The Vent Thread

[Hollow Knight]

I don't think any of us have really underestimated how much of a loss Ben Hudson has been and how much it impacted our team. IMO, it was just a bad decision to 'retire' him.

Probably wanted to find a slightly longer term option for an important position. Without one, we'd be just as screwed next year without Hudson as we are this year. There was always the possibility Hudson was about to hit the wall anyway. He was ambivalent about going on and was looking for coaching opportunities.

Really don't see the Hudson/Martin differential as that great to be honest. Yesterday was not a good day for Martin but he has given a Hudsonesque contest otherwise in the previous weeks.

 

[Haggis McHaggis]

Agreed - I spoke to one of the Assistant Coaches after the game and he admitted that kicking to the interchange gate side of the ground was a set routine "to make interchanges more easily" ...... that just shows how bereft of footy smarts our club has become!

Which makes it easier for the opposition as well. Net result = predictable fail. Would like to know whos dumbass idea that was.

 

[Gibbo_88]

I'm trying to work out how people can be defending a coach who has been at the helm for 5 years and has a winning percentage of 38%. Take out the first year and it drops to a pathetic 31%, this is not acceptable for a bloke who has been at the helm for this long.

Can people please get the idea of love of the club and his playing career out of their heads, footy is business and its a business that revolves around winning, which we're not doing. You need to win to bring in the crowds and the sponsor which in turn feeds the football department. Brisbane is in financial trouble and without changes it won't improve. Voss has had enough time and its pretty clear things aren't improving, I say sack him now and give Harvey the reigns until the end of the season.

Slax, have a look at these numbers that LOTR has done. We still have a long way to go in the rebuild based on those numbers. The club has 'officially' been rebuilding since 2011 so we've only just started the 3rd year. I'm pretty confident that regardless of who coached us for the last few years we'd still be a bottom 8 team.

Finally, I have looked at doing the same inexperience watch for the Lions each round as I did last year. Here are the results so far:

Here is the latest update of this year's results:

• Round 1 - Lost by 68 points vs. the Bulldogs at Etihad - Lions 8 vs. Bulldogs 7 (we had 8 players with less than 25 games experience, the Bulldogs had 7)
• Round 2 - Lost by 19 points vs. Adelaide at the GABBA - Lions 7 vs. Adelaide 3
• Round 3 - Won by 2 points vs. Gold Coast at Metricon - Lions 7 vs. Gold Coast 9

If the Lions and North sides stay the same then the inexperience factor would predict a North win:

• Round 4 - ??? vs. North at Etihad - Lions 6 vs. North 3

I think Golby would be playing his 25th games if he plays in round 4. For that matter there are a fair few Lions players that are getting up towards the 25 game mark:

• Golby 24 games, Lester 23 games, Acorn 23 games, Patty K 20 games, Green 20 games, McKeever 20 games, Zorko 19 games

 

[notliondown]

I'm trying to work out how people can be defending a coach who has been at the helm for 5 years and has a winning percentage of 38%. Take out the first year and it drops to a pathetic 31%, this is not acceptable for a bloke who has been at the helm for this long.

Can people please get the idea of love of the club and his playing career out of their heads, footy is business and its a business that revolves around winning, which we're not doing. You need to win to bring in the crowds and the sponsor which in turn feeds the football department. Brisbane is in financial trouble and without changes it won't improve. Voss has had enough time and its pretty clear things aren't improving, I say sack him now and give Harvey the reigns until the end of the season.

Well... you have start with the fact that Leigh left us with a team, that with all due respect was either run down, worn out or as green as grass. Leigh by his own admission had lost the passion, desire and foresight to see into the future. The decisions being made at the end of his time were stop gap and temporary. And those decisions take years to rectify.

Then, depending on your perspective, you have to account for his learning curve and some bad decisions that also set us back. Like it or not we decided to let Vossy learn on the job. And by HIS admission he wasn't so good at it to start with. In hindsight his recruiting gambles early were bad ones... but at the time many, many of us were willing to back his gambles...all in the name of making his mark and achieving early success. Very few cried fowl as we marched into the finals as I recall.

Add into the argument that for years our football division was hugely under resourced. We had a lack of support staff, a staffing structure that promoted dictatorial decisions and a management structure that had lost its way and was almost oblivious to the shortcomings of the structure it was in charge of. The change in Voss since he has had the support and wisdom of other experienced coaches and support staff is like night and day.

