St Kilda coach Ross Lyon believes that his side has evolved from its Round 3 loss to Essendon after stealing a win from Richmond on Sunday during the AFL's Gather Round, noting the work of his assistant coaches.
After leading for the entire game last week, the Saints conceded the final two goals of the match and ultimately gave up the four premiership points against the Bombers.
Looking to bounce back at Norwood Oval against the Tigers, Lyon's men failed to get off to a positive start before clawing their way back to clinch their second win of the season.
Slotting only one major in the first half, Lyon looked to Brendan Goddard, Robert Harvey and Corey Enright (assistant coaches) for inspiration and found a way out of their 22-point deficit.
"I didn't do anything, to be honest," Lyon said post-game.
"The players were responsible for the first half and they're responsible for the second half. I mean, they're the facts. We talk about choice, they made the deliberate choice.
"It's all about choice. My assistants were outstanding at half-time. We felt we didn't problem-solve as much as we wanted to as coaches against Essendon, even though it's marginal.
"We come together, and Robert Harvey and (Brendon) Goddard and Corey Enright in particular just spoke about getting into the contest. So we just changed things up. Not that it was complicated early, but we did have a simpler (message) just to get into a contest, lift our pressure, hit the last line a bit more.
"That resulted in 21-odd entries … plus-17 in contested ball, and our pressure rating went from 1.7 to 2.16. In the last quarter, when they were coming at us, we maintained our pressure. Our midfield is spluttering a little bit, to be fair.
"They (Richmond) took six forward 50 marks in the first quarter and four for the rest of the game. Is that our strategy changing? No, but I think that's an application to task."
After the opening month of football, the Saints sit marginally outside the top eight, breaking even on the win-loss record.
In all matches this season, Lyon's men have had opportunities to win the game and could be sitting 4-0, albeit losing crucial moments against Geelong (Round 1) and Essendon (Round 3).
"At 1-2, I didn't mind our performance at Geelong in the second half," Lyon said.
"With composure, we could have got it. Essendon we did a lot right but didn't play how we wanted to but could've got it done late.
"So 2-2 is probably fair."
However, in typical 'Ross' fashion, when probed about what changed during the half-time interval he said: "What happened is we actually landed a UFO in and walked out 22 aliens and put them in St Kilda jumpers and went out and played. We flipped the team," Lyon said with a wry smile.
"No, I was sharp at quarter-time, it's about the coaching panel. Players are going to do their thing, coaches come together – what are the three things, and you're banking on all the experience I've got, we're getting the right stuff, what are the KPIs and solution-focused, is it the right ones, and if it is, can they apply.
"Fortunately, it got glued together ok and we got a result, it doesn't always work like that."
The Saints kicked eight goals to four in the second half to run out eventual winners by seven points.
Lyon's men will now turn their attention to Saturday's clash with ladder leaders GWS at Manuka Oval in Canberra.
