Geelong great Corey Enright is set to be Ross Lyon’s successor as St Kilda coach, according to reports.
Enright, a six-time All-Australian and four-time premiership player with the Cats during his 332-game AFL career, has been an assistant at the Saints since the 2022 season.
According to Nine’s Tom Morris, the 43-year old has been ‘unofficially earmarked’ as the club’s next coach, with a potential succession plan a chance to be announced sometime before Lyon’s current contract expires at the end of 2027.
“St Kilda has unofficially earmarked Enright to succeed Ross Lyon whenever the time comes that Lyon steps away,” Morris said on 9 News.
“This likelihood has been discussed among players, football staff, and even noted in conversations from Ross Lyon himself.
“It wouldn’t surprise some inside of Moorabbin if a handover was formalised some time before the end of the coach’s tenure in 2027.”
Enright is currently serving as the Saints’ Head of Game Plan and Strategy.
Suns call for Fox to pay Hardwick’s bird-flip fine
Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick has been slapped with a $2000 fine after vision of him flipping the bird following a controversial umpiring decision in the Suns’ loss to GWS was broadcast on Fox Footy.
After a long kick from Jake Stringer in the last quarter tumbled out of bounds, Hardwick was staggered when the Suns weren’t awarded an ‘insufficient intent’ free kick, with the umpire instead calling for a boundary throw-in.
As revealed on AFL 360, Hardwick was left laughing at the decision, before derisively raising his middle finger in the direction of the ground.
The Suns coach joked that the vision might ‘get me in a bit of trouble’, later apologising to AFL CEO Andrew Dillon via X.
However, after the league handed Hardwick a fine – the fourth AFL figure to be sanctioned this year over flipping the bird following Geelong’s Bailey Smith, West Coast’s Harley Reid and Hawthorn’s Nick Watson – the Suns are reportedly not happy with the network.
According to 7 News’ Mitch Cleary, the club have called for Fox to pay the fine.
In response, sheepish AFL 360 hosts Gerard Whateley and Garry Lyon apologised to Hardwick, suggesting a ‘GoFundMe’ page to be contributed to by Fox staff.
“This is not funny, this is really serious, and it’s think of the children!” Whateley jokingly proclaimed.
“This is the stupid, petty nonsense that this administration has totally lost itself in. It’s addicted to fines, it wants to sanction.
“Pick up the phone [and say] ‘it’s not really ideal’, bit of tut-tutting, ‘do you reckon you could make amends for that at some point down the track?’
“One is to hope that when Greg Swann gets there, that is the big change of culture that happens.”
North greats set to boycott 100th year event
North Melbourne’s centenary celebrations in next Thursday night’s clash with the Western Bulldogs have hit a snag, with reports members of the Kangaroos’ inaugural 1975 premiership team will boycott the event.
The event is set to serve both as a 50th year commemoration of the club’s maiden premiership, as well as celebrating 100 years since they joined the VFL/AFL.
However, several players in that team, most prominently club legend Sam Kekovich and John Burns, will not be in attendance, as they are unhappy with the Kangaroos’ AFLW team also being celebrated on the night for their inaugural premiership last season.
Kekovich explained his boycott to the Herald Sun over the weekend, saying he was ‘disgusted’ by the lack of a ‘gala dinner’ for the 1975 team.
“The club should have gone to the AFL and asked for a Saturday afternoon game against Hawthorn at the MCG with a dinner that night. Is that too hard to organise?” Kekovich said.
“And every footballer who played a game that year should be invited, along with the families of club legends such as bootstudder Jimmy Cook and property steward Ron House.
“It isn’t about our egos because we know who we are and what we achieved. It’s about so many other people who enabled the club to win that 1975 flag.”
However, according to Fox Footy’s Jon Ralph, the inclusion of AFLW premiership players in the celebrations is a key part of the discontent.
North Melbourne star Alice O’Loughlin celebrates kicking a goal during the 2024 AFLW Grand Final. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images).
“His [Kekovich’s] stance is he feels the club attitude is representative of a club that doesn’t revel in the ‘Shinboner’ history,” Ralph said on Midweek Tackle.
“My understanding is a really big slice of that frustration surrounds the fact that they have to share that event with the AFLW premiers of last year.
“They feel like, not that their deeds were of a bigger quality than that, but men’s versus females. It’s a challenging perspective.
“They haven’t invited all of their CEOs of the last 30 years, which I feel they should have done.”
Midweek Tackle co-panellist and AFLW expert Lauren Wood slammed Kekovich’s stance as ‘ridiculous’.
“The reality of this is, it’s actually not a premiership union, this event. It’s a centenary event,” she said.
“That [1975] was the first VFL premiership that the club won. This was the first AFLW premiership that the club had won, and it was a really significant occasion.
“The club has poured huge amounts of time and effort and money into developing this women’s football program, really in at the ground floor with that relationship with Melbourne University.
“This is a sign to the future of this football club, and reality is that AFLW is now part of the football club, it is part of the football landscape.
“If that is true, and that is a layer to all of this, I think it’s personally really disappointing.”
