Outgoing president Steve Harris has reaffirmed Fremantle’s decision to extend coach Ross Lyon’s contract until the end of 2020, The West Australian reported on Wednesday.

Harris said the decision, announced in March, was made unanimously by the board to ward off any move from rival clubs to poach their coach.

In an interview with The West Australian in the wake of the announcement he would step down at the end of October to be replaced by Dale Alcock, he also:

• Dismissed reports of player rifts and potential player departures as “external commentary, blatantly untrue or beat-ups of situations”
• Defended Lyon against perceptions that he wore players and coaches out, saying they wanted a demanding coach and that Lyon had transformed the club
• Expected contract negotiations with Hayden Ballantyne and Nat Fyfe to proceed normally and not be influenced by speculation they might leave
• Expressed disappointment that the Dockers had plummeted this year, but was confident they had the right “fundamentals” financially and personnel-wise to succeed
• Endorsed Alcock as the right person to take Fremantle forward

The board believed it was right to extend Lyon’s contract by three years in March and Harris remained comfortable with the decision now. Analysis of the four seasons prior to 2016 would have assessed Lyon as the second-best coach in the AFL after Alastair Clarkson, he said.

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“We looked at the broader coach market place in terms of who might be available and also who might potentially want to make offers to our coach and our view was and continues to be that the best thing to do for the club was to lock Ross in,” Harris told The West Australian.

“I look at it now and think in an environment where he was coming out of contract I think there would be all sorts of external pressure on us to make a move with the coach when the reality is that the coach is doing really well.

“It takes that off the table and enables us to go forward and make the changes we need to make without worrying about pressure on the coach.”

Harris told The West Australian he was not concerned about Fyfe saying he would assess options before he recommitted to Fremantle.

“I would expect that every player at every club, before they sign a contract, has a conversation with their manager,” he said. “We don’t sit at list management and go player X, 18 months before they are out of contract are we worried what they are going to do? It doesn’t work that way. It will be handled in the normal way. We have got a list management group, he has got his management group, they will commence discussions and it will tick along.”