To me, 2011, 2012 and this year are the years Voss needs to be judged on. This is now his team... his recruitment, his game style, his vision. And if anyone could possibly think that he would go home and night and think "gee I've done a great job and my work here is done" and be happy with the players attitude, dedication and results then they must also think there's fairies in the garden.

By all means judge the man on his results. And as they say "lies and damn statistics" may be the noose around his neck. But 4 rounds into a season, hysteria and shortsightedness are a few of the things that landed us here in the first place.

I wont defend the indefensible trust me. And at a point business is business. When the time is right and hard calls need to be made, if thats the way the cards fall, then by all means lets have that discussion.

But right now, with 83% of the season left to unfold, all I'm asking is to not throw out the baby, the bathwater, the bath, the plug, the towels and the nappies plus throw teddy in the dirt.

For all the criticism of the coach and the team, both deserve the chance to get it right.

 

[Hollow Knight]

notliondown is in career best form today.

 

[maroon and blue]

At the game you could hear the North players calling out to each other constantly, the Lions were silent, no talk. Sign of a dysfunctional team.

 

[WhiteLionFeva]

At the game you could hear the North players calling out to each other constantly, the Lions were silent, no talk. Sign of a dysfunctional team.

Or one just down on confidence. If you're afraid of stuffing it up you tend not to call for the ball or encourage others.

 

[maroon and blue]

Or one just down on confidence. If you're afraid of stuffing it up you tend not to call for the ball or encourage others.

Down on confidence or scared to commit? Which ever way you spin it it is still a team in total disarray. We are going to get eaten alive by most teams if they believe we are mentally soft.

 

[western royboy]

At the game you could hear the North players calling out to each other constantly, the Lions were silent, no talk. Sign of a dysfunctional team.

Sign of a team with no confidence - that's it. Confidence can be turned quickly eg. Melbourne FC Quarter 4 - Round 4 2013. Need a leader (midfield) to stand up and show the way - enter Rockliff.

 

[PattyKwasagun]

Yeah, the "remember 2001" stuff has worn thin. You could use that anecdote to pretend that no team could ever possibly just be bad. Don't think our list is anything close to that one... This is bigger than just a "flick the switch" issue.

Wins/losses aren't as concerning as the fact that we are just playing terrible footy bereft of all effort and desire.

Agree it's nothing like 2001, and that even if we had a list capable of those achievements there's no way we'd know until they actually did it, but I'm not sure how much more it is than a flick the switch issue as you put it.

We've seen that there is talent in this side. How much is there is debatable, but they're certainly much better than they've shown this year so far.

The issue at the moment is purely a mental one I think. It just isn't clicking and looks disjointed in every way. That can change quite quickly and has done so in footy in the past many times.

 

[POBT]

Guys, remember this is a thread for a bit of irrational venting, not for people to have to defend their views. The idea is to preserve the match review threads for more balanced discussion.

If you don't like what you read on this thread, then please just walk away.

 

[Madkeenlions]

What happened to Relentless, United, Respectful?????

Relentless- What happened to relentless footy. Their was no pressure, no commitment, no hard running and no hard footy full stop. We didn't chase, block, tackle and run. Their was not one minute where we played relentless footy.

United- We certainly didn't play for each other. We didn't play for ourselves. We didn't play for the fans we played for no one and it was unacceptable. A united team is a team where the players can depend on each other and quite frankly we haven't seen that in weeks. The boys don't care Rich gets tagged, Hanley is hurt, Merrett is struggling all the other crap that went on tonight. We aren't a united footy club end of story.

Respectful- We want respect, we earn it. We need to be respectful of ourselves and the opposition. We weren't respectful of ourselves and I don't know whether or not we respected the opposition, but I sure as hell hope we do now. If we want to be a respectful club we need to put our head over the footy and get the hard balls. Until we do that we will never be respected as a footy club.

Adversity breeds success! We've had our fair share of adversity it's time for success.

Isn't that our vision for 2016? Which by the way always irked me that we set a five year goal to achieve something we should do every week without fail.
Tell the die hard supporters that we need five seasons to instill something so simple and if by 2016 we have not succeeded, what then? Do we go back to a rebuilding faze that could take another five years?
Smacks of an administration and football department trying to buy their positions for the next few years by giving the members some long term picture that may or may not eventuate.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea only wonder why it should take so long to implement and currently there is little to suggest we are on the path to this promise (and it was a promise) .
The way we played yesterday, 2016 can not come soon enough....

