Preview Round 5: Brisbane Lions v NM Kangaroos

[dlanod]

Reminder: we're still looking for preview writers for weeks 10 to 13 and more later in the year! Hop into Preview writers needed - 2023! (More needed!) and lend a hand!

 

[dlanod]

DERRINALPHIL’s Kitchen Table

This is a difficult match preview for several reasons, the major being I am a long term member of both clubs and so have an ‘emotional foot’ in both camps. It is also early in the season so it is impossible to identify trends, with any degree of confidence, for both teams with such a small sample size but the real reason why I am finding this difficult is that the Lions are so ridiculously up and down.

Two weeks ago Section 5 did an interesting preview with loads of stats, heat maps and such things, providing information probably beyond my cutting and pasting ability, but I am not sure they have any utility in a preview for a Lions’ game, especially this season.

Take the Collingwood game where the Lions kicked ten unanswered goals but were outscored for the rest of the match. Another example is the Port Adelaide game where the Lions were thrashed thirteen goals to three in the second half. These cannot be merely fluctuations in form. They show the Jekyll and Hyde nature of a talented team that many doubt are a premiership threat.

North on the other hand is coming off two disastrous seasons. Last year nearly every North player went backwards, North had no system and the high-profile recruits proved to be a waste of space, or worse. One of their two wins was against the West Coast seconds (Covid depleted) and the other was against a Tigers side that refused to kick goals. Neither gave me a good feeling after the game.

I refuse to look back at last year and I am trying put it completely from my mind. I just said the same thing twice and will say it again, in another form. Noble was never coach. We didn’t lose all those games so depressingly. 2022 did not happen. The only up side was we finally paid all our debt off.

A coach, rather than an administrator, was appointed and things are looking up.

This week the two teams go off to the hills of Adelaide to do battle. What can we expect?

From Brisbane, I predict that Fagan will make exactly no changes. I am always amused at my good mate 3KZ, tilting at windmills every week, about who should come in this week with Lester always getting a mention. Fagan will stay the course, of course, and so annoy many on bigfooty.

North will welcome back Griffin Logue

19

Griffin Logue

Age

26

Ht

193cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

1.0

3star

MG

115.4

2star

D

9.8

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

5.4

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

1.0

2star

MG

115.4

2star

D

9.8

3star

K

4.4

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

1.0

3star

MG

115.4

2star

who has looked the goods down back so far this year. North is missing McKay badly, whose absence forces Corr out of his size range and Bonar then being ridiculously undersized for the opponents he has to take. North battled manfully against Carlton but the twin guns (Curnow and McKay) were always a bridge too far. I also like Logue’s first name, being a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle.

It was depressing last week seeing LMac, who had a great first half, being forced to pick up McKay which was David and Goliath revisited, without a sling. Zeibell also played a sterling first half down back. Carlton’s twin forwards, McKay and Curnow eventually prevailed but North never gave up and if they had kicked a bit straighter it would have been even closer.

I also predict that everyone will complain about the umpires and think their midfielders were the best players.

North got pole axed by Brisbane last year and I did read that Noble lost the players that day. Neither a pole axing or a coach/player melt down will happen this year but I cannot see North winning the game.

 

[dlanod]

Full credit to DERRINALPHIL for a great write-up!

 

[Viceregal]

Is there a way for preview likes for DERRINALPHIL to get assigned to him?

 

[Grasshopper17]

Damn, these pictures aren't working for me. Anyone else having the same issue?

 

[Milux]

Why do I feel concerned about this game. Is it that North have looked much better already this season. Or maybe that it feels we have been inconsistent.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Why do I feel concerned about this game. Is it that North have looked much better already this season. Or maybe that it feels we have been inconsistent.

My main concern is that the two games we have won, we've had a pretty good idea how the opposition have wanted to play, and been able to plan accordingly.

Against Melbourne, it was ugly hack kicks inside 50 to make it hard for their key backs to take intercept marks. Same as in the Semi last year. Against Collingwood, as Fages said, press up on and interrupt their handball game.

Do we have any idea what North plan to do? How much can we glean from 4 or 6 games worth of video footage? Clarko will have plenty up his sleeve and we will have to think on our feet and probably adapt several times during the match. And the jury is still out on whether we are able to do that. We couldn't stem the tide against Port and we could never get into gear against the Dogs.

I'm not so bothered about the concept of "oh we only play well at the Gabba". We led Port by 3 goals late in the 2nd and started better than the Dogs. So playing away from home didn't really seem to be a problem.

Sure, complacency against lower ranked teams may be an issue, but I think a lack of planning, or more accurately, the lack of ability to plan thoroughly, against lesser sides is another thing that might bring us undone.

This is why turning the tables on becoming the hunter when you are the hunted is easier said than done.

 

[3KZ is Football]

If Fagan can’t get the Lions up for this one he should dead set give it away. We have a chance to consolidate and string a few wins together against North, GWS and Freo at home before a tough one in Round 8 against Carlton in Melbourne. We should be going into the Carlton game 5-2 and by rights, we should beat them also. If we can’t win the easy ones, even if they are away, then we can forget this year. “But there are no easy games” which is the line Fagan trots out after a loss…but for Premiership contenders there are and you need to win them or you are not a contender, just a pretender. The next month is going to be instructive.

 

[martinson]

We should demolish them if we go in to this game with the same steely purpose and desperation we showed against the Pies.

What we did against Melbourne and the Pies is pointless from a growth perspective if we don't win this.

