Former St Kilda coach Ross Lyon's 'bizarre' final hurrah Former St Kilda coach Ross Lyon leads the Saints off the ground after the 2011 elimination final. A NEW book to mark the St Kilda Football Club's 140th anniversary reveals the depth of bitterness at coach Ross Lyon's controversial departure at the end of 2011. In Strength Through Loyalty, to be launched at a club function on Saturday, St Kilda chief executive Michael Nettlefold talks of Lyon's "bizarre" and "unusual" behaviour late in that season, and says the coach ultimately headed to Fremantle for "purely commercial" reasons. Nettlefold said he sensed there was a problem because Lyon's "behaviour had been quite unusual" over the final months of the 2011 season, culminating in a "bizarre night" when the Saints lost an elimination final to Sydney. Within 30 minutes of the final siren at Etihad Stadium, Lyon had announced the unexpected retirements of Steven Baker and Robert Eddy as well as ruckman Michael Gardiner. Nettlefold said in the ensuing days the Saints believed they had resolved several months of contract talks with Lyon's management group, Elite Sport Properties, and had scheduled a media conference for that Thursday. The date was then pushed back, and during a board meeting on the Thursday evening Nettlefold had to excuse himself from the room to take a call from Lyon, who informed him he was quitting. Nettlefold said he then phoned ESP's Craig Kelly, who confirmed Lyon and his lawyer had independently negotiated a move to Fremantle. "I was stunned by the fact it was done outside the management group ... the fact it was done externally - that was the shock to me," Nettlefold said. We had an agreement with his management group. ESP dropped Lyon as a client and the coach has since said he handled negotiations in a way that would avoid "a clear conflict of interest" because Kelly was managing then Dockers coach Mark Harvey. Lyon has asserted St Kilda was lukewarm in its approach to contract negotiations late in the season. Nettlefold disagreed: "At the time it was convenient for that to be used as a reason, but as the situation unfolded and, by Ross's own acknowledgment, it was financially driven," he said. Nettlefold suggested Lyon was torn on how to "trade out" his strong allegiance to the players and the club for a decision made "purely on a commercial basis." Among the book's other revelations about St Kilda's coaches: LYON'S candidature was put forward by former player and coach Ken Sheldon, not former Fitzroy coach Robert Walls, as has long been suspected. LYON developed his team-defence game plan in closed training sessions during the 2009 pre-season, dividing Moorabbin Oval into marked zones the players were designated to mind. FORMER assistant coach Matt Rendell says board member Grant Thomas was the driving force behind Malcolm Blight's appointment in 2001, inviting him to join the selection sub-committee so he could "woo him" for the senior role. RENDELL said suggestions Thomas wanted subsequently to replace Blight were "crap," and that he was the one man who voted to retain Blight until at least the end of 2011. The book also reveals Thomas was sacked at the end of the 2006 season after a board meeting that went until 3am. The suggestion was Thomas was seeking to take control of the club, not just the football department. There was also a widening rift between the club's board and the football department. Or, as then president Rod Butterss put it, the club had split into "them and us" camps. Butterss said that even during the season two directors "wanted to sack (Thomas), even if he won the premiership." One symptom of the rift came when Thomas organised an overseas training camp without telling the board or including it in the budget. "I read it in the newspaper," Butterss said. The tickets had been bought. Butterss also said he believed Thomas's strong bond with the young playing group "bordered on unhealthy." Strength Through Loyalty: Saints at Moorabbin and Beyond by Russell Holmesby, retails for $49.95 and is available from Saturday at saints.com.au