Today, the AFL has asked all Australians to refrain from touching Fremantle senior coach Ross Lyon, especially when he’s coaching.
The message comes after a fan touched Lyon on the back during the Sydney/Fremantle final at the worst ground in Australia, ANZ Stadium.
“Who hasn’t wanted to reach out and touch Ross Lyon?” said AFL Football Operations Manager Mark Evans.
“That doesn’t mean you do it. We all need to show restraint and not give in to our innermost desires.”
The AFL said people should also refrain from touching Ross when he’s not coaching.
“Let’s give the guy some space. Of course family and friends can touch him if he’s cool with it, but everyone else should just hang back,” said Mr Evans.
AFL Legal Counsel Andrew Dillon said the league had developed a four-volume guide defining when it was appropriate to make physical contact with Lyon.
“It’s pretty comprehensive. Obviously a lot of it is common sense, but there are a few interesting situations that can trip people up, like saving him from an out-of-control-bus.”
The AFL also warned people against touching Alastair Clarkson and Ken Hinkley.
When asked to respond to the AFL directive, Mr Lyon said, ‘don’t touch me.”
COMMENTS
Wayne Sherwell
Sep 08, 2014
What about with one of those 'dog catcher thingos?'
Peter Tonkin
Sep 09, 2014
This creates a massive market for Ross Lyon cuddly toys for the thousands out there who desperately crave contact with his irresistibly alluring flesh, sorry, shirt, and need some suitable surrogate on which to satiate their flaming desire. I can only hope the Dockers marketing team are up to the challenge.
stanley
Sep 19, 2014
How does anyone remark about the completely biased structure of the AFL towards pragmatism and the glory of AFL Sydney the wasted experiment where probably less than 10% of the population of NSW give a damn about AFL.
The massive waste of money and the sacrificial lamb of genuine teams as have been members of the tradition of Australian rules football whose record of playing the game approaches 100years such as Footscray and St Kilda and this god damned Sydney team as has 4 grand finals in 10years - utter bullshit manipulation call it what you want
As much as I despise Melbourne football and all that stands for would rather barrack for god damned Collingwood than see this Sydney invention and massively advantaged team The Swans succeed
Sydney Swans has more success now than the entire history of the former feeble South Melbourne, how so, simple it has been orchestrated
My prayers are Swans fail and fail badly at the AFL Grand Final and no football reasons for that, pure disdain and chagrin, the game is bankrupt
nick2121
Jul 20, 2015
I am really worried about this.....
I was at the movies about fifteen years ago, and had to go to the dunny half way through. I climbed over half the row, only to discover one of those poor victims was Ross Lyon.
Can you please ask Andrew Dillon if there is retrospective legislation with respect to this matter? If there is, can Andrew recommend expert legal advice please.