Lyon tells: Why I'll never coach
CAROLINE WILSON
March 4, 2010.
GARRY LYON has closed the door on an AFL coaching career, declaring he no longer harbours any ambition to coach at the highest level.
Lyon told The Age he had been moved to end ''once and for all' speculation that he would return to the Melbourne Football Club to replace Dean Bailey after the Demons' move to extend Bailey's contract until the end of 2011.
''I've come to the conclusion I don't love footy all that much,'' confessed Lyon yesterday. ''I love footy - but I don't love it to the point that I will obsess about it until it ruins my life.
''It doesn't consume my every waking moment and for a coach it has to be that - an all-consuming, obsessive pursuit that rules your life. The public nature of it doesn't really appeal to me either, and that's the bottom line. I don't want that life.''
Speculation that a Garry Lyon-coached Melbourne was inevitable was fuelled when the 42-year-old football commentator joined the AFL's junior coaching ranks late last year, taking over the Victorian under-16 side previously coached by Nathan Buckley as well as a development coaching role with the AFL's Academy squad at the Australian Institute of Sport.
''I don't know how Dean Bailey feels about all this - for all I know he couldn't care less,'' said Lyon, ''but maybe there's some sort of expectation from Melbourne supporters because of this view that I was dipping my toe in the water.
''I'd never not be available to Melbourne. I want them to be as successful as they can be and I'll help Jimmy [Stynes] every day of the week if he wants me to. But without pursuing it, there's been a view I might go back and coach there one day. It's inaccurate.''
Lyon, a close friend of Melbourne president Stynes, club chief Cameron Schwab and football boss Chris Connolly, said Schwab was aware of his decision not to pursue a coaching career.
While Lyon insisted he had not ''woken up today and realised I won't coach'', close friends believe he came to the realisation over this past summer.
''I look at blokes like Nathan Buckley and Michael Voss who made no secret of their desire to coach and I have so much admiration for them,'' said Lyon, ''but I know it's not something I could live and breathe for 12 months of the year.
''I love working with the kids because it's just pure footy for them. I love that, seeing kids just loving playing the game and wanting to improve with none of the politics.''
Lyon, a football columnist with The Age, has a two-year contract with Channel Nine, where he hosts The Footy Show and Footy Classified. He will also call football for Triple M again this season, will continue to write children's books and is also involved in several non-football-related businesses.
A passionate campaigner against ''the ugly parent syndrome'' as a junior coach, Lyon was involved in talks last week with the AFL regarding the competition's bid to outlaw violence and abuse in the game at every level.
''I must say as excited as I get about every new season I do enjoy putting the footy book, the binoculars and the pen under the desk at the end of each year for four months,'' Lyon said.
