ST KILDA president Andrew Bassat has defended Ross Lyon after criticism of the Saints coach's post-match press conference on Saturday night.

Lyon faced the media for eight minutes after the Saints' one-point loss to the Crows at Adelaide Oval, where his side fell just short after leading by as much as 26 points in the second quarter.

>>> WATCH ROSS LYON'S PRESS CONFERENCE IN FULL BELOW

The 381-game coach interacted in some back-and-forth with the reporters in the room, at one point quizzing them on who the Saints had played earlier in the season.

Speaking on SEN Radio on Sunday, former North Melbourne and Geelong player Liam Pickering accused Lyon of being "condescending" and "belittling" towards the reporters during some of the exchanges, saying "I wouldn't bother turning up" if he were a journalist.

On Monday, Bassat suggested Lyon's response was due to the poor quality of the reporters' questions. 

"Ross is a very interesting person. I love Ross, he's a very driven person, he really wants to win. He's hungry," Bassat told ABC Radio. 

"It's a pretty tough situation we put coaches in. You have a one-point loss, you don't have much luck in the running, you've got to front an interview.

"I think Ross is much better with good questions than he is with bad questions. I cop it myself from time to time when I ask a question he thinks is stupid.

"Ask stupid questions, win stupid prizes, is his view.

"Ross wants to win. He's put in a difficult situation. I think if he gets an intelligent and fair question, he'll respond to it fairly. If he doesn't, he's perhaps more honest than most coaches about the fact that he doesn't feel that way."

All 18 AFL coaches are required to do a post-match press conference following each game, as well as a press conference in the days before the game.

When put to him that all coaches are asked questions they might not think are worthy of a response, Bassat replied: "He's more honest than most in his unwillingness to accept the things that are less than appropriate, if that makes sense. And he does that at the football club and that's why we love him. he wants us to be the best we can be and he doesn't walk past mediocrity."

During one interaction on Saturday night, Lyon responded to a question about his side's first six rounds of the season by going through each game and asking the reporter if he knew who they had played.

"Do you have a sense of where you're at the moment in the context of the season? Or is it too early to know?," the reporter asked.

"I think where we're at is the football we're playing. Pretty good. We were more consistent tonight. Our best is very good but we need more consistency," Lyon replied.

"But yeah, I would think we look OK. What are we? 2-4?

"Who have we played? ... Pies, prelim. Melbourne was interesting, that was a shootout. GWS, prelim last year or knocked out first final? Pretty good team. Who did we come down and play after that? Oh Brisbane, they're handy, back-to-back (premiers).

"Who'd we play after Brisbane. Hey? Can't hear you. Yeah, so Port Adelaide, they're around us, interstate. And then Adelaide. Did they play finals? Did Adelaide play finals last year? One final or two finals? Two? Did they make a prelim? I can't remember."

Later, Lyon had the following interaction:

Lyon: "I would think if you take out win-loss, we've improved. Is that rational and logical?"

Reporter: "It makes sense to me"

Lyon: "You're allowed a judgement, what do you think?"

Reporter: "With all due respect, people don't care what I think."

Lyon: "No, they do. Your opinion, yeah. But do we want more four points? Yeah".