Lyons a goal sneak
JARRYD Lyons is poised to become a weapon in front of goal under new Gold Coast Suns coach Stuart Dew.
Lyons played his debut season at the Suns as a specialist midfielder with enormous success after moving to the club from the Adelaide Crows.
The 25-year-old has revealed he will look to mirror the success when he begins splitting his time in the midfield with stints in the forward line in 2018.
“I’m probably going to have to go up forward a bit more next year,” Lyons said. “We have got a good midfield so we will probably put a few guys through the forward line.
“I’ll be training that as well as a second craft to my game.”
Many of Gold Coast’s midfield rested at forward in 2017 while Lyons provided the inside grunt needed in the centre of the ground.
Lyons said the development of young players including Touk Miller and Will Brodie would free him up to have a crack at goal, something that isn’t foreign to the Suns player.
“A few of us are going to have to be able to swing through the forward line,” Lyons said. “I don’t mind that because I played a fair bit there through Adelaide.
“As an inside midfielder you usually start in the forward line as a young player and work your way in to the midfield.
“There are plenty of guys at Adelaide that you had to try and push out of there.
“I grew up playing a lot as a forward so I don’t mind getting down there.
“It’s a good way to rest rather than resting on the bench.”
Lyons played 18 games in his first year at the Gold Coast, averaging a career-high 25 disposals under former coach Rodney Eade. He missed three games late in the season after tearing three ligaments in his calf and suffering bone bruising in the club’s Round 17 loss to Collingwood.
The midfielder conceded it limited him in his return and despite not needing off-season surgery, the calf will require treatment throughout the rest of his career.
“It’s going to be like that for the rest of my career,” Lyons said.
“I did a pretty good job of it. It will just be a matter of taping it and managing it from now on.”