Review Round 3, 2015 - Brisbane Lions vs Richmond

[carnthemlions]

Positives: we weren't as bad as last week. No, really. We weren't. Were doing quite well in contested possessions and inside 50s for quite a while there. We just couldn't capitalise. Our talls had a lot to do with it. Staker was rusty as *, wouldn't have played if our injury list wasn't so long. But he showed enough for me to think that he can still be an important piece for us when he gets his touch back. Andrews is VERY raw, but I loved his effort all night, especially in the ruck and when the ball was on the ground. McStay... hasn't got the game to be the focal point as a forward at all right now. Not sure what his endurance is like, but I suspect he might have a bit of work to do there. Needs to improve his 2nd efforts.

I liked Paparone's game. Both Beams bros had their best games for the year, Zorko stood up as well. McGrath has really clean hands, unlike a few others out there. Clarke was really good for mine, especially after last week. The record will say Riewoldt kicked a few, but I'd only hold Clarke responsible for a couple. Could be a real asset if we can assemble some sort of stable defensive unit to work with him.

Like I said in the other thread, bad errors from experienced players hurt us in the 1st half. Martin(numerous times), Maguire, Robinson and Adcock were all guilty. You can make excuses for kids/guys who ideally wouldn't be out there like Staker, but it's just not good enough coming from them. Redden was quiet as well.

 

[MacMum]

Seriously did anyone else see that guy towards the front of section 68 absolutely lose his s**t in the fourth quarter?

Screaming that McStay is f***ing crap and then screamed (with kids in the vicinity) that the whole team are "f***ing useless c***s". Then he stormed out when someone tried to calm him down.

Haven't seen a fan meltdown like that in years. Totally inappropriate and over the top.

I loathe fans like that, moreso when they are ours......great example for the kids around him. Very poor public behavior.

...and the players don't need to hear that sort of thing either. Doesn't help at all.

 

[royboys4eva]

One of the things i liked about Leppa last season was he had a defined game plan. When the opposition had the ball we would zone off and while it took a while to get use to and the players took half a season to adapt the signs were they were getting it and that it held up. For the life of me i have no idea where that game plan has gone. Players are so out of position.

In attack tonight we just chipped around or kicked to a 1-3 on scenario. What happened to the quick play on and switching play? Everything that was a positive last season has gone in 3 weeks into the season. Granted Rocky Hanley and Merrett would make a big difference but doesn't matter who you have on the field if the team has lost it's sense of direction and understanding of the game plan.

Taylor as the sub tonight was an awful decision and Leppa needs to own that. McStay is woeful. I watched him first hand last week and even tonight watching from the couch you could see his worth ethic is zero. Robinson as hard as he tries just makes error after error. Papparone needs to play on the wing and run around loose, that way he cant get knocked off the ball. He makes so many errors with the ball in hand as well. But he is worth persisting with as we don't have much else. Mayes was poor again. I get the feeling he has lost interest under Leppa. Green been non existent in 3 games. Bewick is just an average player who is capable off the odd good game but nothing more. Aish looks like he has moved onto 2016 already.

Only way back is hard work and stick to the game plan regardless. We are so badly in need of a forward who can take a mark or crash a pack. Stakes looked rusty as expected but he is worth keeping in the side. I would seriously think about putting Merrett back forward. He would be better than anyone we got at present.

The positives for tonight and it was hard to find any - Zorko backed up his strong works mid week with a great captains game. Rich was excellent and needs to stay in the centre for rest of the season. Beams boys played well. Impressed by Claye's game off half back. Attacked the ball with great desire and overlapped.

Get Cutler into the side next week. Even might as well try McGuane up forward as we have tried everyone else.

 

[WA Lion]

Seriously did anyone else see that guy towards the front of section 68 absolutely lose his s**t in the fourth quarter?

Screaming that McStay is f***ing crap and then screamed (with kids in the vicinity) that the whole team are "f***ing useless c***s". Then he stormed out when someone tried to calm him down.

Haven't seen a fan meltdown like that in years. Totally inappropriate and over the top.

