Parochial AFL coaches Chris Scott and Ross Lyon have come face to face for the first time since trading barbs in the media over the weekend.
Both coaches were slated for a Monday night appearance on Fox Footy's AFL360 program, pointed out cheekily by Scott, on Friday night.
Their original tiff centred around Cat Bailey Smith's criticisms of the way in which Saints coach Ross Lyon had deployed Marcus Windhager in a tagging role, with Smith believing that's not the optimal use of "Windy's talents.
"My biggest regret is I fuelled the media furnace," Lyon began.
"You don't always get it right, and in all honesty, I don't think I got it right."
"Halfway through the second quarter I turned to (assistant coach) Robert Harvey and said 'mate he's (Smith) going to have 60 (disposals). How about we put someone on him?" So then we tightened up, and got back in the game a bit," Lyon added, in defence of the initial tag.
Ross vs Scotty 🥊
The veteran St Kilda and Geelong coaches went head-to-head on #AFL360 over Bailey Smith, Lyon's press conference behaviour and much more! pic.twitter.com/sR0nboOlMx
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) July 27, 2026
"He (Smith) is a pretty special player and he breaks the mould. I'll always bite - Brendan Goddard once nicknamed me "Tuna" - I've got to try and not be like a tuna."
Lyon also admitted that in the moment, he felt Smith was "punching down", given his side were victorious in the Round 19 meeting of the two sides.
"Context is often lost," Scott said in Lyon's defence, bemoaning the 'clip' culture, necessitated by the nature of social media, which had kickstarted the initial tiff.
The conversation then took a turn towards the philosophical, with both veteran coaches bemoaning the state of the press conferences they are duty-bound and contractually obligated to conduct.
Lyon joked that he had 'neutered' himself with regards to the media, following multiple run-ins with journalists this season, while Scott pointed out the slow erosion of standards in the space.
"The post-game press conference has just degraded over the years, to the point where there'll be one or two (journalists) there, and it's really just about a grab for the cameras that often loses its context," Scott said.
