Crossword Genius

In a legitimate position to suppress article secretly (2,3,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

on the side

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'secretly' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'in a legitimate position to suppress article' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'a' becomes 'one'.
'legitimate position' becomes 'sid' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to suppress' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'one' placed around 'sid' is 'onside'.
'onside' going around 'the' is 'ON THE SIDE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for on the side that I've seen before include "Without official authorisation" , "without authority" , "Like illicit relationship" , "Additionally, maybe illicitly" , "Selected for the team" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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