Saints coach Ross Lyon offers to step aside after comment upsets Indigenous players

St Kilda senior coach Ross Lyon has offered to step aside and personally apologised after a comment at training upset a group of the club’s Indigenous players, including stars Brad Hill and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.

The incident, first reported on Monday night by veteran football journalist Caroline Wilson on Channel Seven’s The Agenda Setters, occurred at a training session ahead of the Saints’ recent bye round. Lyon told three Indigenous players who had linked up during a drill: “I love the brother boy connection, but we all have to remember we are part of a bigger team here.”

“Brother boy” is a term of kinship and affection used among many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to acknowledge cultural connection.

Hill phoned Lyon the following evening to tell the coach how the comment had landed. According to Wilson, Hill said words to the effect of: “You wouldn’t have said that if it was three white players, so you shouldn’t have said it to us.” Wilson reported Lyon was “horrified at how much he had hurt those players”.

A meeting between members of the playing group and the coach took place a few days later. In a statement to Wilson, Lyon said: “I’m not here to justify or try to rationalise what I said.”

Wilson reported that the Indigenous St Kilda players who attended the meeting were “satisfied” with how it was handled and “absolutely accepted that Ross had said the wrong thing, but in no way meant to be racist”.

St Kilda has a strong First Nations contingent on its senior men’s list, including Hill, Wanganeen-Milera, Marcus Windhager, Lance Collard, Isaac Keeler, Liam Henry and Liam Ryan.

Hill, who Wilson reported was unhappy the matter had been made public, commented on a video of the story posted to 7AFL’s Instagram account: “We love Ross.”

Wilson said her understanding was that Lyon offered to consider stepping down from the senior coaching role over the matter. As of Monday evening, the Saints were yet to comment publicly on the incident.

The reporting comes during a difficult period for the club on First Nations matters. St Kilda recently announced it would appeal a nine-match suspension imposed on young Indigenous forward Lance Collard after a tribunal finding of conduct unbecoming for using a homophobic slur during a VFL game. In its statement on the appeal, the club said it empathised with the impact of the ongoing process on members of the LGBTQIA+ and First Nations communities.

Lyon, a 381-game coach who has previously led Fremantle and Sydney as well as the Saints, returned to St Kilda for his second tenure in 2022. The Saints sit outside finals contention midway through the 2026 season.

The matter renews focus on cultural safety in elite Australian sport, with Indigenous and culturally diverse players across the AFL continuing to call for stronger institutional support.