Review Round 3, 2015 - Brisbane Lions vs Richmond

[nion]

I thought this evening's game showed how courteous our young men are. Our chaps struggled to get their hands on the ball, not their fault there were a number of other men wearing a different uniform who just seemed to want it more. I must congratulate our lads for using their manners and allowing their guests to play with our football a lot! I thought it a little concerning with how rough the yellow and black team played, I much preferred how gentle and kind our team was in allowing the yellow and black team to just run and play with the ball without us trying to take it off them.

 

[Mooch]

Taylor as the sub tonight was an awful decision and Leppa needs to own that.

I presumed the only reason was for that was to try and play tall. Bottom line is Taylor is one player who makes things happen and should have been in from the start.

 

[luthor]

No forward line.

The simple truth

The midfield broke even (at least)`for three quarters but you could see the energy belng sapped out of them when effort was just not getting rewarded on the scoreboard.

Quite the opposite was happening....we'd work and work and after so many fruitless entries into the forward 50, we were getting absolutely slaughtered on the transition.

No wonder we packed it in.

Honestly, the way our forward stocks are at the moment, I just can't see us kicking anything like a winning score.

 

[Cockliff38]

The thing that's pretty clear at the moment is that we're not working hard enough without the ball. Not creating space to work into, passing to stationary targets who have an opponent next to them and obviously not working back to help the defence. I don't think it's a fitness issue we should be worried about but something's got to give.

As an aside, if you take out your three best performed players from the previous year (Patfull, Rocky, Pearce) any team is going to struggle

 

[HowYouDoin]

• We lack the basic skills needed for AFL
  
• Our players didn't even play to win tonight, nor have they played to win this year
• Leppa's contract better not be extended, because he hasn't earned it.
• Dan Rich is easily our best player
  
• Robbo should be sent to the NEAFL and be told to never return, because he is a complete waste of time
• Gardiner is actually showing immense potential

 

[James North]

I thought this evening's game showed how courteous our young men are. Our chaps struggled to get their hands on the ball, not their fault there were a number of other men wearing a different uniform who just seemed to want it more. I must congratulate our lads for using their manners and allowing their guests to play with our football a lot! I thought it a little concerning with how rough the yellow and black team played, I much preferred how gentle and kind our team was in allowing the yellow and black team to just run and play with the ball without us trying to take it off them.

Nice assessment, nion.

Brisbane is a friendly city.

 

[nion]

But our boys are so kind, did you see how when we had the ball for a little while we decided to share with the men in the yellow and black. We just kicked and handpassed it to them without anyone telling them to.

 

[James North]

But our boys are so kind, did you see how when we had the ball for a little while we decided to share with the men in the yellow and black. We just kicked and handpassed it to them without anyone telling them to.

Communism fails - this much I can tell you.

 

[nion]

My favourite part of the game was when our Lions players had the ball and they knew that the men in the yellow and black weren't ready to play, so they waited until all the men in the yellow and black were in their positions and then we started the game again.

 

[brizrider]

Can't see how this can be turned around. The inability to effectively dispose the ball or gain possession under pressure is a real worry. Adcock, Christensen, the Beams brothers and Rich were exceptions. Zorko, Green and Taylor really need the pace of the game to be much faster for their style of play and opportunism to be effective I think. The team do ok in overall stats terms in hit out's, stoppages and clearances but it never really seems to be to any great advantage and this shows up in terms of inside 50's which are down every week. Having injured players back will help a lot but players do get injured and you have to be able to cover them at least a bit - not let everything fall apart.

Andrews - massive unit and could be good one day but was lost here tonight and not great to be learning his game in a side that gets flogged every week.
Staker - I thought he wasn't too bad in the middle parts of the game but also pretty lost at times.
Papparone - started nervously but got better.
Redden, Mayes - not sure what they're doing or supposed to be doing. They're sort of invisible for large parts of the game.

 

[Last of the Roys]

God all of the sudden it is hard to see how we can possibly turn things around. I am just really furious at our effort tonight after quarter time, despite some exceptions here and there it was unbelievably embarrassing.

We are so soft and so unskilled - the team has basically lost all confidence and it looks like we have hit rock bottom (if this ain't the bottom then God help us!).

You could comfortably drop half the team after tonight's effort and still find players who don't deserve a game.

We have to get back to basic - concentrate on going 100% at the ball / tackling / and focusing on defence. Time to throw the game plan away for a few rounds and just get back to playing one on one football. Those that don't want to put in can take a walk.

