St Kilda’s IT department made a serious blunder that could disrupt the team’s start of the AFL season. The Saints accidentally released a behind-the-goals vision that was supposed to be muted. However, the file the club shared with the rest of the league contained coaches’ box audio and sensitive information about the team’s preseason preparations.
The file of the Saints beating Essendon was uploaded to a shared folder a week ago. Rival teams had several hours to download it before St Kilda became aware of the mistake and took it down. It is still not known whether rival teams downloaded the file before the Saints removed it.
If a club downloaded the behind-the-goals vision, it would have gained access to sensitive information Ross Lyon and his staff shared with players while getting ready for the new season.
The Saints Replaced the File with a Muted Version
However, the Saints’ chief executive Simon Lethlean was relaxed about the incident and said they wouldn’t look for and penalize the individual that made the mistake. Lethlean was sure the IT team didn’t know that the audio was attached to the vision and said he hadn’t seen anything to indicate that someone had downloaded the file before it was removed.
St Kilda CEO told SEN that Ross Lyon informed the players about the incident and that the removed file was replaced with a muted version of the video. Uploading muted behind-the-goals vision is standard practice for AFL teams.
Players Were Informed about the Incident
The Saints’ acting football manager David Mission also released a statement, saying that the upload was the result of a human error and they immediately acted when they were informed.
He couldn’t say whether anyone had accessed the file, but even though the risk was low, they acted proactively and removed the behind-the-goals vision. Mission added that the Saints’ focus was to create a high-integrity programand be open about everything, so one of the first things they did was address the problem with the players.
St Kilda starts the season against Fremantle on March 19, a match that will be of great importance to current St Kilda coach Ross Lyon. He was sacked by the Fremantle Dockers in 2019 after eight years with the club. He then rejoined the Saints, whom he coached from 2007 to 2011.
