St Kilda forward Justin Koschitzke says his AFL club has got on with life after Ross Lyon, as the first showdown with their former coach is consigned to history.

The Saints came off second-best against the coach who walked out on them in the off-season, losing by 13 points to Lyon’s new club Fremantle at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

Koschitzke said Lyon’s move at the time had been a shock to him.

But he believes the revitalisation at the club under new coach Scott Watters and an influx of new players has erased the loss.

“It’s a huge change at the time, but you get on with it,” Koschitzke told the Seven Network’s AFL Game Day.

“You get a new coach in, you get new players in, you get a new, fresh start and off you go.

“You can’t afford to spend time dwelling on it.”

After a week of media build-up about his return, Lyon copped both barrels from disgruntled Saints fans – most notably at quarter-time and following the final siren.

Flanked by security guards, Lyon had to run the gauntlet down stairs among the crowd at Etihad Stadium to get to the field of play.

But Saints midfielder Leigh Montagna said Lyon was capable of dealing with the barrage of abuse he would have received.

“I certainly heard the boos at quarter-time. I wasn’t quite sure what the crowd was going to give,” Montagna said.

“But I certainly don’t think Ross needs five security guards.

“Knowing Ross, he would have handled himself okay if he needed to.”