Time to review the whole team:

• Dayne Beams - thought he was better tonight than previous weeks, but his disposals are still largely ineffectual. 20 contested possessions, 11 clearances, and 7 tackles, but it is hard to be effective when you are playing in the worst team in the League at this point in time.
• Zorko - was OK'ish. 27 possessions and 2 goals, but only 3 tackles and 3 clearances. I would like to see him spend more time in the middle.
• Rich - has been one of the only players to put in each round so far. We probably need to get him to spend more time in the centre.
• Bewick - despite his stats not looking too bad, I thought he was pretty woeful. Has been pretty much ineffectual for the first three rounds.
• Aish - wasn't the worst out there tonight by any means, but for the talent that he has he shouldn't be satisfied with those sort of performances. It is like he leaves something in reserve a lot of the time.
• Paparone - was a fair bit better than last week, but that is not saying much. Still gets pushed around too easily. Would look much better just playing a whole game on the wing / half forward flank.
• Claye Beams - again better than last week, but he is not reaching his potential at the minute.
• Martin - was good in the first half but faded badly along with the team. Zero clearances and just 2 tackles is pretty poor actually.
• Christensen - was pretty ineffectual most of the night.
• Adcock - looked good early, but just completely faded out of the game. I couldn't tell you who he was playing on or what he really did after quarter time. Only one tackle, which is shocking.
• Robinson - FFS do you have to go to ground every time you are in a contest!!! It was everything that is wrong with his game that came through tonight - 6 clangers and then some.
• McGrath - has put in every week so far and has absolutely embarrassed many of his team mates with his efforts.
• Redden - Shithouse IMHO - 12 disposals, 4 clearances and 3 tackles. JR, until you decide to pull the finger out and decide that just above mediocre is no longer acceptable, you will never reach your full potential. Where the hell is the Jack Redden I used to know - ferocious at the ball and ferocious in his tackling???
• Green - completely ineffectual yet again. Out of form in an unbelievably dysfunctional forward line.
• Mayes - in a huge form slump and lacking confidence. He was very lucky not to be dropped this week, not sure he will survive the chop next week.
• Andrews - showed some really good signs, which is all you can ask for, but he is naturally a long way off it as an 18 year old 200cm player.
• Clarke - I thought he has been pretty good this year under extreme duress, but it was not one of his better nights. I have no idea why he kept getting caught in front of his player with the ball coming over his head. It is full back 101.
• Maguire - holy s**t, he looked like an absolute shell of the player he used to be not that long ago.
• Gardiner - didn't notice him much, not sure he should have been the one subbed off though.
• Taylor - definitely should not have been the sub. We missed his enthusiasm for a lot of the game, by the time he came on we already virtually in full surrender mode.
• McStay - doesn't lack talent, but lacks effort. Too often we have seen him take a good mark early and then disappear out of a game completely.
• Staker - it was always going to be hard. He is naturally a long way off given his long road back from injury. But it doesn't seem like we have an alternative but let him play himself into form.

• Leppa - regardless of the huge deficiencies in our list and our injuries, the buck stops with the coach. The team just cannot keep on this trajectory for the rest of the year because Leppa would find himself fighting to keep his job. It is just not good enough the way the team has been prepared / played this year. The players take a big portion of the blame, but so to do the coaches. Where has our ferocious tackling / attack on the ball gone? Where is the focus on defence? How is it possible that our skills can seemingly get worse year after year from a very low base? Why don't we look like we are moving forward in terms of strength / fitness? Why can't the team execute its game plan / do we even have a good enough list to do so? And it may be of no real consequence now, but why the * make Taylor the sub? One of the few players that put in against North - someone who helps sets the standard for the team in terms of intensity.

I don't really know how we turn it around. We might get Rocky and Merrett back next week, but we would need half a dozen Rocky's to turn the s**t around that we dished up tonight.

 

[Kevvo]

Agree with most of the thoughts on here.

I really liked what I saw of Andrews. He was competing well in the ruck, made a few smart plays and had pretty clean hands. Plus its nice to see that he has the range to go from 50. Despite giving away weight, he seemed to get a lot out of the size he has.

Zorko was good. He seemed to fade a bit in the third, but he was working.

I think Paps is getting better every game. He still has too high a clanger count, but his kicks are improving as is his work and hands in traffic. In a year or two, with a settled defense, I think he will be a really critical asset for us.

DBeams really fired up later on and became instantly cleaner and harder. It seemed (hopefully) like something clicked. Claye was pretty good too.

Stef was doing pretty well, but had some really bad clangers. He was one of a few of our senior guys who were making small mistakes then compounding them with huge ones.

I wish Mayes could find his touch. I think he put on a bit of size after his first year and has really struggled with mobility since then. Somebody made this comment the other day, but I think the same is true with Greeny. It seems like they wanted him to bulk up a little so we could try to isolate him one on one against small defenders, but I'm not convinced it's a winning plan.

I think we're really missing Merrett at the back a lot. I love Goose, but our defense keeps getting caught pressing high when we turn it over in the midfield and he just isn't athletic enough to recover. Clarke is doing trojan work as a one man band a lot of the time. Merrett, Clarke and a healthy Gardiner is a good solid foundation for us to build off.

The end of the game was pretty dismal, but I did see some improvements. It's disappointing it blew out, but I think we'll improve as the season goes on.

 

[JasperBeardly]

The simple truth

The midfield broke even (at least)`for three quarters but you could see the energy belng sapped out of them when effort was just not getting rewarded on the scoreboard.

