No stranger to significant home-and-away victories, Ross Lyon hopes St Kilda's stunning upset of Sydney will prove a turning point in their development during his second stint at the helm.
The Saints fought back from 30 points down to upstage the ladder-leading Swans last round, improving their record to 6-10 ahead of a clash with Adelaide on Saturday night.
A repeat of last year's surprise finals appearance is still unlikely, yet Lyon is bullish about what the victory can do for St Kilda after a disappointing 2024 season so far.
The former Fremantle boss likened it to one of his breakthrough Dockers wins at the MCG and a previous come-from-behind triumph with the Saints away from home.
Those results helped spark his sides into action as he turned them into serious premiership contenders.
"I've been fortunate enough to coach some great teams and had some great home-and-away victories," three-time beaten grand final coach Lyon said on Thursday.
"Sometimes there's a turning point ... you can have significant wins that just fortify you a little bit and forge a belief of your direction and where you're going.
"I think it's certainly, to some extent, just a little bit, it's tipped in there somewhere."
Lyon felt St Kilda had displayed against Sydney the sort of traits they are keen to make a trademark going forward.
"We showed great individual character and culture as a team," Lyon said.
"People were talking about our fight and we didn't give up.
"That's how we want to be known, and our fans jump on board that."
Lyon has been pleased with his side's improved showings over the past month, with competitive losses to the Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide preceding the Sydney win.
"Confidence is just a feeling and obviously when you have a win you feel better and more confident about what you're trying to deliver," Lyon said.
"Our team defence has improved and our centre-forward ball movement connection piece has improved, so we got a little bit of reward for effort.
"We know on analytics we've really ticked up against quality opposition over the last month."
The key now is reproducing those sorts of performances on a regular basis, as Lyon zeroes in on a "big challenge" away to the Crows.
"We'd like to bottle it and pour it out again, but it doesn't work like that," Lyon said.
"You've got to bring it to life again and we know it's a really hostile environment over there, so it's another really good challenge for us."
