"I think it was a good day for the Melbourne footy club, not a great day for Jack Watts," Lyon said on SEN Radio. "Now there's a pretty stern message in that and what I love most was that Tom McDonald spoke, Max Gawn spoke last and those boys didn't try and dodge around it, they just said 'he has to be better'."

Watts had a solid season in 2016 after years of battling to live up to his selection as a No.1 draft pick in 2008, but Lyon says he has to lift the bar higher.

"Footy is all about climbing mountains ... you've got to strive and climb and some players can't handle the altitude, you know, and he was dumped on the mountain a fair way up because of his No.1 pick - hadn't done anything - but because of that he gets put there and he struggled for years.," Lyon said.

"I mean it was eight years until he had his break-out year. Fantastic last season, ticked all those boxes, but it would seem that he almost reached the peak in his own mind. Said: 'Ok, now I'm right because I've had this great year', but he's not even halfway there and he's got to start climbing again and he is not climbing and now he is looking down and he's seeing these young kids going past him.

"Some people want to get to the very top, the Western Bulldogs did, others are happy just to be halfway up and he's got a decision to make. I think he can get there again and this might be the kick up the bum he needs."

Lyon said Watts had lifted his game in training in recent weeks and he expected Goodwin would bring him back to the fold.

"I think you'll find he'll be there at round one when the season starts, but this a really timely kick up the bum for him. He's had a couple of weeks of better training,  therefore by inference his training wasn't good enough beforehand.  And don't underestimate a new coach and a new leadership group. Within that leadership group there's a kid called Viney, who has got a standard that he sets really high, and a young recruit called Jordan Lewis."

Western Bulldogs skipper Robert Murphy said he had expected to see Watts on the ground on Saturday, but said it was often at this time that a new coach would put a stamp on his team.

"These are the times in footy clubs for statements, I guess, in terms of selection and player standards," Murphy said.  "This is ... when things generally change in a more hard-line approach. This is like the water level goes up. OK you can talk about 'Oh, it's tough to get a game and we've got depth' and there's going to be discussion on positions and places in the team. You can say that, but then to do it, the water level just goes up."