Ross Lyon's post-game press conference was difficult to watch.
The St Kilda coach looked dejected after falling to Melbourne by 38 points at the MCG, a scoreline which flattered his club.
Aside from his tactical genius, Lyon has been known as a tough, uncompromising coach from yesteryear, with relatively successful stints at St Kilda (2007-2011) and Fremantle (2012-2019) before rejoining the ranks ahead of the 2023 season.
However, the "cuddly" tag that has been swept up through his recent spell as St Kilda coach once more, doesn't appear to be reaping its rewards in 2024, despite a finals appearance last year.
Lyon has admitted that becoming "less manic" has resulted in more joy in the role, but is it working on the field?
The Saints sit 15th on the ladder, winning one (against North Melbourne) of their past seven outings and looking like having September free for travel.
Despite being relatively strong defensively, Lyon has conceded that with the ball, the club simply isn't good enough and it showed on Sunday.
"Our ball use, which obviously we're getting criticised for and fair enough, is just not executing at all," Lyon said post-game.
"We just turned it over a lot coming out (of the defensive half).
"We're trying to be more aggressive and take the contest on centre forward but we have been pretty much top four in the last two years scoring out of defensive 50 and mid, which theoretically should be harder.
"And then our team defence, something we were really good at last year, has really fallen away.
"It's a bit frustrating."
On Sunday, St Kilda lost key statistical measures and were simply outplayed by a hungrier team.
Disposals (392-366), inside 50s (67-41), clearances (34-31), contested possessions (129-123), marks (124-72), tackles (44-41) and turnovers (66-80) were all in favour of Melbourne.
"They need to put everyone on the table except for Marshall and Sinclair."
"This theory that we get rid of the good players we've got, draft some kids and hope like hell they'll be better.."Fair to say Tom and Lethal don't agree on fixing St Kilda ๐ฅ#9FootyFurnace | 9Now ๐ฅ๏ธ pic.twitter.com/NdbxDZjOKO
— Footy on Nine (@FootyonNine) May 26, 2024
Lyon said post-game that the players "took ownership" of their disappointing performance.
"I feel for our fans and our members, and I just said to our players we need to stick together," Lyon said.
"We've really fallen away a bit. So we got to go away and assess, try keep a cool head, take the heat that comes and stay true to working hard and keeping a safe environment for the players."
St Kilda fans will hope the club's fortunes will turn as they face West Coast next Saturday.
However, the Eagles have proved to be a difficult match-up at Optus Stadium whilst the Saints need a victory to salvage anything from 2024.
