As part of his Melbourne media tour that included stops at AFL HQ and a foray into the twitter world, Fremantle Dockers coach Ross Lyon spoke with The Herald Sun’s Mark Robinson on the weekend.

Despite preseason questioning of what Fremantle had to improve in order to win the premiership, Lyon said that Freo have a good foundation to work from.

“We do a lot right,” Lyon told Robinson. 

“We finished on top of the ladder, won 17 games, in it up to our necks, but have fallen short. We’re building. I want to evolve.”

Part of that evolution for Lyon meant taking the initiative to study and continue to learn from other successful organisations, regardless of whether or not they were sporting related.

“That starts with me. I talk to people. I have people in the corporate world. I go in and spend half days with people running technologies at big corporations and artificial intelligence. I see how they put together innovative teams. They showed me how they analyse data and big data. That’s one aspect, the other is culture and people, how it drives performance and you speak to those experts,” he said. 

The goal of scoring more in 2016 has been well documented for Freo this preseason, and Lyon told Robinson that less reliance on Matthew Pavlich would go along way to achieving that. 

“What will help Matthew is not kicking to Matthew all the time,” he said.

“If you’re an equal opportunity forward line it creates options. Clearly we need to improve our system.” 

Many Freo onlookers may point to the arrival of Harley Bennell as a way of “improving the system” but Lyon told Robinson that the talented recruit was more than just a one-year fix.

“He’s not a saviour for us,” he said.

“It’s very simple with Harley. He gets a legitimate fresh start. He walks into a club with a clear trademark or culture of expectation, he’s not left in any doubt what needs to be delivered on.”

Lyon finished his interview with Robinson by reiterating his commitment to winning the elusive premiership, but refused to be defined by it.

“So, does it eat at me? Whether I’ve won one or not, you should be working the same. You shouldn’t be defined by result. Clearly, I’ve been close, but not good enough. I deal with facts. I’m not going to push back the facts. But I’m still working, I’m working hard, I’m still trying to improve. And have I quit? No.”