Preview Rd 19, 2014 - Melbourne vs Brisbane Lions

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Date - Sunday, August 3
Time - 1:10pm
Venue - Etihad Stadium
Weather - 14° Partly Cloudy

Preview by ZoBlitz

The Opposition

Now, if you know me at all you know that one of my favourite coaches of all time is Paul Roos. There's nothing more indicative of Australian Rules Football than teams not scoring goals. And Roos is one of the masters of coaching teams that don't score goals. Who didn't enjoy the 2005 Sydney Premiership where Sydney were the third lowest scoring team in the entire league? I don't know about you, but that's what gets me excited.

Since pulling up stumps from Sydney, Paul "The Messiah" Roos has come to "resurrect" the Demons. How has he done? Well Melbourne have won four games this season beating sides that would have won if they kicked straight (the four losing sides kicked 10.17, 9.20, 9.13 and 7.16). Still, a much improved effort over the last couple of years with an increased focus on games where neither side scores many goals. Melbourne have only had 100 points scored against them three times this year compared to the 19 times it happened last year (with the lowest against score from last year being 90).

I haven't had a chance to see much of the Demons this season (probably too busy watching Freo games) but I do know that Dom Tyson and Bernie Vince have been great pickups for Melbourne this season. Add to Nathan Jones continuing to do what he does and James Frawley playing his heart out so he can get picked up by a side that's closer to a premiership and you can see that it's not all doom and gloom for the Demons.

Last week Melbourne almost pinched it from an out-of-sorts Port and that shows that they can be a very dangerous side and shouldn't be taken lightly. Their record at Etihad is about as shocking as ours so we'll be on equal footing for this one. Will the extra week's break give them any advantage?

Our Lot

Well, after a few weeks of getting close but struggling to put the points on the board, we finally come out firing in the first quarter and turned pressure into points. While the Gold Coast weren't "up and about" early, our pressure didn't make it easy for them to get into the game at all. We destroyed them in the first quarter and won comfortably in the end. It was actually our eighth best performance in terms of points scored in the first quarter in Brisbane Lions history.

Hanley gained more than a kilometre worth of territory during the game and Rocky was picking up possessions all over the place. Martin was dominating in the ruck, Zorko was zipping away from stoppages and Greeny was putting goals on the board. I could basically mention the whole team here as it was a very solid team performance.

Can we continue on from this performance? Well I feel we've been playing some good football in patches the last few weeks with little reward and I hope that the fact that we were able to put it all together last week will spur on the guys. While our record at Etihad isn't great and we are facing a side that's had an extra week's break, our recent record against Melbourne has been pretty good with the Lions winning the last four games although the Demons haven't been the more deadliest of opponents in that time.

The Game

The games should be a tight, contested affair with plenty of exciting stoppages and riveting defensive play. Our line breakers of Hanley and Zorko will have to be on their game to try and break through the wall of the Melbourne defence. We'll also need to be efficient in our entries inside 50 and take our chances which has perhaps been one of our weaknesses in recent weeks. Hopefully our defence can keep up its solid form of the last few weeks. I'd say I'd like to see Martin fire up against his old team but I'm not sure how much better he could possibly be playing?

The farewell to Browny in Melbourne should provide the final element of inspiration to get the Lions over the line, Lions by 8.
 

Grimlions

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Saw an interesting statistic today. Our top 6 ball users (disposal efficiency) all stem from our backline - Harwood, Adcock, McStay, Patfull, Clarke & Maguire. I understand this will be inflated from our consistent short kicks & switching ball movement, but this gives me great confidence that our backline are now in full control - which was our biggest problem at the start of the year.

Goose & Patfull are in career best form!
 

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Saw an interesting statistic today. Our top 6 ball users (disposal efficiency) all stem from our backline - Harwood, Adcock, McStay, Patfull, Clarke & Maguire. I understand this will be inflated from our consistent short kicks & switching ball movement, but this gives me great confidence that our backline are now in full control - which was our biggest problem at the start of the year.

Goose & Patfull are in career best form!
And the efficiency indicator is higher when Golby isn't there I suspect.
 
