“Ty Vickery got his pants pulled down by a bloke called Steven May,” Lyon told afl.com.au.
“He had seventeen spoils and absolutely slaughtered Ty Vickery, who had been in good form over the NAB Challenge.
“He was magnificent Steven May.”
Much to Lyon’s delight, the 21-year-old consistently crashed the packs on Saturday night, leading a young and inexperienced backline against a Tigers forward line headlined by two-time Coleman medallist Jack Riewoldt.
He held Riewoldt’s forward line partner, Vickery, to just two goals for the entire match with the Tigers spearhead turning in a relatively effective performance.
Although midfield stars Gary Ablett, Dion Prestia and Michael Rischitelli received the usual applause, Lyon said more praise had to be awarded to the club’s key position players.
“He was up on the leads, and his spoiling was superb; I just want some recognition for these blokes.”
May, now regarded as a backbone to the GC SUNS defence, told goldcoastfc.com.au he couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 2014 premiership season.
Although confident the playing group could get over the line, May admitted he was beginning to feel uncomfortable after the Tigers managed to string consecutive goals early in the final term.
“I was getting a little bit worried when they started getting out of the middle because that is our strength,” he said.
“But I knew we could do it because we got the boys together and said ‘we’re not going to give it up now’ after we’d worked so hard after three quarters.
“Bluey (Guy McKenna) let us know at three quarter-time that this is a game we can win, so it was great to get the final result.”
Although disappointed his side will wait have until next week to build on their season opener, May said the SUNS will carry confidence leading in to their round two clash against Fremantle.
“Well we have a bye this week which is a bit annoying, but then we got the Dockers over there which is one of the toughest trips. But we have a week to see what we need to work on and hopefully build on our win.”
