ROSS Lyon has returned serve in his own dry way on Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane.

In the launch episode of The Coach, Lyon, who coached 305 matches at St Kilda and Fremantle, suggested the outspoken Cochrane should be consistent in how he assessed all matters football.

Cochrane called Lyon – who coached the Saints to three Grand Finals (2009, and two in 2010) and the Dockers to one (2013) - a "failed coach" who "didn’t know much about economics" after comments last week relating to the impact of the Suns.

"He could be accurate on both fronts, who knows?" Lyon said when asked of Cochrane's assessment by Damian Barrett on The Coach.

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 "I didn't know a lot about him, so I read up. He's got that brash Gold Coast thing about him, good for his club, certainly respect that.

"Leigh Matthews talked about Gold Coast cannibalising Brisbane the previous year. He's got a few premierships under his belt, Leigh, (and) he was just a short-sighted coach (in Cochrane's eyes), so maybe if I had a premiership, I'd just be short-sighted.

"I think where has got to be careful is the lens that was put on me is very binary. Failed is yes or no. Clearly, three Grand Finals, lots of footy, but ultimately no premierships, and that's OK, if that's your measure."But let's reflect that lens on to the Gold Coast.

You can't measure people by premierships and then measure yourself by how many junior football grounds there are, and how many junior participants you have.

 "If you're Tony, use the same lens you do on an AFL coach."

In this edition of The Coach, Lyon also revealed the complicated internal machinations at St Kilda when it was deliberating on recruiting the troubled ex-Eagle Ben Cousins, and was full of praise for the reduction of quarters for matches in 2020, down to 16 minutes plus time-on.

All that, and plenty more in The Coach …