Quite the opposite was happening....we'd work and work and after so many fruitless entries into the forward 50, we were getting absolutely slaughtered on the transition.

No wonder we packed it in.

Honestly, the way our forward stocks are at the moment, I just can't see us kicking anything like a winning score.

I don't disagree with anything you've said there, but I'd also add that a number of our fwd 50 entries don't do the fwds many favours.

 

[nion]

Nice assessment, nion.

Brisbane is a friendly city.

It is James North, I really hope our players show as much hospitality to the men in the yellow and black post game!

 

[carnthemlions]

List turnover- the amount we've had recently has hurt us. It happened last year, and it's happening again now.

 

[James North]

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!

 

[luthor]

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!

FRAK!

 

[Elixuh]

Andrews goal was brilliant.

C. Beams is one of our best kicks IMO.

Rich...amazing...

Zorko tried and tried and tried.

Robinson really won me over during the offseason. Is aggressive which we lack a bit. Felt for him when he slipped over then holding the ball. Had a few moments he'd probably like to forget.

Goose is done unfortunately. Struggled, especially towards the end.

Clarke is awesome.

Our trade and draft period this year is going to be so important. We need another key back and 1 or 2 key forwards. Adding in Merrett, Rocky and Hanley will give us a much better spine for the 2nd half of the season but our forward line will make for a few more miserable games this season.

Some of the tigers fans are terrible and I don't care much for some of their players but how good is their song. Hearing it sung like that at the end was actually one of the highlights.

 

[bato]

The midfield broke even (at least)`for three quarters but you could see the energy belng sapped out of them when effort was just not getting rewarded on the scoreboard.

This. Sums up exactly what I think the problem was.

 

[a mayes ing]

Andrews goal was brilliant.

C. Beams is one of our best kicks IMO.

Rich...amazing...

Zorko tried and tried and tried.

Robinson really won me over during the offseason. Is aggressive which we lack a bit. Felt for him when he slipped over then holding the ball. Had a few moments he'd probably like to forget.

Goose is done unfortunately. Struggled, especially towards the end.

Clarke is awesome.

Our trade and draft period this year is going to be so important. We need another key back and 1 or 2 key forwards. Adding in Merrett, Rocky and Hanley will give us a much better spine for the 2nd half of the season but our forward line will make for a few more miserable games this season.

Some of the tigers fans are terrible and I don't care much for some of their players but how good is their song. Hearing it sung like that at the end was actually one of the highlights.

We need to win games for players to even want to come to us first,

 

[CarloLion]

Frackin posters...

 

[CarloLion]

As dreadful as our list was circa 2011-12, I cant remember us ever playing worse football than now at the start of a season.
Whatever your opinion of Voss he did seem to instill a basic hardness in the troops that is very much missing at the moment. The problem with the side stems from much more than not having any decent tall forwards, or even missing Rocky and Hanley. Something has clearly failed in the communication between coaching staff and players here. It won't be a quick turnaround.

 

[Harris Specter]

Hate to say it, but it really baffles me how much faith we put in Lester and co. that we let Patfull go to GWS.

Haven't watched the majority of the game, but not sure if I want to watch it, judging by the scoreline. Just not sure where our win is going to come from. Looks like all the other teams have improved from last season, or have at least shown signs of beating a team, our is so far away, it's not even funny anymore, it's just pathetic. From the tiny snippets of the game, how can our team be so lethargic around stoppages and clearances, have less tackles AND disposals for a seemingly small team. It's just frustrating that Lions are now the basketcase of the AFL, after having so much improvment in the past 1 and a half years. 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

 

[LethalLions]

A few points

I am coming from a physio perspective, which is my specialty

Where do u start?

1. Our players, whilst they are younger, look physically smaller than the opposition, it really looks like men against boys out there. Yes, I get that we have a young side, but apart from stef Martin we look so much smaller. Berger had a few years off recently and has not put on much muscle at all. Is it poor recruiting? Where do the Hawks, power, swans etc get all these tough, muscly blokes who can play footy from? Also, our fitness doesn't seem up to afl standard atm...

Maybe we need a clean sweep of our fitness staff?

2. Do we train at nite, at all? At the Gabba, to get used to the lights? To get used to greasy conditions? Because it's not as if we aren't playing most home matches up here at nite

3. Recruiting. Back to point 1 in a way. Where does port, Hawks, Syd etc get these big tall strong young blokes from? Do we have to look at the body shapes of our recruits?

4. I get that we aren't probably going to contend for finals. What I don't accept is no gut busting running, the way Simon black used to play, the kind where you throw up because u have no more to give.

These are my humble opinions.

Cheers, the wheel will turn and we will have our day again soon enough.

 

[Nunez]

******* Luenburger lost this game for us. Yes, LUENBURGER. If he wasn't in a form slump, he would have played and carved the opposition up. Oh, and * Rocky and Hanley for their injuries- soft c**ks!