None of us are enjoying being a fan right now of the Lions, but if people want to do that sort of thing they need to stay at home in a padded room with a cheap TV which they can hurl the remote at..... Not at a game with families around

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Leppa feeling the heat

 

[Quigley]

Maguire is done. Would not be surprised if he packed it in early. The last two weeks he has been terrible.

Staker looked pretty much as bad as Maguire but coming back from injury I will cut him a bit more slack.

Thought the team were a lot better this week with Gardiner in there. He is a competitor and as he gets fitter he will be very handy structurally.

Adcock gave us nothing and had some bad turnovers.

Christensen is a complete cat and his bludging in his defensive running cost us a lot.

D Beams racked up a lot of possessions in the first half but did nothing much with them and did not contribute anything else much. As the game progressed he seemed to fire up for the first time this year and actually make some tackles. Hopefully that continues.

Robinson was hopeless with the ball but he did show some aggression which was sorely lacking in the rest of the team. He tries but he needs to give more if he is going to part of the team going forward.

I did not expect much of Andrews especially when I think he is going to be a defender but he did okay despite lacking a lot in body strength. He lacked a bit of fluidity but I liked how well he recovered with the ball on the ground and I thought he showed some nice game awareness.

Aish worked a bit harder this week but was sloppy.

Claye had a nice game. He had a couple of mistakes but overall he attacked the ball nicely and really helped us going forward.

Paparone showed tonight that when he is not playing KPD he is actually a pretty reasonable option at the back. Covered ground and was decent by foot.

Martin got a bit of it but I did not think he had a particularly good game. Made a lot of mistakes and not many of his taps were worth anything.

 

[MacMum]

Leppa feeling the heat

..and so he should be.

 

[acuguy]

McGrath and Andrews were almost our cleanest one touch players tonight, let's hope Leppa and the gang can belt that out of them! We need to train at night time, that is clearly obvious!

 

[charles202]

I thought we were better than last week, thought the forward line at least appears functional although outmatched. Would like to see Dawson brought in for Robbo but that would be it for me,

Seemed like Paps was playing more on a wing this week but that could have just been my interpretation, better game from him.

McGeath punched above his weight thought his little nutmeg up forward was all class gave himself a lot more time than he thought.

Gardner back in defense seemed Luke an improvement. Goose for me is clearly past his best the back six will look a lot better with sauce back.

Overall a step forward which I don't think the scoreline reflected.

 

[Quigley]

And McStay had another very poor game. He just does not work at all. He looks to have gone backwards since last year. Not sure what he thinks he is doing.

 

[Panthera]

Had something on tonight so didn't get to watch the game, but checked out the 3/4 time stats (an even 7 goals behind at that stage). Anyone care to explain how , when:

Contested possessions were even
Inside 50's were even
Tackles were even
We led clearances and centre clearances
Free Kicks were well in our favour
Hit Outs were well in our favour
Disposals we were - 5

There was though, a glaring stat where Richmond marked the ball 12 more time inside F50 (ended up being -17 which is huge).

 

[Hollow Knight]

Had something on tonight so didn't get to watch the game, but checked out the 3/4 time stats (an even 7 goals behind at that stage). Anyone care to explain how , when:

Contested possessions were even
Inside 50's were even
Tackles were even
We led clearances and centre clearances
Free Kicks were well in our favour
Hit Outs were well in our favour
Disposals we were - 5

There was though, a glaring stat where Richmond marked the ball 12 more time inside F50 (ended up being -17 which is huge).

No forward line.

 

[mikey127]

Guys I don't know why but I think we will win next week. I never tip us I am whatever the reverse of biased is but I have a gut feeling we will win next week. No I haven't been drinking.

 

[patfullfankezz]

Positive: Chatting with a total hottie on the bus.
Negative: He was a Richmond fan.

At least we are showing glimpses in small patches...unfortunately these glimpses usually end with someone having a complete brain fart and we don't know how to fix it.

 

[Kevvo]

Seriously did anyone else see that guy towards the front of section 68 absolutely lose his s**t in the fourth quarter?

Screaming that McStay is f***ing crap and then screamed (with kids in the vicinity) that the whole team are "f***ing useless c***s". Then he stormed out when someone tried to calm him down.

Haven't seen a fan meltdown like that in years. Totally inappropriate and over the top.

