Melbourne great Garry Lyon is “hopeful more than confident” the club can bounce back from a raft of off-field issues that have hindered it in recent years and play finals in 2025.
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And Lyon is picking the GWS Giants to finally climb the mountain this year and win their first AFL premiership following several deep finals runs for no reward.
The Demons will be hoping to put a stormy couple of years behind them – including Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver both being linked to trades and the departures of CEO Gary Pert and president Kate Roffey – in a rocky decline since the 2021 premiership as questions have been raised over the club’s culture.
Speaking at Fox Footy’s season launch event on Tuesday, Lyon suggested the club had a big opportunity to return to the September stage after missing out last year, provided the off-field drama has subsided.
“I think they should play finals,” Lyon said.
“If they get there it means they’ve got their house in order. It’s a legitimate question we’ve all got about them, whether the house is on rock solid foundation. We’ll find out.
“Clayton is flying, Christian has healed up, Max (Gawn) is going to be the best ruckman in the history of the history of the game.
“If all those things fall into play and Kozzy (Pickett) does’t run back to Freo, they should play finals.”
Lyon was “pretty comfortable” Pickett would remain at the Demons, suggesting all signs pointed to the gun small forward, contracted until 2027, was happy at Melbourne despite strong links to the Dockers.
The former Melbourne skipper was buoyant that mindset guru Ben Crowe had helped reconnect the team, but wanted the club to prove it’s turned a corner with actions out on the field.
“I’m hopeful more than confident. When you have the couple of years they’ve had, you just don’t come out in the summer and say ‘we’ve addressed it, we’ve fixed it’,” Lyon said.
“I want to see it. I’m not really interested in you telling me it’s all sorted out, I want to see them get through without any of the off-field issues.”
Lyon believes the Giants will lift their first premiership despite severals close misses in recent years including Adam Kingsley’s side giving up big leads in both finals losses to Sydney and Brisbane respectively last September to bow out in straight sets.
“I think it’s time the Giants grew up and stood up. They’ve been close, I think Adam Kingsley is going to be a really good coach,” Lyon continued.
“They’ve always got two or three tucked away we don’t know about. By the end of the year we’re going to go: ‘S***, they’re pretty good’.
“They had a couple of really good opportunities. They have a really hard edge about them and now it’s just about grabbing moments and not giving up those opportunities – they’re hard to come by.
“As a foundation club it’s bloody hard to get there. Gold Coast is trying to get there, the Giants are there.”
Lyon has been unveiled as the new co-host of AFL 360 this year alongside Gerard Whateley as part of Fox Footy’s revamped coverage.
Lyon departs On the Couch, which will now be hosted by Jack Riewoldt alongside Jonathan Brown, Nathan Buckley, Jordan Lewis and Leigh Matthews.
Elsewhere, Jay Clark will join David King and Leigh Montgana on The First Crack as Anthony Hudson steps aside to focus on his increased commentary responsibilities.
Hudson will call Friday night games on Fox Footy alongside Whateley, while Matt Hill and Mark Howard will be the play-by-play commentators on Thursday nights.
It comes as Fox Footy will call every game in 2025 as part of a landmark rights deal including Super Saturday Live – where the network has exclusive rights on Saturday’s nationally for the first right rounds of the home and away season. For Victorian audiences, that extends across the entire home and away season.
“It’s going to be great, the whole line-up is fantastic,” Lyon added.
“To see those young boys take over ‘Couch’ and make that their own. To work with Gerard will be great and calling with him on a Friday night will be sensational.
“Looking forward to it, it’s going to be a big year.”
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