Lyon admires grit of wasteful Saints

A WASTEFUL St Kilda may have left the door open for the Brisbane Lions on Sunday, but coach Ross Lyon was delighted by the response of his players who dug deep when challenged to remain unbeaten.

"We are 9-0 and that was the ultimate aim – to come and get the four points," Lyon said after his side produced 14 goals from 27 scoring shots to just barely see off the upstart Lions.

"We were no doubt wasteful and you can feel that in the box because we were competing really well and creating opportunities, but we certainly weren't taking them. Some of them were gimmes really. I can remember four [where players were] running in 10 metres out.

"It was a concern, no doubt about that, but we found a way to win. We didn't fold the deck chairs did we? We were challenged and dug in certainly didn't put it in the too-hard basket. To be able to kick six goals in the last quarter and to be challenged was a positive for the group, but we walk away with plenty of things to work on no doubt.

"In that last quarter we made them defend and we fixed our forward structure up a little bit.

"We changed the mix and went about it a slightly different way in the last quarter and we kicked 6.1 and walk off having honoured one of our great club men and champion player in Lenny Hayes which we felt was critical for us."

Hayes gathered 31 touches in his 200th AFL match and Lyon was glowing in his praise of the former skipper

"He's a beauty isn't he? He's a great person and I don't say that lightly," Lyon said.

"Lenny Hayes really lives the doctrine of 'great footballer, great person'. He always acknowledges [people], he's always got time for everybody, he trains hard and wants to develop the young players.

"He's always smiling and has a genuine care and interest in the players around him. He has a bit of fun and they love him for that, but they know when he goes down the race the gloves are off and he's a fierce competitor."

Nick Riewoldt played an important part in the win with four goals, but Lyon revealed there had been serious doubt about his availability in the lead-up to the game.

"It was an enormous effort. He probably won't like me talking about it, but he was in bed all week, didn't train and was unlikely to play for most of the week with a virus," he said.

"I can talk about it now because he played well, but he was always going to get out of bed for Lenny Hayes.

"He really nailed those last quarter goals, so it was really a great captain's game today."