Earlier in the day, Kennett had used his weekly soapbox on 3AW to claim that Lyon, the new interim football director at Melbourne, was pretty much wasting his time if he wasn't going to commit to the position for the long term, as Jason Dunstall had done at Hawthorn.
"If Garry's now saying I'll come in and help for three or four months, you're not going to turn around a ship which is in as much trouble as Melbourne in a few months.
"He's either got to make a commitment to get in there and help and do it as Jason has, for three to six years, or he ought to just butt out."
In what made for good TV, Lyon hit back and accused Kennett of acting like a bully. "If you frame a market about who is going to shoot their mouth off first about this sort of stuff then Jeff would be $1.01," he said.
"Why he feels the need to stick his nose in to other clubs is beyond me. He's got some bully tendencies, Jeff, and he's got a footy club that he's inherited from a man called Ian Dicker who did an outstanding job."
"I reckon there's a hell of a lot (of people) at Hawthorn that are going to take a deep sigh of relief when he leaves at the end of the year.
"He gets personal about it in relation to me, he reckons I'm huffing, puffing, strutting around and saying, 'I'm the king', (but) nothing is further from the truth, so he's either ignorant, ill-informed or he's lying about it."
Jeff Kennett has done an outstanding job as Hawthorn president and gets most things right, most of the time. But in this instance, he is wrong. Lyon is stepping, with great reluctance it would seem, to help the club and in particular his ailing mate, Jim Stynes.
There is no ego trip in this for Lyon. For all the great work done to fix the Demons off the ground, the football department has been all but neglected and it is an indictment of those in charge of the Demons that the most important department within the club was left to Stynes to manage, when clearly he had other more important matters to deal with.
So Lyon isn't there to pump up his own tyres. He is there to help. He's a very smart bloke and we suspect he will instigate major changes at Melbourne in the short amount of time he is involved. Just as Dunstall has done in his tenure at Hawthorn.
The Age's latest news on Melbourne centres around a claim by chief executive Cameron Schwab that former coach Dean Bailey was undermining him, creating divisions between the executive and the playing group and hurting his relationship with the board.
Caroline Wilson reported that it was a ‘grave' Schwab who took part in the two-day conference between the League and club chief executives at a location outside Melbourne.
Meanwhile, the admission by Bailey that he coached for draft picks in his first two seasons in charge of the Demons is a story that has grown legs in the last few days.
Former North Melbourne champion Glenn Archer told the Herald Sun that tanking has taken place in the AFL in seasons' past. "Absolutely, everyone knows it does," Archer said. "Obviously (for) the AFL it doesn't look good so they can't actually put their hand up and say 'yes it is happening'. The players don't tank when they're out there - they want to win."
"If you get towards the end of the season and you are third last, second last and there is a chance you can get to last because there is an absolute superstar coming through - you probably do your best to get it."
Meanwhile, Mike Sheahan writes in the Herald Sun that any formal investigation into claims of tanking would serve the game no good purpose.
"All an inquiry would do would be to confirm what 99 per cent of the football world has suspected in recent years, while sullying the reputations of good people motivated at the time by nothing more sinister than taking advantage of a loophole on behalf of their clubs," he writes.
It is a good point. Rather than waste unnecessary time and money looking back, the AFL might be better served tightening the rules to eliminate any suggestions that it could happen again in the future. The impending introduction of free agency at the end of next season offers the opportunity for all loopholes to be eliminated once and for all.
The Friday night match features St Kilda and Fremantle, with the Herald Sun featuring a piece on re-born Saint (and former Docker) Brett Peake, whose return to form midseason has been a catalyst for the Saints, who have won eight of their last 10 matches and are now back in the eight.
The spark for Peake appears to have been a gee-up from former surfing champion Maurice Cole, who on the long drive back from a surf on Victoria's surf coast, told Peake that he was considered by Saints fans (of which Cole is one) to be one of the most "disappointing" players ever to have been recruited to the club.
Peake told the newspaper that like many at the club, he battled for motivation and wallowed in self-pity after the two Grand Finals last season. All the Saints have various reasons why their eventually fought their way out of the malaise and for Peake, it was the words from Cole.
"Seriously, if someone asked me how old I was I wouldn't say 28. I feel like I've just walked in the door. I just want to learn, want to train ... that's how free I am. And all because of one moment nine weeks ago that turned it around."
Emerging Fremantle star Nat Fyfe is profiled in The Age and among the astonishing revelations are that Fyfe was the cox of the Aquinas College (Perth's) senior rowing eight because he didn't get picked in the first XVIII at school. He was also a crack tennis player and his swimming times were good enough to make interschool swimming squads.
But all that is overshadowed by his road train license. It means that if footy doesn't work out, Fyfe could earn a living driving those monster trucks that criss-cross the country. Or fly helicopters, which he is in the first stage of learning how to fly.
Of course, it's all a moot point. The article stresses that footy is his first love, and by a long way. And the likelihood is that he'll be playing it at an elite level for as long as he pleases.
IN SHORT
The Sydney Morning Herald writes that time is running out for big man Jesse White to stamp himself at the club.
Karmichael Hunt tells The Australian he is crook, not overcooked but he may spend the rest of the season in the reserves.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