Saw that. It was seriously poor judgement.

 

[James North]

It's very hard to single out players who did well or players who did badly, because the whole team had a bit of a shocker again.

However, I do think we showed more heart this week and do agree with those who think this was a step forward despite the points differential.

Confidence seems down too, and it's effecting our decision making. Something will click and we'll start stringing a full game together.

#onlybeensayingthisforadecade

 

[Full Wingspan]

One. touch. football. We must eliminate the fumbles. As i predicted before the game - just too much inexperience (let alone team unity/cohesion) across each line to even be competitive. One bad decision, one poorly executed skill, one fumble, one hesitant move across each part of the ground. What is most disappointing is the lack of leadership and our senior players committing these basic errors.

 

[rockypls]

Basic skill errors and lack of two way running killed us.

 

[James North]

Yeah rockypls - defensive running was not good tonight.

Not convinced it's physical conditioning though - I think it's confidence/cohesion/momentum.

 

[Panthera]

No forward line.

Midfield defensive pressure must have been horrid to concede 23 D50 marks out of 57 entries - 40% of the time Richmond went in there, they took a bloody mark

 

[carnthemlions]

And McStay had another very poor game. He just does not work at all. He looks to have gone backwards since last year. Not sure what he thinks he is doing.

Do you think his best position is forward in the long term? I'm not convinced.

One. touch. football. We must eliminate the fumbles. As i predicted before the game - just too much inexperience (let alone team unity/cohesion) across each line to even be competitive. One bad decision, one poorly executed skill, one fumble, one hesitant move across each part of the ground. What is most disappointing is the lack of leadership and our senior players committing these basic errors.

That's it. The kids are fine, more or less. We should expect more from some of these guys who aren't stars, but have played more than enough senior football for that sort of thing to not acceptable.

 

[James North]

Do you think his best position is forward in the long term? I'm not convinced.

Neither am I, carnthemlions ... but the situation we're in causes us to use him up front.

Got a feeling we might need a forward or two.

That has ACLs.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Team needs to go back to what it should be. Get beams, paparone and rich out of the backline and put defenders in there.

 

[Mooch]

Yeah, Beams racked the disposals up but had no impact whatsoever. Need more boys giving him a chop out so he can push forward and be a goal threat like back in his Collingwood days.

I'm glad it's not just me. I was beginning to think I was missing something. He racks up the numbers every week (35 disposals tonight) but I can't think of much positive impact on the team. Having said that, when we got the ball inside 50 tonight, who was there to do anything with it? Staker had a horrible night, Robinson had a horrible night, Green tried hard, McGrath and Andrews showed a bit. It was so hard to watch tonight. Kicking to a team mate from a mark / free kick should be the simplest thing in the game but we couldn't even get that right. And when Stef Martin kicked across the back to a 2 on 1 right in front of goal ....... He had a decent night in general but that summed up the team skill level and decision making.

We made Richmond look like a premiership team a week after making Jarrad Waite look like a world beater. I'm at a loss to suggest what we could do to improve, other than spend the week going back to basics on kicking, marking, and manning up.

 

[Back2Back2Back]

Seriously did anyone else see that guy towards the front of section 68 absolutely lose his s**t in the fourth quarter?

Screaming that McStay is f***ing crap and then screamed (with kids in the vicinity) that the whole team are "f***ing useless c***s". Then he stormed out when someone tried to calm him down.

Haven't seen a fan meltdown like that in years. Totally inappropriate and over the top.

Saw that one TBD ... amusing, but stunning.

Hah, I didn't know I had BF peeps up in my area. I'm section 67, sounded like it was pretty close to me. It got way over the top, I'm glad he took himself out.

As for the game... where are our basic skills? The game plan is calling for a lot of handballs and fast pace movement but if we can't handball to the chest, and then catch that or mark an incoming kick, what's the point? It just adds to the pressure and suddenly we're being shoved in all directions while trying to grab at a ball on the grass.

And we're predictable. So badly. Constantly crossing rather than just getting it forward... Is it just that we're down on confidence? It's frustrating to watch, for all the hype of the new midfield, take Pierce and Rocky out and we're a mess.