St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt says he wishes the AFL club had acted earlier to secure Ross Lyon as coach for the long-term.

The Saints star said he was shocked by Lyon's defection to Fremantle, and initially struggled to take in the news, which he received directly from Lyon in hospital last week, having just emerged from knee surgery.

"He just said `I'm out, I'm going to Freo,'" Riewoldt told the Seven Network's AFL Game Day on Sunday.

"It was really weird, when you come out of an anaesthetic everything's not normal ... we spoke for probably 20 minutes and I can't remember a lot of the conversation and from then on, I was in and out of a bit of sleep.

"It was an emotional 20 minutes."

Riewoldt said the news came as a major disappointment.

He said while he understood both Lyon's and the Saint's perspectives, it was a shame the club had left the coach in a contractual position where he was free to walk.

"Certainly in hindsight, it would have been great if he had been locked away a little bit earlier," Riewoldt said.

"But from both sides, both parties, the football club and Ross, you can understand why certain things have happened.

"The bottom line is, from a playing perspective, we're all really disappointed that he's no longer our coach.

"But the majority of the boys have been in this situation before ... it's our job now to get on with the job."

Riewoldt said while Saints players had expected Lyon to be at the club next year, he had never directly told them that he would be.

Fellow Saints star Brendon Goddard also expressed his disappointment, saying Lyon was a quality coach and person and someone the club did not want to lose.

"It's quite disappointing it had to get to this stage.

"As you well may know, the negotiations started months back. It's sad it would get to this point," Goddard told the Nine Network's Sunday Footy Show.

Goddard said he wanted the next Saints coach to embody some of Lyon's characteristics.

"Someone that like Ross is very demanding and holds us to high standards," he said.

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