St Kilda has not shut the door on sounding out former Saints coach Ross Lyon on a potential return to the club after sacking Brett Ratten this week.
Ratten was stunningly ousted just 97 days after being handed a two-year extension on Thursday.
According to The Age, the potential return of Lyon is “expected to be canvassed” after Ratten’s exit, but St Kilda president Andrew Bassat and CEO Simon Lethlean refused to discuss a potential replacement in a media conference on Friday out of respect for the recently-sacked coach.
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Lyon, who coached St Kilda in 121 games for 76 wins between 2007 and 2011, has been linked with a host of vacant roles since being sacked by Fremantle at the end of 2019, having most recently knocked back advances from Essendon.
A return to Moorabbin for Lyon would be stunning, considering the ugly break-up between the two parties over a decade ago when the highly regarded coach left St Kilda to join Fremantle for the 2012 season.
When asked by reporters whether he’d spoken to Lyon yet, Lethlean said he had not, and refused to reveal whether the club would run an exhaustive process to determine Ratten’s successor.
”Between Andrew (Bassat), myself, and the board, we’ve uncovered what we need and our members need to know we will be swift and decisive and go and find the coach we need,” he said.
“It’s not to fair to say we know exactly our man. We know what we want to get, we know the characteristics that we’re after, and we’re going to go to the market and find it.”
St Kilda is expected to make a decision on who its next coach is within the coming weeks.
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