Lyon spoke to the 29-year-old in front of his family and teammates in the rooms before the game against Brisbane, before Crowley’s father, Larry, presented the star tagger with his match jumper.
“It was one of the more special moments of my footy career,” Crowley said.
“He (Ross) got the family in and had a talk about some of my childhood and stuff.”
Lyon mentioned Crowley’s battle with cancer as a youth and reiterated the importance of family.
“It was a pretty emotional moment actually,” Crowley said.
“I’m glad we did it a bit before we ran out because I was choking up a bit.
“But it was a special moment for me and my family and I‘m very grateful to the club for doing that, and Ross especially.”
Crowley tagged Brisbane great Simon Black in Freo’s 40-point win at Patersons Stadium.
Black, who broke the Lions’ games record in Saturday’s match, could only gather 13 possessions opposed to Crowley, who gave a tribute of his own to the three-time premiership player.
“He has one of the best resumes in football and he is a tough opponent, one of the hardest I’ve played on over the years,” Crowley said.
“He was still running around like he was 18, I was hoping he would slow down a bit.”
Black was subbed off in the third quarter, but Crowley said he always had a back-up plan for unlikely scenarios where he has to change match-ups.
“During the week I get two likely opponents, so I will have a look at them,” he said.
“I’ve played on (Daniel) Rich a few times, so when Simon Black went off I went to Rich.
“Luckily I had already done a bit of homework on him.
“The bloke I’m playing on doesn’t get subbed too often so I don’t need to worry about it too much.”
For now, Crowley will soak up a victory in his milestone game and then get straight onto his next task.
“The footy club is my life, I love it here so it was a special moment,” he said.
“I just love playing footy, I love the role that I do, even though it’s tough, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
