Koschitzke booted just 1.1 in his second game back from an ankle injury and while he has had a quiet campaign so far in 2010, Lyon said he has played a significant role for the Saints in the extended absence of captain Nick Riewoldt.
“It was a difficult day for all our players," Lyon said. "He’d come off a three-week, not insignificant injury that he’d worked through and his previous game to that was Geelong on a wet difficult night where I thought he worked really hard to create opportunities for our smalls and we had a good win against a great team.
“Rhys (Stanley) and Koschitzke, once we’d decided they were our two talls and that was our model, they made us function to the point where we were able to win seven games in a row.
"If you’re only going to measure it by individual statistics I think certainly he is down on last year. He was significant last year and I think we underestimate what he did.”
Lyon said Koschitzke’s self-belief would grow as he got more game time after his three-week layoff but admitted it was hard to decipher his confidence levels.
“I’m not sure how you measure confidence," Lyon said. "Confidence is built on actions and preparation so if you’ve got a three-week injury and you can’t train fully well clearly you can’t be at your confident best because your actions haven’t allowed you to prepare.
“As a match committee we don’t pick anyone on blind faith or loyalty, we pick them on their ability to function and clearly we’ve been making some reasonable decisions with our key forwards because we’ve been able to win seven in a row.
"Anyone who thinks if you’ve got key forwards who are struggling and you continue to win seven in a row then your understanding of the mechanics of the game are a little bit flawed.”