Last week was the easy part imo. Now we need to back it up with convincing wins ( well let's face it I'm happy with any win )against lesser opposition.

 

[Thomasno]

Why do I feel concerned about this game. Is it that North have looked much better already this season. Or maybe that it feels we have been inconsistent.

I just hate playing in the sticks, I feel regardless of form we never do well in country games. Tassie and Ballarat especially. Weirdly we do well in Canberra lol

 

[danj]

Some of you clearly haven’t seen north play this year. Straighter kicking alone would have seen us win on Friday not to mention having a 3rd tier backline. Next week we will likely have Logue and McKay in so it should be a tougher proposition for your forwards than Carlton’s. The big unknown to my mind is the Mr Barker ground. Will it really be up to standard for an AFL match? Will the team buses be able to find Mt Barker on their GPS’s? How will the players react to clouds of marijuana smoke drifting across the ground (a lot of pot smokers in SA) could be some unusual antics in the last quarter

In all seriousness I really doubt you guys can pencil this in as an easy win.

North by 8 points

 

[HereIGoAgain]

A contending team wins this one and wins fairly easily. Lose and it would appear we are choosing when to have a go and when not to. Lions by 28.

 

[The Nostradamus]

Glad this isn’t in Brisbane making it a neutral venue and Logue and McKay back for us

Your midfield is strong so need big games from LDU Simpkin and cunners hopefully Goldy wins the ruck battle

 

[rye]

percentage booster with no injuries thanks

 

[BangyBangy]

Some of you clearly haven’t seen north play this year. Straighter kicking alone would have seen us win on Friday not to mention having a 3rd tier backline. Next week we will likely have Logue and McKay in so it should be a tougher proposition for your forwards than Carlton’s. The big unknown to my mind is the Mr Barker ground. Will it really be up to standard for an AFL match? Will the team buses be able to find Mt Barker on their GPS’s? How will the players react to clouds of marijuana smoke drifting across the ground (a lot of pot smokers in SA) could be some unusual antics in the last quarter

In all seriousness I really doubt you guys can pencil this in as an easy win.

North by 8 points

Straighter kicking would've seen Collingwood beat us last Thursday too. We're a rabble, lucky to be 2-2 to be honest. North deserve to be favourites for this game.

 

[McIvor]

percentage booster with no injuries thanks

This is the sort of mentality I hope the club doesnt by into - mean you are right, but North are much improved and should be treated with the same respect as Pies, Dees etc - 1st & foremost lets just win

 

[BangyBangy]

percentage booster with no injuries thanks

It's all relative though. In round two this year we could've been beaten & still had a percentage booster

 

[rye]

you were meant to let the stray north supporters reply to that one guys

 

[Mr Ripper]

Reckon only two premiership points should be up for grabs at a venue of this standing. Bush league. Us by shitloads with 47 possies to McCluggage.

 

[dlanod]

Is there a way for preview likes for DERRINALPHIL to get assigned to him?

Only if he posted the thread himself, but he rathered I post it for him due to technical issues. Besides I think he's an enlightened man who realises BF likes amount to nothing in both the short and long term.

 

[PertRoosOsborne]

Saw a little bit of the nerf v carlton game, in the first have norf carved them up through the middle with handball. The carlton players couldn’t get near them, norf looked very well drilled. IMO the dropoff in the second half was due to a spike in errors, basic skill error’s which resulted in numerous turnovers. Looked like fitness was a problem for them.

 

[M Malice]

I have watched some extended bits of the Kangaroos games this season and they are definitely an improved outfit under Clarkson, if the players go into this game thinking we are in for a comfortable win and are couple of % off we could be in for a rude awakening again.... the Kangas will be up for a game against a "team like us".

Tip- It will be a frustrating(for Lions supporters) hard fought affair and while in control we will struggle to shake them until half way through the 3rd when we will eventually pull away for a 30-35 point win.

 

[JasRulz63]

Watching the Carlton vs North match on Friday, North were able to shut down the Carlton ball movement when they were moving the ball slowly from half back.

When Carlton started moving the ball quicker in the second half, North weren't able to slow the momentum from the Carlton transition. This led to a lot of open forward lines which allowed McKay and Curnow to dominate. Things will be different with McKay switching back to playing for North this week and Logue back.

Cameron is going to be a tough match up for North (as he is for most teams). Motlop was part of the reason Carlton were able to turn the game in the second half, so Cameron will be key.

Midfield battle will be interesting. They had their colours lowered by Hawthorn in the clearance battle, but the other three weeks they're overall +41. Wonder if this is a game we sit Berry play a defensive role on LDU. He's probably the form player on the last 22 rounds.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Some of you clearly haven’t seen north play this year. Straighter kicking alone would have seen us win on Friday not to mention having a 3rd tier backline. Next week we will likely have Logue and McKay in so it should be a tougher proposition for your forwards than Carlton’s. The big unknown to my mind is the Mr Barker ground. Will it really be up to standard for an AFL match? Will the team buses be able to find Mt Barker on their GPS’s? How will the players react to clouds of marijuana smoke drifting across the ground (a lot of pot smokers in SA) could be some unusual antics in the last quarter

In all seriousness I really doubt you guys can pencil this in as an easy win.

North by 8 points

There will be a bit of extra effort from North Melbourne, as the teams will be competing for the inaugural Walker Polec Mug Cup.


THE WALKER POLEC MUG CUP.

 

[DevRoboGun]

I think from Norths perspective, it’s bad timing to have the Lions away. They will be super disappointed with away performance to date and will hopefully come out with an ice cold mentality. Lions by 63.