ROSS Lyon has signed a two-year contract extension that will see him remain as coach of Fremantle until the end of the 2017 season.
The Dockers have also extended the contract of veteran ruckman Aaron Sandilands by another year to confirm he will play on in 2015.
Fremantle chief executive Steve Rosich made the approach to Lyon to re-sign him before Christmas last year.
Despite the coach having two years to run on his existing contract, Rosich said it was the right time to shore Lyon's future with the club.
"It just made sense to look forward and make sure we've got everything in place to give ourselves the best chance to continue to improve in this really competitive competition," Rosich said.
"So it made sense to extend Ross' contract. He's pivotal to our on-field success."
"We knew what we were getting when we secured Ross' services just over two years ago.
"He's certainly delivered on that and is really well placed to continue the improvement of the Fremantle Dockers.
"Now our challenge is to continue to improve and we think Ross is integral to that."
Lyon came to the club in controversial circumstances when he left St Kilda at the end of 2011 and signed a four-year deal with Fremantle, who promptly sacked incumbent coach Mark Harvey.
Since then, Lyon has led the Dockers to two consecutive finals series. In 2012, the club won its first final away from home, against reigning premiers Geelong at the MCG.
Last year, Lyon led the club to its maiden Grand Final appearance, losing to Hawthorn by 15 points.
Lyon said his reasons for re-signing were self-evident and reiterated the desire of all involved with the club to deliver its first premiership.
"Our aim is to become a great club," Lyon said.
"Certainly it's been a long period of rebuilding and putting a lot of pillars in with leadership and player talent and all those things.
"But at the end of the day we're not there yet. We're all striving to achieve the ultimate. Great clubs are in the business of winning premierships and that's what we're aiming to do.
"It's about sustained excellence and creating opportunities and if you only create one opportunity then it comes down to different things on the day, but if you create sustained excellence and sustained opportunity, eventually things will fall your way. So that's the aim for this football club."
The extension of Sandilands' contract will see the 31-year-old play on into a 13th season with Fremantle, but Lyon dismissed assumptions that 2015 would be the big ruckman's final year.
"I can't speak for Aaron. I think the form he's playing in I think he could play for the next 10," he said.
Luke McPharlin and Matthew Pavlich are both out of contract at the end of this season, as are Nat Fyfe, Hayden Ballantyne and David Mundy.
Rosich says the club is well placed with its contract negotiations.
"I think through the normal course we will extend the players' contracts that we need to," he said.
