Coach plays mind games in awkward presser

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon is up to his old press conference tricks again.

After his Saints 10-point loss at the hands of Port Adelaide, Lyon turned the questions on the journalists, who were pressing him on his side’s inability to capitalise on the injured Power line-up.

It came after Port Adelaide lost three players in a matter of minutes to a plethora of injuries.

It started when key defender Aliir Aliir went down with concussion, after a dangerous sling tackle from small Saints defender Jack Higgins in the second term.

Then, Sam Powell-Pepper went down in the third term after attempting to jump and mark a ball in the Power’s forward 50.

It was an innocuous incident that saw him fall to the ground and grab his right knee in agony.

Powell-Pepper was immediately rushed off to be treated by club doctors, helped off by two trainers to reach the bench.

He was assessed but after a few minutes, was seen putting on his warm up jacket and applying ice to that knee.

The carnage didn’t stop their for the home side.

Just minutes later in front of Port Adelaide’s bench, Power captain Rozee jumped for a ball heading over the boundary line and landed awkwardly on his hamstring.

He attempted to play on but looked extremely proppy, before being dragged at three-quarter time and officially put on ice.

It was a chance for the Saints to exploit the home side, who were down to one on the bench and only trailing by 13 points at the final break.

When questioned as to why he side, with a full bench, weren’t able to run over the depleted Power, Lyon snapped back at the journalist asking.

“Yeah, what did you observe?,” Lyon said post match.

“Yeah as I said we went to ‘green’ … Darcy Wilson went to the back pocket and played on.

“I thought we were challenging and they were under a little bit of pressure. There was a big play on the far side where it looked like we were out and we tapped forward.

“It was some marginal stuff.”

St Kilda are 2-5.

After pressing the reporters for their thoughts on what went wrong for the Saints, Lyon asked where they rated Port Adelaide.

“Yeah, I don’t know, where do you put them (Port)? What are they, top what? You’re local journos, where do you put them?” Lyon said.

The Saints leader says despite the loss, he believes his side took steps in the right direction.

“We sent a message ‘take it (on)’. I thought we were daring. I thought with the entries we were playing up-tempo, we were taking it on,” Lyon said.

“That’s just my opinion.”

The Saints are 2-5 after seven rounds, now looking ahead to their clash against North Melbourne.