‘Let them drive’: Lyon defends late Nas call as hyped, winless Saints blasted for ‘dumbest move’

Ross Lyon has defended the use of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera in the final quarter of the Saints’ loss to Melbourne on Sunday, saying the St Kilda ace “had a licence to go anywhere”.

Wanganeen-Milera booted three goals in the 13-point defeat but was kept occupied by young Demon Koltyn Tholstrup in a hard tag planned by weeks in advance by Melbourne.

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With the game on the line in the last quarter, Wanganeen-Milera spent almost half the term playing as a deep forward before he went to the interchange bench for six minutes.

He came back onto the field with about six minutes of playing time remaining, but only attended one of the seven centre stoppages in the final term.

“It was really simple – (Wanganeen-Milera) had a licence to go anywhere. He was getting tagged, so you just put (pressure) on a tag and you open up your forward line,” Lyon said after the game.

“I said, ‘mate, you can go and take a kick-in, you can go behind the ball, you can go to the stoppage or you can go (to the bench).

“The young player (Tholstrup) that was on him was cramping … he kicked three, he was our second-highest goalkicker. We probably take three (goals) to be honest.

“Sometimes you’ve got to let them drive the car … but it’s a steep learning curve. We’re not a proven top-four team or finalist, and with a lot of experience to just edge him on a little bit better than we are. But I thought he fought.

“I wouldn’t have thought he’s walked off distraught. He’s got 15 (disposals) and three goals. We wanted to use him a bit more halfback – it was a halfback game, wasn’t it? We’ll continue to work through it, he’s a very young player.”

Commentator Kane Cornes slammed the oversight, taking to X to say: “NAS spending 13 mins of the last quarter resting in the goal square, kicking a goal with 11 mins to go, then coming off for 6.20, will be hard to beat as the dumbest move this season.”

Melbourne coach Steven King said the Demons had deliberately given Tholstrup, who had spent most of his 19 games forward of centre, exposure in defence during the pre-season games to prepare him to face Wanganeen-Milera.

“(Tholstrup) has got an amazing profile athletically, so I was really keen to find a role for him today,” King said.

“I knew this game today needed Nas’s influence quelled a fraction, and we weren’t able to stop him – he was always going to have impact – but I thought for Koltyn to stick to the task and keep him to eight touches in the second half was pretty special.

“We knew (Wanganeen-Milera) would go forward, and we trialled (Tholstrup) down back a bit in preparation for that match-up.”

St Kilda sent Marcus Windhager to Kysaiah Pickett for most of the game with strong effect also, with Pickett kept to 19 touches and 1.1 while his Saints opponent racked up 32 disposals.

Ross Lyon also defended the decision to persist with Anthony Caminiti on Jacob van Rooyen rather than turning to another of his four tall defenders when van Rooyen racked up five goals to halftime.

“You show faith in your players. Tommy Hafey, right, one of the great coaches … do you know Tommy? Yeah ok, great coach,” Lyon said.

“They all talk about the faith, (Caminiti) has been pretty good for us, and I think he rewarded it. Kept him to one goal after halftime, so I think the backline coach made a good decision.”

“ (Tholstrup) has got an amazing profile athletically, so I was really keen to find a role for him today,” King said.

“I knew this game today needed Nas’s influence quelled a fraction, and we weren’t able to stop him – he was always going to have impact – but I thought for Koltyn to stick to the task and keep him to eight touches in the second half was pretty special.

“We knew (Wanganeen-Milera) would go forward, and we trialled (Tholstrup) down back a bit in preparation for that match-up.”

Lyon suggested he had been calm with his players post-game after slumping to a 0-2 start.

“We’ve just got to keep knuckling down. I just knew over five months there was no magic potion, We’ve got more capability – I think we’re displaying it – but it’s a pretty ruthless competition,” he said.

“It’s a difficult, disappointing day, but we need to take the lessons out of it and I need to lead well.”