GingerGreatness
Bigfooty Skulker
And innit time to stop waiting?
It is this week.
And we’ve been waiting in some pretty extreme conditions - sweltering heat in Melbourne - while those of us in Qld have been waiting in the rain. A whole lot of it. Sheesh, it’s rained at my house for a month a half. Yeah, yeah, la nina yadda, yadda... I’m waiting for winter just to see the sun for crying out loud...
But it’s time to forget about the heat, forget about the floods, forget about peptides, forget about Adelaide salary cap rorts, forget about resting players in the Wizard Cup, forget about tanking investigations and last but not least, forget about Kurt Tippett. Like so much fallen rain, it’s finally time to emerge from the depths of what has been a very deep whirlpool of an offseason.
Now as some already know, I tend to celebrate round 1 by piecing together a total shambles of a preview video to embarrass myself with. I’m pretty certain some would say it’s the worst part about round 1, but sod it, it’s done anyway. Am hoping it gets a smirk or two, but really, sets us in party mode considering it’s been such a long wait this year - a bit of fun for making it to the light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s probably the last hurrah for my ever archaic video editing software - the switch from analog to digital cometh - but hey, if nothing else, it’s one for the road - turn the volume up and have fun guys.
Welcome back.
Bit of a bumpy ride but I hope it got you in the mood anyway - I was going to do a bunch of dodgy looking foreigners around the world watching marks on tv but figured that was a crap idea...
Now on with the wet, windy and rain soaked preview.
Footy, reign over me
The Lions’ season kicks off the way the last one finished, against the Bulldogs.
Let’s start off broad brush. These two teams haven’t exactly struck the fear of god in anyone for some time. The rebuilding bricks are being mortared together right now. The dogs recent streak of preliminary finals (and a NAB cup) are history, the last two years netting placings of 11th and 15th . The Lions? One finals appearance in 8 years (and that appearance ended courtesy of the bulldogs). But as much as we’ve all seen the improvement of late from the current NAB cup premiers, the last 3 finishes in the season proper have been 13th, 15th and 13th. If you saw that in the form guide, well, it ain’t exactly Black Caviar material. But last time I checked, footy ain’t the track, so what can we expect from this other kind of two horse race?
The Lions steadied a bit of a lopsided ship last year with 2 wins, but recent history between the two teams still favours the doggies, as the sons of the west have won 8 of the last 12 starts between the pair.
In terms of current form, the dogs have seen one or two roses, but a fair few thorns. Their win against Hawthorn was a rose, David toppling Goliath to bring home their first win since Round 12 against Port Adelaide, refusing to lie down to last year’s grand finalists. The following round was not so joyous, a 109 point thrashing by Freo, but in terms of the sides fielded, the dogs were minus Boyd, Cross, Griffen and Picken - and an analysis doesn’t need to go beyond those 4 names IMO. With some big names back, they pushed Richmond the following week.
From an outsider’s perspective, they did have a bad run with injury last year, Dale Morris being a missing piece of the puzzle and Cooney’s knee being a week by week prospect. That said, did the kids just run out of gas last year? Probably not. As much as Giansiricusa kept popping up and putting them through in 2012, their lack of fire-power up forward netted them 17th and 18th for most forward related stats, including marks inside 50, goal accuracy and scoring percentage inside 50. Looking at guys like Liam Jones and Cordy up forward, it’s versatile, it has upside, but it’s a work in progress right now. In terms of development, the Liberatore suspension was another burden. In terms of positives, Mitch Wallis placed 5th in the dogs best & fairest (at 19 years of age) and between Clay Smith and Tory Dickson, Dickson snagged the kennell’s best first year player.
The Lions form is pretty self-evident - their name is on the NAB cup - they are undefeated this year, the last two wins coming from Etihad. They have not been immune to criticism though, playing the two development teams in their unbeaten streak which included the skinny win over GWS at Wagga Wagga. What’s clear though is there is an absolute premium on spots at the moment which bodes well for improvement. In terms of who’s dominating, it’s hard not to get excited about game changers and we’ve had a few so far already that stamped their authority on games. Zorko, IMO, literally changed the opening round at Metricon. Bewick was x factor personified against Collingwood. Without Cornelius’ efforts, GWS would have walked away with the chocolates. And with “the 3 R’s” catch-phrase starting to fly with media types, perhaps the fourth “R” - respect - is just around the corner. In terms of “what’s changed?” (and just because no-one mentions defenders) Merrett has returned to the back line and has looked absolutely ominous and a replaced cog in terms of structure.
To put it another way, Simon Black hasn’t laced up a boot yet and the cup in the trophy cabinet says we’re doing just fine. One thing’s for sure though, a few extra blokes sticking their hand up early is a nice problem to have and this board is going to be rocking and rolling each and every Thursday evening when teams are announced.
