Ross Lyon reveals St Kilda was split over signing Ben Cousins

Former St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has opened up on the club's pursuit of Ben Cousins in 2009.

Lyon revealed he once had to spray his players after the Saints dropped out of the race for the Brownlow medallist.

The Saints were among several clubs chasing the former Eagles captain after his 12-month suspension in 2007 following an arrest for drug possession.

Cousins had met with St Kilda officials in Western Australia surrounding a potential move for the Brownlow Medallist, but the Saints had soon elected against signing the troubled ex-Eagle.

In an interview on AFL Media's The Couch, Lyon spoke out on the reaction that was received from his playing group after a deal failed to land.

“They were shocked. Their heads dropped," Lyon said.

“I just spoke about, ‘don’t worry about Ben Cousins’. We had a lot of talent. ‘You guys can be as good as him, why don’t you train as hard’. I was pretty fierce at them, they were sulking a bit.”

Cousins broke a long-awaited silence on Channel 7's Ben Cousins: Coming Clean documentary, expressing his main regrets from the fallout of his infamous scandal that clouded the Eagles with a drug culture.

Lyon further explained that the club couldn't move forward on a deal for Cousins after both he and the president had opted against the move.

“(There) was just a real uneasiness from the president and myself, and I did more research on drug addiction and the different substances,” Lyon explained.

“The players were really keen to get Ben, but put simply there was a split view really between the president, myself, CEO and football manager.

“We went to a board meeting at the top of Collins Street… commercially for the club it was gong to be a boom in membership and all those things. I’d made my mind up as coach that I was out and (the president) was out.

“It went to a vote. It became really simple when the president and senior coach were out.”