grilled by journalists Caroline Wilson and Eddie McGuire on Wednesday night’s Footy Classified, Lyon made several revelations about his future,

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Full transcript

Caroline Wilson: Have you yet received any form of contact – you or someone from your camp – from the Carlton Football Club?

Ross Lyon: Well someone said once ‘it’s your press conference, Ross’, so what I‘ll say is David Teague is on record publicly saying he’s struggling, so the first thing is I think all of us really need to do is respect that and not injure David Teague. Carlton have been strong with Mark LoGiudice, they’re going through the process and they’ll review and then make a decision, I believe that’s the way they’re going. Me personally, I have shifted a little bit, that did happen with Leigh, it had me thinking. Look, it didn’t end super well at Fremantle although I felt I coached really well in the last year, we were fifth or sixth on the ladder with seven wins and five losses and then we fell away. I look at some of that vision and I looked about 800 so why would you go back into it, but it did stimulate my thinking. If an opportunity arose, and I say that with the greatest respect to Carlton, and they rang me, I would entertain it, but I also understand that I haven’t got tickets on myself, it’s a red-hot field, Alastair Clarkson is available. What I will say to you Caroline is you were spot on with Alastair at Hawthorn the whole way and it was spot on. As part of that you were saying, I’ll paraphrase, but that Alastair Clarkson would coach the Carlton Football Club. Me, with all the intelligence that I have within the marketplace, I think that they’ll speak to Alastair at the right time, which is next week and I think you haven’t been wrong yet and I still don’t think you’re wrong.

AFL: FOX Footy reporter Tom Morris brings us part II of trade talk – rattling off a number of big uncontracted names including Collingwood Magpie Mason Cox….

AFL: FOX Footy reporter Tom Morris brings us part II of trade talk – rattling off a number of big uncontracted names including Collingwood Magpie Mason Cox.

CW: And if Alastair says no, and there is a chance that he will, there is a small chance that he will decide to have that year off that he has spoken about, if he was to say no, would you take the call?

RL: Yes, certainly take the call and consider it. I am aware, there’s enough Carlton people, famous Carlton people, premiership players, coaches, ex-champions that are advocating in a sense because they’ve worked with me or know me personally and understand their club and there’s those sort of connections, so I do know that’s occurring as well. It makes you feel good – to be honest if Leigh Matthews says you should coach again and then you read his article, there’s no one else in the AFL that’s coached two different clubs and taken them to grand finals, you can’t fluke that so we all do need some affirmation and it probably just lit the fuse a little bit.

CW: I would say it‘s not really a red-hot field, it’s a red-hot field of two. I think it’s Clarkson or Lyon, Ed, and I’d like to know from you how you knew that Ross was going to receive a call last week?

Eddie McGuire: And what do you always say when people ask you about your sources?

CW: Well, it has to have come from a board member …

EM: It doesn’t matter where it‘s come from. I get around and talk to a lot of people. Can I ask you a question Ross, has Collingwood spoken to you?

Lyon is considering returning to coaching.Source:Getty Images

RL: I don’t think Graham Wright would mind, he reached out to a friend to get my number and I was aware and just said respectfully I wouldn’t entertain that for a variety of reasons.

CW: What are those reasons?

RL: It’s hard to articulate. Sometimes it’s just sometimes just chemistry.

CW: I think you‘re saying that you think you’re maybe second choice behind Alastair Clarkson

RL: Yeah and I’ve said if I was the Carlton board and I could get Alastair Clarkson I don‘t think you could go past that. If the measure is premiership cups well there is no decision is there? Sometimes it’s chemistry. If you get a headhunter ring you and you go and meet them and you go for the job, if you haven’t got that chemistry, that happens pretty quick, well it doesn’t happen or it shouldn’t happen. If Ed was president of Collingwood it’d be a different story.

CW: So is it partly because you think there‘s a bit of unrest …

RL: I think it‘s instability. I think Nathan’s a bit unlucky. I don’t know Nathan, Nathan’s not a friend, but just from the outside … I think if you see misalignment it’s a red flag.

CW: Some people would say that Carlton have not handled this very well, that they’ve put a coach under a huge amount of pressure for 11 weeks and a football boss in Brad Lloyd and people in the assistant coaching team, recruiting, et cetera. Does that worry you about Carlton?

RL: I can see why people say that. Sitting back, they weren‘t travelling well and then the review was instigated so let’s not lose that, that there was a real struggling and inconsistencies and it was on the back of a loss to West Coast and West Coast are struggling interstate. That’s when it was instigated. Like all of us, when you sign up, it’s a hot, hot seat. Already I’m seeing it’s a maelstrom of news and it’s getting a life of its own and then you see the whispering campaigns and different agendas being run with different journalists and people feeding – I’m like maybe Wizel Property Group is the place to stay.

Originally published asFooty figure’s telling live TV revelations

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