ROSS Lyon says the AFL's acting football boss eased his concerns about the Marvel Stadium surface after he had earlier suggested St Kilda and North Melbourne were "treated with contempt" by the ground's roof being left open before Sunday's game.
Laura Kane called the Saints coach on Monday and explained the League's policy on closing the roof, which sees it shut two-and-a-half hours before a match, and even earlier when wet weather is expected.
In his post-match press conference, Lyon said the decision to leave the roof open overnight on Saturday while mist rolled in and created a slippery playing environment wouldn't have happened to bigger clubs.
He was forced to deny he was simply deflecting attention away from what he admitted was a lacklustre display from his side, having been given an almighty scare by 17th-ranked North before scraping over the line by two points.
Lyon pointed out Melbourne Storm captain Christian Welch had brought up the same issues after his team lost an NRL game at Marvel Stadium last month, with Welch having wondered why the roof wasn't shut earlier on a day when it was raining.
"I make no apologies for fighting for our club, but I've certainly been placated by the process," Lyon told Fox Footy.
"I had a great conversation with Laura Kane. To Laura's credit, she got on the phone, and she explained the situation.
"They have a process that's imperfect because it's based on (predictions), they normally shut at two-and-a-half hours out if there's no prediction of rain (and) somehow they realised the mist was coming in at 11 so they shut it.
"I would say eradicate the risk, just keep the roof shut Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night.
"We prepare like every week's a grand final, we try and mitigate all risk."
His complaints didn't distract from another unimpressive Saints display, with his side having to overturn a three-quarter-time deficit to beat the Kangaroos, who have now lost 16 straight games.
Lyon admitted there were plenty of nerves at the final break and didn't begrudge his own fans delivering some qualitative feedback as they trailed by 16 points.
"It was tense at three-quarter-time, the abuse coming down was red-hot. I thought 'welcome back' ... but I thought it was fair enough," he said.
"(The coaches) looked around the whiteboard, we thought to get (Mitch) Owens into the ruck and the magic potion of (Jack) Sinclair into the midfield, which we do a lot, that's no secret.
"It became a bit of a weight of numbers, it was pretty simple, they drove it forward and got a hold of them.
"We kicked 5.3 in a quarter, I wish we played like that all the time."
