ST KILDA coach Ross Lyon says his instinct tells him that extra time should have decided the grand final.

He said after the drawn classic his gut feeling was that the teams should keep fighting until a result was reached.

“Instinctively? Yeah, extra time,” Lyon said.

“Instinctively? [Yes], but I’m not sure it’s the exact right thing. It all depends whether you’ve got momentum or not and you’re healthy.

“Everyone will have an opinion, but I think the financiers are happy we’re coming back.

“I think you’ve got to respect what’s just occurred; that’s a pretty big-picture question.”
 
Lyon said he and his players would leave no stone unturned as they prepared to do battle with Collingwood once again for the 2010 premiership cup.

Both sides rode an emotional rollercoaster during and after Saturday’s nail-biting grand final draw and despite the devastation of the final score, Lyon said the Saints would continue to march on.

“Instinctively there’s just a sense of numbness,” he said.

“There’s a whole range of emotions; frustration, anger, relief, but every ounce of our being will go into preparation, recovery and we’ll come to rumble next week.”   

The Saints came back from 24 points down early in the third quarter to hold a six-point lead late in the epic contest before the siren sounded with the scores locked at 68 points apiece.

Lyon was in no doubt as to where his side lost its grip on the match.

“Clearly we made a horrible mess in the second quarter of everything we did,” he said.

“I thought our first quarter was very good and clearly our third and our fourth were pretty good, but I think what players will take away is that every little thing counts.

“I thought our skill errors when we had momentum late were horrible. We invited them back in, but I think they’d walk away saying ‘Well we had a lot of entries and we had the game and we missed some shots’.”

Michael Gardiner sat on the bench for the entire second half and must be in doubt for the rematch, but Lyon wouldn’t divulge the nature of his injury.

He said further feedback on the fitness of the rest of his group was made difficult by the fact his team’s rooms had been flooded during the match.

It will be all hands on deck at Moorabbin this week as the Saints try to go one better, with Lyon bullish on his side’s chances.

“We just hung on in the second, but I think that’s been our trademark with our ability to regroup and be mentally tough,” he said.

“I think our mental toughness will stand us in pretty good stead to go forward.

“[But] it really is another game of football to prepare for. I can gloss it up and package it up and put all the bells and whistles on it, but the reality is it’s another game of AFL football.

“What’s unique is that it’s the same opponent and it’s obviously for the premiership cup.

“The reality is we were on a treadmill all year. That cycle continues.”