King’s hit on North Melbourne’s Sam Power came one week after fellow ruckman Michael Gardiner was also suspended. The big men are the only two Saints to be suspended this year.
“If you go back through the last couple of years, we’ve been as disciplined an outfit as there is if you go on numbers of suspension and number of games lost,” Lyon said.
“Someone has put one and one together and got 111. It is certainly not an issue for us.”
Lyon said King had his full support despite the lengthy ban.
“I just think that what we’ve got to understand is there are thousands of decisions they have got to make. It is the first time he has been suspended. He has been a club captain, premiership player, All-Australian, a 200-game player. He hasn’t made too many wrong decisions,” he said.
“He is mature and we support our players until we can’t. He is certainly not in a position where we can’t support him so I support him fully.”
Gardiner will replace King in the Saints’ side after serving his own one-match ban. Young ruckman Ben McEvoy will keep his spot in the side but Lyon said McEvoy would have to work hard to hold his spot in King’s absence.
“Ben’s not guaranteed anything. He’ll get a run this week and if he holds his end up he’ll get another one. It is up to him to perform, otherwise we will look at other options,” he said.
The injured Sam Gilbert and Stephen Milne are in line for a recall but still have to have a final approval from St Kilda’s conditioning staff.
“They’ve been in rehab. We did a session yesterday afternoon which is normal for us and we have to see how they pull up today and then finalise our team later in the day,” Lyon said.
St Kilda’s star players have been widely praised this year, but the Saints coach says the team’s depth is a major reason it is undefeated at the midway point of the season.
“I pick up the paper today and you see (Nick) Riewoldt recognised and (Leigh) Montagna and (Brendon) Goddard. It is nice to have our role players spoken about as well like (James) Gwilt, (Andrew) McQualter and (Sam) Gilbert,” Lyon said.
“It shows you need a weight of numbers. You need everyone contributing and as you get teams winning consistently everyone starts to get recognition for their hard work.”
