Traded Billy Longer (2012-2013)

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Billy attended a clinic at our footy club with Sam Docherty today wearing a knee brace - he tells me it's a partial tear of his left medial ligament so at least 3-4 weeks off.

Both Billy and Sam were great with the kids, by the way.
 
Judge said:
Billy attended a clinic at our footy club with Sam Docherty today wearing a knee brace - he tells me it's a partial tear of his left medial ligament so at least 3-4 weeks off.

Both Billy and Sam were great with the kids, by the way.
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Who had the brace Judge ?
 

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Lace Out said:
I guess being in Longer's thread it's Billy.

Tip out for year to have a run at full preseason.
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Yep, Billy had the brace.

Looked pretty sore so it wouldn't surprise me to see the club put him in cotton wool for the rest of the year.

Huddo wil need a good rest over the off- season!
 
Ooh Aah Ash McGrath
18 Jul, 2012

Question: How are the young fellas going with their bodies? Billy Longer looks huge compared to draft night. How are the others going? I see a couple running around who still look like they need a good feed.

Yeah, the young fellas are building up their strength with our Strength and Conditioning Coach, the great Matt Hass. Billy Longer has put on a lot of weight, though I’m not sure how much of it is muscle. He just lumbers around a lot.
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Had our Gabba tour with Billy on player sponsor night, he certainly is a friendly guy, seems to treat everyone like a close friend and does speak very well. He certainly has a playful side as well. He was like a big kid in a candy store showing us around the rooms. He is going to be one to keep an eye on going forward. He started pretty well in the NAB cup at the start of the year, playing a lot of time up forward and pretty effectively too. Will be an awesome player.
 
Next Gen ready to roar
September 15, 2012
Greg Davis

BRISBANE ruckman Billy Longer says the bonds forged by the march to tomorrow's NEAFL northern conference grand final will reap dividends at the Gabba for years to come.

Longer played five senior games this year after being selected at No.8 at last year's draft. He is a central part of Brisbane's "Generation Next" due to his size, skills and versatility.

The 19-year-old said the Lions' new breed would gain a huge amount of confidence if they could win a premiership together, which would in turn serve Brisbane's senior side well in the future.

"The young guys that have come through this year have really bonded well. Winning a grand final together would only add to the good morale," he said.

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Billy Longer 2012 End of Season Review
by charles202

Senior games: 5
Dreamteam: 293
Supercoach: 291
Goals: 0
Club Best and Fairest votes: 1

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Image courtesy of Mr Ripper

Leading into the draft Billy was touted as one of the nation’s top junior footballers, and clearly the number one ruckman in underage competition. Billy received some pre-draft press due to his unique rucking style of palming the ball left handed and talked candidly about needing to learn to be more aggressive to take advantage of his noticeable size advantage.

Billy was widely predicted to be a top five draft pick, with the most pundits believing that he wouldn’t make it past GWS’ almost monopoly of the top seven picks.

However, when pick seven came around GWS gambled on picking KPP prospect Nick Haynes in front of Billy with the hope that the Lions would not spend a top 10 pick on the promising ruckman. With gleeful delight the Lions shattered the Giants dreams and didn’t hesitate in calling out Longer’s name.

In addition to being the country best tap technician, Billy was also captained Victoria Metro and brought strong leadership and character on the plane ride up to Brisbane, not to mention a hulking 201cm frame.

Whilst a sizeable underage player, Longer seemed to enjoy the QLD lifestyle and during pre-season added 6kg of muscle together with a noted improvement in his 3km time trials.

Longer made his Lions debut in the 1st pre-season game against local rivals the Suns where he went head-to-head with another highly rated junior in Daniel Gorrigne. Longer matched it with his slightly more senior combatant however Gorringe was able to exploit his extra time spent in a professional environment by accumulating more touches around the ground.

Billy would go on to play the entire pre-season and prove to be a tantalising goal kicking prospect and demonstrate surprising quickness on the lead for a manchild his size. Two goals against both Carlton and Essendon demonstrated that Longer could be a more than dangerous prospect when not knocking the ball down his midfielders throats. This unexpected strong pre-season led to whispers among the Lions community that Longer may have done enough debut round one.

Whilst a first round debut was not to be, the mere thought of a first year ruckman showing so much so early bucked the established group-think that drafted young ruckman take years to develop.

Billy didn’t have to wait long to test his game against the best in the competition. In round 3, against the Dockers, he made his eagerly anticipated debut against arguably the country’s premier ruckman in Sandilands.

Unfortunately for the Lions, what was already a baptism of fire soon became a David versus Goliath battle, after Leunberger’s early exit with a season ending injury. Whilst Billy ‘the kid’ was unable to slay the giant he showed enough fight to give the Lions faithful hope of his long term potential.

Billy had a four game stretch in the firsts between rounds 6 and 9 with a highlight game against the Giants in which he collected 15 touches to go with his 25 hit outs. This game was to earn him his one and only vote at the Club Champion dinner.

Notably, Billy had season high hit outs (31) against both Collingwood and North Melbourne but was unable to back up this ruck work with touches around the ground.

In his game against North Melbourne Billy exhibited that he was a fast learner in the aggression stakes, the cost of the lesson being a $1,200 fine for engaging in a melee (hope the boys chipped in for the first year boy flying the flag like a veteran). I wonder if Brad Scott got a chuckle from the opposition coaches box seeing his old number in the middle of the fray.

In a season where Billy has exceeded even the Lions lofty expectations for a first year ruckman, there is still plenty of scope for improvement over the upcoming off season. An improved endurance base and kicking skills will see him going a long way to challenging for a permanent first team berth.

Assuming that no new recruits are brought in over the offseason, the battle between Lisle and Longer for the second ruck/quasi FF spot could be one of the contests of the 2013 pre-season campaign.

Regardless of the short term future, the Lions appear to have consolidated its ruck stocks for the next decade and will be hoping that GWS’ gamble to leave him on the board at pick 8 will pay big dividends to Brisbane over the coming years.
 
Well done on the review Charles, good read. Billy looks so different from when he first joined the club, about 5 years older than what he looks like here:

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I wonder how many games would be a realistic aim for Billy next year; 8-10 too much?
 
IanHaso84 said:
Billy Longer 2012 End of Season Review
by charles202

Billy would go on to play the entire pre-season and prove to be a tantalising goal kicking prospect and demonstrate surprising quickness on the lead for a manchild his size. Two goals against both Carlton and Essendon demonstrated that Longer could be a more than dangerous prospect when not knocking the ball down his midfielders throats. This unexpected strong pre-season led to whispers among the Lions community that Longer may have done enough debut round one.
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I like it.
 
BlairForceOne said:
Well done on the review Charles, good read. Billy looks so different from when he first joined the club, about 5 years older than what he looks like here:
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What you see there is the difference between soft Melbourne living and hard Qld environment. If he had stayed in Melbourne he'd still look like a school boy.
 
Haso said:
Big Bad Billy is looking bigger and badder these days.

From the Lions facebook account, receiving a handball from Justin Clarke:

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And from Cal Bartlett's instagram:

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Billy Longer: Big and/or Bad.
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You'd fancy your chances with one pitched up on the stumps - he handles that bat like an axe!
 
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