IN the latest episode of The Coach, Ross Lyon has recalled the tumultuous 2009 post-season at St Kilda, when a favourite son departed and a controversial recruit was added.
Luke Ball exited for Collingwood, and Andrew Lovett crossed from Essendon, but the classy midfielder never played a game due to an off-field issue.
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Opening up with his trademark candour in E2 of The Coach, Lyon told Damian Barrett the Lovett trade, which cost the Saints a first-round draft pick, was an "unmitigated disaster, really".
"(Lovett) was a sublime talent, there's no doubt about that. And it's like, talk's cheap, isn't it? Everyone can sell themselves, and look, you get all their references, but the danger with some references is that they're biased or weighted.
"Maybe, as a club did we act too quickly - I don't know - and not see it out? But it was on the back of a lot of bills."
Ball was a member of the Collingwood team which drew with St Kilda in the 2010 Grand Final, and then a week later thrashed the Saints.
- Luke Ball's exit from St Kilda to Collingwood at the end of 2009, and how he is convinced Ball actually provided the Pies with "IP (intellectual property)" from the Saints which helped them win, against St Kilda, the 2010 Grand Final;
- Matt De Boer's sacking from Fremantle … "he could have been captain (of Fremantle) or a great support to (Nathan) Fyfe";
- Andrew Lovett's recruitment by St Kilda … "an unmitigated disaster";
- Jesse Hogan's time at Fremantle;
- His second year as a player, in 1986 … "I remember mum was in the driveway, I broke down and cried and I said, 'I'm done, I've had enough'."
