THE ugly game became the blame game yesterday as Ross Lyon, the man who has worn the bulk of criticism for Saturday night's unsightly match, suggested that Hawthorn's flooding had been the catalyst for the dour spectacle.

Lyon insisted his Saints had not flooded, and had only attempted to combat the large number of Hawthorn players clogging his forward line. "There's a lot of apportioning of blame … a few of our leaders are disappointed we're being accused of flooding," the St Kilda coach said.

"There's a lot of hyperbole about game aesthetics. I was really aware it was a low-scoring game. We thought going in it would be a really good chance for that with Hawthorn's unique style of play. I think you can go to round one (when Brisbane Lions defeated Hawthorn nine goals to six), maybe it is just coincidence.

"You always hope to play the best footy you can play — was that the best footy that 22 could have produced? It is a subjective thing, isn't it? I will just reiterate: we didn't flood, clearly. When we had the ball at times we were over-patient and we could have attacked with a bit more run and carry to break the flood that we were encountering.

"It was low scoring. I think what Jonathan Brown encountered (in round one), what Fraser Gehrig and Nick Riewoldt encountered — I would contend there were two or three (players dropped back by Hawthorn). I am not blaming anyone, I am just saying we didn't flood.

"We had four key defenders on four key forwards and Leigh Fisher was a defender who didn't follow his forward into our forward line. I am just saying the facts."

However, in what he termed an "ugly" match, Hawthorn midfielder Luke Hodge suggested that his side had had to adapt to the style of play that was set by St Kilda.

"On the weekend, every time we looked up forward, they had a couple of extra numbers back," he said. "It probably wasn't worth kicking down there, because they would have just rebounded down the other end.

"We don't want to play that style of football.We had to kind of adapt to how the game was going. It was an ugly sight, but later on it kind of freed up for us and we got a few more goals."

St Kilda's error, Lyon admitted, was in not being more direct and attacking with the ball when they went forward.

"We lost four players on the Thursday night — (Jason) Gram, Xavier (Clarke), Clint Jones and Brendon Goddard. Three debutants (played), now my responsibility is to win the game and at three-quarter-time or a minute before I thought it was anyone's game."

He added: "It is an entertainment business. I wouldn't want the St Kilda supporters to come each week and (see us) kick six goals. Clearly our leaders don't want that and Fraser (Gehrig) doesn't want that."

Television broadcasters also have a clear preference that, in exchange for the $780 million of their AFL broadcasting rights, they get attacking games in return. Channel Ten's head of sport David White yesterday said the network that broadcast Saturday night's match was troubled by any highly defensive game, regardless of which teams were involved.

"When we choose games for broadcast we seek to cover attacking, open games and conversely we would prefer not to cover games where to the best of your ability you can foresee it will be a very defensive match because of the way certain teams have been playing," he said.

AFL chief Andrew Demetriou, a bold critic of Sydney's style of play in 2005 before the club went on to win the premiership, described the Hawthorn-St Kilda match as "very tactical" yesterday.

"I just think that on the weekend we saw some different type of football — particularly exciting football at the Bulldogs-Collingwood game, which I attended, the Kangaroos-Carlton game, the Richmond-Adelaide game, and we just saw a different style of game that was more tactical on Saturday night with Hawthorn and St Kilda.

"It was a very tactical game," Demetriou said. "I don't think we should judge the modern game by one game. You'll get different types of games depending on the the opposition and different tactics and I understand that."

What they said about the match

"It was a very tactical game. I don't think we should judge the modern game by one game. We've seen some wonderfully attacking football this year, evidenced by some coaches coming out and saying they were going to play a particular style, e.g. Dean Laidley. It was a great shootout yesterday with the Bulldogs and Collingwood, it was just a great game, as was Kangaroos-Carlton. You'll get different types of games depending on the the opposition and different tactics and I understand that." ANDREW DEMETRIOU, AFL chief executive"I know it was ugly — I was part of it, unfortunately — but we haven't really spoken about it." NICK DAL SANTO, St Kilda"We don't want to play that style of football. We had to kind of adapt to how the game was going. It was an ugly sight but later on, it kind of freed up for us and we got a few more goals." LUKE HODGE, Hawthorn"Saturday night was an extreme and a slight aberration and a response to a set of circumstances, mostly around St Kilda's lack of personnel." GILLON McLACHLAN, AFL chief broadcasting and commercial officer"We would always rather show an open and attacking, high-scoring game of football and we all know for a number of reasons it doesn't always work out that way." DAVID WHITE, Channel Ten's head of sport"I'm not going to comment specifically on Hawthorn-St Kilda because I didn't really see the game … but I just can't believe, generally, the hype that exists about so-called bad games. It's unprecedented in my time in football where we focus so much on bad games and we forget how many good games (there are). It's just absolutely mind-boggling that there can be so much focus on it." PAUL ROOS, Sydney coach"That's one of the worst displays ever witnessed … It's a blight on the game and both coaches should get a 'please explain' by the AFL. You cannot promote our game by dishing up that rubbish." ANDREW JARMAN, former Adelaide star