I’ll put to one side the idea that Lyon ‘reverts’ to a defensive mindset which causes us to lose. I’m of the view that this isn’t an instruction from the coach, but rather better teams wrest control from us, and like most other teams getting beaten we get too sucked into the congestion without enough players forward. Lyon has said as much in press conferences, including on the weekend. I take him on his word on that; but perhaps he’s lying, or at least isn’t doing enough to stop his players doing it. I don’t think we’ll ever agree on that – or know the truth of the matter without being in the coaching box ourselves.
I never expected fans – or players for that matter – to forget Lyon’s history. There’s some well-established psychological research about how resilient existing beliefs can be, how even new contradictory information actually serves to reinforce those beliefs. Lyon walked through the door as an opposition coach, an existing Freo coach was knifed in the back, we failed to win a premiership and we currently aren’t very good. Many supporters are going to have a pretty dim view of him, and nothing will ever change that. Starting with a clean slate can be important, which is why coaches who haven’t won a premiership rarely get two bites at it with one club. Freo HQ have deprived Freo fans the opportunity to have that clean slate.
But Cookie’s point was that at a high level there are some things to be positive about. I think that’s true.
We’re playing kids, who are playing with relative freedom. The young players are being allowed to make mistakes. Players are getting different roles to learn their craft (like Banfield moving into a ball-winning role on the weekend despite starring as a stopper). Players like Brayshaw are still getting games despite limited output (although I reckon he could use a spell). The players are zipping the ball all over the backline, and running through the middle. Our forwards like Tabs and CamMac have shown improvement in patches. The atmosphere was electric at the Essendon game, and I expect will be the same on the weekend.
Fair enough if you reckon Lyon is a dud, that’s certainly possible. But I reckon the focus on him takes away from a bunch of positive things happening. 2018 could be the next generation’s version of 2010, and I just reckon it would be a shame to miss the ride because you were focused on the coach. Admit it – aren’t you more excited to go to games this season than you have been for years? Why not embrace it?