Oct 29, 2008
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Excellent preview ZoBlitz. Just as an unrelated note to the game, are the previews now going up later in the week or is it kind of 'they go up when they go up' sort of thing?

On the game, I give us a real chance simply because I am unconvinced Melbourne can kick a winning score. We have been trying to restrict teams from scoring in games gone by so hopefully we can open them up offensively and the rest can fall into place.

Lions by however much we win by.
 
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Excellent preview ZoBlitz. Just as an unrelated note to the game, are the previews now going up later in the week or is it kind of 'they go up when they go up' sort of thing?

On the game, I give us a real chance simply because I am unconvinced Melbourne can kick a winning score. We have been trying to restrict teams from scoring in games gone by so hopefully we can open them up offensively and the rest can fall into place.

Lions by however much we win by.
The previews should ideally be going up earlier in the week but sometimes they get delayed due to various reasons. Blame my slackness for this week's late effort.
 
Oct 29, 2008
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The previews should ideally be going up earlier in the week but sometimes they get delayed due to various reasons. Blame my slackness for this week's late effort.
Fair enough, just used to Tuesday being preview day. Certainly not complaining though considering I haven't actually written one before!
 
What kind of twisted man enjoys watching roos coached teams or Fremantle play. I think you need a good hour or two on the couch with Haso ZoBlitz and not in the usual way. I'm concerned

Lions by 26 with plenty of overlapping run
 
The previews should ideally be going up earlier in the week but sometimes they get delayed due to various reasons. Blame my slackness for this week's late effort.
Should have typed it up on your phone thinking it was a hundred tweets - would have been completed in a blink!

So is Billy Puller still going to post a preview?

I'd have him preview the transcendentalism versus existentialism clash - sometime during the off-season...

Should be a beauty! :cool:
 

knaf

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Great to see the thread up. Expecting a good old fashion selection night Lions board melt down tonight.

In terms of the match you reckon that if Melbourne has any heart they will lift on the back of the Roos contract extension. Not confident in the expectation that the Roos factor will get Melbourne over the line in a tight match. It will be interesting to see the media response if Melbourne perform poorly.
 

T Factor

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Looks like Lisle, Zac and Robbo named on the extended bench. Great preview, I hope our run shows up Roos game style, in Leppa and the mossies we trust, us by 34.
 

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jackess

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I'm pretty confident we'll be unchanged this week. For the first time this season.
 

scott_the_man

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lisle in for merrett or mcstay

lions by 11 in a tight game
rockliff with 40+ touches again
 
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If we can break Melbourne and score on them like we did to GC it will be glorious to watch. The clamps will be down on Rocky and Hanley, they are going to be tagged so hard they will be waiting at the gate when they get off the plane.

Not having that space and open switching will test us, and we need to be able to dictate play still. Winning the hard and contested ball will be key, running hard to find and use what space we can and get the ball deep into defence. Pile the pressure on the defenders and lock the ball in creating scoring opportunities. I think if we can score about 80 points it will be enough to win.
 

BL_dobsmob

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Possible Numpty question...

How is it/why is it that Etihad is considered "Fast"?

If it is so, that must give us an advantage.
 

Zacisonfire

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Really looking forward to this one heading up to Melbourne for it first game live for the year... Never seen us win live hoping that turns around on Sunday. I do feel like tagging Hanley and how he deals with the tag could decide the out come of the game.
 
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Really looking forward to this one heading up to Melbourne for it first game live for the year... Never seen us win live hoping that turns around on Sunday. I do feel like tagging Hanley and how he deals with the tag could decide the out come of the game.
When Hanley was tagged by Crowley, he said afterwards that he learnt a lot from the game and what to do to get away from taggers.
 
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lisle in for merrett or mcstay

lions by 11 in a tight game
rockliff with 40+ touches again
Fair enough if you're in the drop Rog school, but I don't think it will happen. I think Goose might have a niggle, but at any rate Lisle will be given an opportunity to make it or break it... that's only fair and diligent on both the club and players part.
 
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