St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has endured a tough start in his return to Moorabbin with star forward Max King ruled out for the start of the season.
Returning to the club for the first time since 2011, Lyon is now without his star forward for the next five months after King underwent a shoulder reconstruction as a result of a training incident last week.
Lyon says the untimely injury was “really disappointing” as the 22-year-old was impressing in his fifth pre-season.
“It was really disappointing, first and foremost for Max and also our supporters,” Lyon told SEN Sportsday.
“I didn’t know much about Max at all really except from the outside.
“But I came in and he really impressed me early, I don’t say that lightly.
“(He showed) the desire to improve and do the work and become what everyone wants to do, become a great player as a part of a great team.
“So, in a short period, he really impressed me.”
As a coach that’s “reluctant” to introduce contact so early in the pre-season, Lyon blamed the injury on a “freak event” in a marking contest as King leaves a big hole in the forward line.
“He went down and as Nick Dal Santo said, ‘How does that happen Ross in your first day back?’, I’m reluctant on the contest work in the pre-season, particularly before Christmas,” Lyon explained.
“It was just one of those freak events in a bit of a marking contest, you wear it and to be honest, it was probably a sign of maturity, I probably would have gone off in the past and been on a witch hunt really.
“But I was able to let it go, spoke about the opportunity to the group and the need for everyone to show their footy character and dig in.”
With their spearhead out for at least the early part of the season, Lyon hopes some of the club’s other forwards step up to fill the void.
“I just see it as there’s an opportunity,” Lyon said.
“Cooper Sharman has come back, improved his running and put weight on so there’s an opportunity for him and Tim Membrey.”
While Lyon says the Saints will look internally to replace King, he admitted that he did consider a suggestion from Kane Cornes that the club should attempt to lure West Coast’s Josh Kennedy out of retirement after the tall forward called time on his 293-game, 723-goal career.
“I liked it, to be honest, I thought it was a bit of left-field thinking and creative,” Lyon said.
“I really did like it and then it’s like, if you break it down even further, he (King) kicked 52 goals for the year, if it’s six games (that he misses) that’s 12 goals and that’s two a week.
“I think we can find two a week, so I did it that way.
“I did like the thinking, I was like, ‘Yeah, I should pick up the phone’.
“But probably where we’re at … we need to develop in our system some young talent and probably find out about a few on our list, to be honest.
“We’ve just got to work through it.”
Lyon’s St Kilda return will officially kick off in Round 1 of the 2023 season when the Saints host Fremantle at Marvel Stadium on March 19.