ROSS Lyon has a close mate who lives and works in Singapore. Sometimes, they go ages without speaking, but when they do catch up, there's an instant familiarity. "We can go 12 months, but when we talk, we're still mates," Lyon said. "That's the principle that I work on."

Lyon is almost a year into his first stint as a senior AFL coach and he is also the father of two daughters aged under two. In 12 months, he has moved back to Melbourne, found a home, become a parent again and taken over the coaching job at St Kilda.

Not surprisingly, it is difficult to find time for your mates when so much has changed. The concept of a day off is ridiculous. Lyon grabs a couple of hours here and there, but never gets a full day to himself any more. "If I think they're going to talk football continuously, I tend to give them a wide berth. I'll have an occasional meal and a pot with some mates, but it's about timing."

Lyon is not complaining. It's just that after 20 years in the system as a player and then assistant coach, he has moved to the big job. He says he is growing as a person every day. As Lyon beds down in the role, St Kilda is moving forward as well.

The Saints went to the season break with injuries and struggling at 4-7. Since then, they have most players back and have won five of the past six, with the single defeat a narrow loss to Collingwood. If they can get over the Western Bulldogs tonight, they will likely be back in the top eight.

Lyon likes the idea that he has close to his best team on the park again, having complained loudly about the club's poor injury management earlier this season. The best number at St Kilda right now is three, being the relatively small number of players (Michael Gardiner, Aaron Hamill and Brendon Goddard) who are unavailable through ailments.

But Lyon is suspicious of statistics. He points out that the likes of Lenny Hayes, Max Hudghton and Matt Maguire cannot be expected to play at their maximum because they have missed so much footy. "That (injury situation) can change in a minute. We're all just holding our breath."

Lyon brought in Peter Mulkearns as strength-and-conditioning coach this year and the results are self-evident. But the club is conducting a separate review of its injury management and Lyon made his thoughts clear.

"These are the facts I put down. We're in the lowest quartile of spending on medical and conditioning in the AFL. The club's aware of that. At some stage, we're looking to add to that and make us a better department. That's where it's at.

"Clearly, we can add some resources. You only spend that if you think it'll have an impact on player management and player availability. What you assume is the other clubs spend more money because they think it helps, unless they're dumbos, which I don't think they are."

Just as Lyon is growing into the job, St Kilda appears to be embracing his philosophies. When the Saints struggled in the first half of the season, there were a few critics of their game style. Even now, they are last in scoring in the competition, averaging 11 goals a game. But since the break, they have been averaging 14 goals a game — similar to 2006.

"The players will tell you there's been some subtle changes," he said. "We never sat here and said, 'We'll be happy with eight or 10 goals.' What we said was, 'We need to improve our ball use.' We changed some training drills and that's evident in games now. Why? Because we're scoring more."

But it is not the Sydney game plan, he says. Suggestions that he had aped Paul Roos' highly successful method were assumptions, says Lyon. "It was extrapolated because I came from Sydney," he says. "It (St Kilda's method) has evolved a bit. Personnel-wise, there aren't many teams who can play Sydney's brand. This team has different strengths and weaknesses.

"There is a foundation and I think there are things that stand up in finals — one-on-one and accountability. I've become more flexible in those areas as the season unfolded."

Lyon likes to keep it simple. Tonight's game, he has said, is like any other regular-season game. "You can term the games however you like, but fundamentally, they're another AFL game with four points up for grabs."

The improvement has come, he says, because the players have focused on the important things. Winning contested football is the first point he mentions here and denying the opposition uncontested ball is another. "It's about pressure, (making a) contest and ball use, isn't it? It's the (Allan) 'Yabby' Jeans idea of three phases: with the ball, without the ball, in contest. It's stood the test of time. We've just got more sophisticated means of measuring that."

For Lyon, one of the challenges of taking the step up has been to become a spokesman for the club. Always low-profile, he has had to become a media performer. In one news conference, he became abrupt to the point of being rude and was hammered the next day in a column written by a senior media person.

Instructively, he rang at least two journalists after that and apologised. His demeanour in the public spotlight has improved markedly since. "I've got a responsibility to portray myself positively because I'm a figurehead of the club," he said. "That's important.

"As a rookie coach, have I done it perfectly? No. Would I like to improve it? Yes. Was Kevin Sheedy perfect in 1981? Clearly I'll learn and grow in the job.

"You learn a lot about yourself. I've really grown as a person because I've had to face new challenges. A lot of them I've got right, a lot of them I haven't handled perfectly. I do self-analyse a lot and I think, 'I can get better here and here'.

"I'm not afraid to ring up people and say, 'Clearly you're upset. That's not what I wanted. Let me put my view forward but I hear you.' I think, 'Let he who has sin cast the first stone'. And I don't take it personally. I let go of it pretty quickly."