St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has defended his tactics in the face of mounting criticism while declaring his intention to continue using a tagger to blunt the AFL's sharpest ball-winners. Lyon's game style has been under the blowtorch since the Saints' posted the lowest winning score for a team led by the 57-year-old since 2010 in their victory over Gold Coast last Saturday night. The dour affair at Marvel Stadium produced the fourth-lowest total score in the venue's 25-year history - a combined 99 points - with Suns coach Damien Hardwick conceding it was a "terrible" and "horrific" contest.
In the aftermath, prominent commentators have attacked what they perceive to be an overly-defensive style of play being fostered by Lyon. Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion. "There's a lot of conjecture about it, a lot of split views," Lyon told reporters on Wednesday.
"I'm really thrilled with our contested ball, plus-20 against a great contested-ball team, defence in strong order, lots of entries, left a lot on the table. "We felt we took Gold Coast's game off them and we want to take Brisbane's game off them this week. "I haven't got the luxury to keep looking backwards and I'm certainly not a 'Monday's expert'.
" Philosophically, Lyon insists he doesn't care if games he presides over are ugly. "No, we just want to win," the 342-game coach said. "At the end of the day, we want to score.
We want more sizzle in. "I think it's a closed-ended que.