Essendon pair Matt Guelfi and Kyle Langford would have wanted to stay out of coach John Worsfold's way at the quarter-time break.
With the ball in dispute on the wing late a disappointing first term for the Bombers, the pair overran the football and made their way to the interchange bench.
Unfortunately for Essendon, the football hadn't gone out of play, seeing St Kilda's Jack Lonie take possession and set off down the wing.
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Check out the bizarre moment below.
Matt Guelfi and Kyle Langford walked off to the bench while the ball was still in play.#AFLDonsSaints pic.twitter.com/03SopTq4tM
— AFL (@AFL) March 30, 2019
"That is appalling. That is just appalling football," Lyon told Fox Footy.
"They just stopped playing the ball and ran off the ground."
Fronting the media after the match, Worsfold defended the pair and explained that the miscommunication was a honest mistake that they'll never make again.
“Look, from what I understand Kyle Langford was being called off the ground for his rotation, which generally means that there is a stoppage and the ball is out of bounds," he said.
"He just misread it and confused himself. He didn’t do it deliberately, it was just an honest misread of what was happening in the game. He got the feedback immediately on the bench by his teammates and he owned that.
"It was just an unfortunate incident and you’ll probably never see that again in his career."
But if that moment alone wasn't enough to get Worsfold hot under the collar, the scoreline certainly would have.
The Bombers were under pressure to perform following a dismal round one battering at the hands of GWS, but they started the match at Marvel Stadium in a similar vein.
Essendon could only muster two points in the first term against a St Kilda side who aren't expected to be challenging for the finals.
Jake Stringer finally broke their duck in the second quarter but they still had a long way to go. After being 22 points behind at half-time and as much as 33 point deficit in the second quarter, the Bombers returned as a rejuvenated side in the third term and brought the score back to a 10 point margin.
But the damage was already done after the disastrous first half, and as the visiters maintained their steady lead to record a 10.16 (76) to 9.11 (65) victory.