It’s raining cats & dogs (in the coaches box)
Part-time maybe, but the latest additions to the Bulldogs coaches and consultants panel are Brad Johnson, Cam Mooney and Matthew Scarlett. The last two hook up with a familiar face, Steven King, the doggies assistant coach. For ex-cattery coach McCartney, cats and dogs are everywhere at his disposal.
As for the Lions, I’m loving that Mark Harvey is still with us, extending his stay in Brisbane for another 12 months during the off-season. Seemingly for budgetary reasons, Darren Travena is no longer with us. To be honest, budget constraints streamlining the football department is a little scary to me, but it is what it is.
As the press are quick to remind anyone who’ll listen, Voss has this year left to run on his contract. Does a preseason trophy lessen the expectation of 10+ wins this season? Subject to other factors, probably not, but I suspect opinion would be divided there, depending on how things pan out this year.
New blood is thicker than water
When McCartney came on board, he foreshadowed a no frills approach. The dogs’ rebuild wouldn’t be built on star names and reputations. Seemingly consistent with that ethos, Lake departed last year and if nothing else, I like the thought of Coach McCartney implementing his strategy come hell or reasonably high water. In terms of other notable outs, Gillbee and Hargrave retired and your and my ol’ pal worm (Sherman) is out the door. Sadly, big Zeph Skinner decided top flight footy wasn’t for him.
In terms of ins, two men previously from way out west, an ex-docker and ex-eagle, Koby Stevens and Nick Lower have come in - and from all reports, Stevens put in against Freo, so is on the verge of selection for Round 1. As would be well known to the supercoach inclined, Brett Goodes was also an in and has now been elevated to the dogs last senior spot.
Sadly (for someone who bothered to prepare gifs), neither team seems likely to show their top picks from last year, Stringer getting injured in the Hawthorn game (ankle) and Sam Mayes having had a couple of runs in the ressies, after a restricted preseason. The dogs no. 6 pick, Jackson Macrae, has been active in the NAB cup, so there must be some chance of seeing him this week, maybe as a sub.
The Lions ins and outs are well known to readers of this board. The former crow, former dog former lion and now Magpie, Huddo retired and rose again like Lazarus. Hard to say a bad word about him, but the people’s beard sure does go where the work takes him. As for ins, with Black still recovering from a minor op, Moloney’s arrival seems nearly timed to perfection. I enjoyed every minute of Stef Martin running out around Metricon in the first round of the NAB cup and the energizer bunny type zing he brings to everything he does maybe a touch goofy for some, but it works for me. First efforts, second efforts, third efforts, creating a contest and rucking to boot. How did we pay peanuts for this guy? He even took Aker’s old number, which is completely irrelevant, but it wouldn’t be a Lions v Bulldogs preview without his name mentioned.
Asides from an injured Black, you’d think Leuenberger’s limited time in the seniors this year and medical “what ifs” and “maybe’s” means he’ll sit this one out. In terms of who is likely to line up for us and why, there’s an entire thread dedicated to this ol chestnut right this way.
In terms of what’s in the mix:-
> Raines will go to Griffen;
> Polkinghorne usually plays a defensive type role on Murphy, but Murphy has been playing forward of late. For that matter, Picken has played at full forward at times this year, but also played in the back 6. I wouldn’t say it’s an unpredictable forward line though in that the team sheet will have Cordy, Jones, Dalhaus, Dickson and Gia in it, with perhaps Murph or even Cooney named up there;
> Minson will have an edge against Longer (assuming Leuey’s out), but as we saw in the Carlton game, Billy not getting the tap is not necessarily a killer for us clearance wise;
> without Lake to go to Brown, it’s down to Morris, Roughead or Markovic to get the job. McCartney has played Roughead on Jack Riewoldt, Buddy and Brown (when Lake was being played forward) before, but surely experience would get the nod - Morris coming back helps a lot and he is fresh from blanketing Riewoldt in the Dogs scratch match against the tiges;
> surely McCartney won’t risk Rich having another field day, our new co-vice captain picking up 3 Brownlow votes in Round 23 last year. Nick Lower got some big wraps for tagging Cotchin a week ago, so we’ll see who he is sent to this week.
Both games between the Lions and dogs last year were riddled with ordinary disposal. The Lions forward press was on during both games and the dogs ball movement quickly turned into over-possession, or when they went long, mostly played straight into the Lions rebounding/counter-attack strength. While the dogs will absolutely see this as one of the more winnable games in the fixture and a perfect opportunity to get the season off to a good start, I can’t see what has changed between last year and now to suggest this pattern won’t repeat itself.
With all these water references, when’s the “Raines” pun coming?
You just read it. But if that’s not good enough, just re-look at the gifs above and come up with your own Brian Lake gag.
Forecast
Rain.
I mean, Lions by 5 goals.
But whatever the result, enjoy it peoples - footy is back.
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