 

[PattyKwasagun]

Guys, remember this is a thread for a bit of irrational venting, not for people to have to defend their views. The idea is to preserve the match review threads for more balanced discussion.

If you don't like what you read on this thread, then please just walk away.

Yeah sorry, forgot what thread I was in.

 

[POBT]

Yeah sorry, forgot what thread I was in.

It actually wasn't directed at you (or anyone in particular) - just that you posted at the same time I did!

 

[Hollow Knight]

Isn't that our vision for 2016? Which by the way always irked me that we set a five year goal to achieve something we should do every week without fail.
Tell the die hard supporters that we need five seasons to instill something so simple and if by 2016 we have not succeeded, what then? Do we go back to a rebuilding faze that could take another five years?
Smacks of an administration and football department trying to buy their positions for the next few years by giving the members some long term picture that may or may not eventuate.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea only wonder why it should take so long to implement and currently there is little to suggest we are on the path to this promise (and it was a promise) .
The way we played yesterday, 2016 can not come soon enough....

To be fair, the 2016 target in the strategic plan was for the premiership... I presume the other stuff was meant to come sooner.

I'll leave now before the dude with the Nazi avatar goes all third reich on me.

 

[Madkeenlions]

To be fair, the 2016 target in the strategic plan was for the premiership... I presume the other stuff was meant to come sooner.

I'll leave now before the dude with the Nazi avatar goes all third reich on me.

It's fine, I've got your back BrownDog!!
That's OK then, I'm happy to wait only three more years for that promised Premiership. Almost makes the next few weeks seem palatable with 2016 firmly locked in...

 

[Bert Man]

Isn't that our vision for 2016? Which by the way always irked me that we set a five year goal to achieve something we should do every week without fail.
Tell the die hard supporters that we need five seasons to instill something so simple and if by 2016 we have not succeeded, what then? Do we go back to a rebuilding faze that could take another five years?
Smacks of an administration and football department trying to buy their positions for the next few years by giving the members some long term picture that may or may not eventuate.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea only wonder why it should take so long to implement and currently there is little to suggest we are on the path to this promise (and it was a promise) .
The way we played yesterday, 2016 can not come soon enough....

I always thought that was how we were meant play now.

Adversity breed success

 

[Dylan12]

In hindsight his recruiting gambles early were bad ones... but at the time many, many of us were willing to back his gambles...all in the name of making his mark and achieving early success. Very few cried fowl as we marched into the finals as I recall.

I just want to correct one point here. The latter (making the finals in his first year), had nothing to do with the former (the recruiting gambles), so I doubt anyone would have cried fowl of reaching the finals in 09.

 

[Dylan12]

But right now, with 83% of the season left to unfold, all I'm asking is to not throw out the baby, the bathwater, the bath, the plug, the towels and the nappies plus throw teddy in the dirt.

I do reserve the right to throw the toys out of the cot though.

 

[BuntonRules]

Pathetic first 1/4. Lazy, aimless, pathetic & embarrassing pretend footy. Stabilised a bit in the 2nd. SO, half time I am thinking "well, after that 5 goals will not be nice, but at least we redeemed ourselves somewhat '.

THEN WE COME OUT AFTER 1/2 TIME JUST AS INSIPID AS THE 1ST 1/4. WTF?

I was embarassed as a Lions man, & the club should apologise to our southern brethren.

vent 2. Who decided Jed was a captain? Been shocking all 4 games - as said spends his time big noting - his hold play or all group together signals qwhen he is fortunate to take a mark shit me - and don't even start on his diving/playing for free kicks antics. Dan merrett nearly got reported for his angry pills efforts - and it was obvious it was because he cares. That is the man you want for a captain.

p.s. notliondown

 

[Eons]

At the game you could hear the North players calling out to each other constantly, the Lions were silent, no talk. Sign of a dysfunctional team.

One of the first things I taught my step daughter when she started playing basketball. Talk, talk and more talk. You have to let your team mates know where you are and whats happening around them. Don't just stand there with your arms out expecting someone to pass the ball to you. If you're in a good position, demand the ball. All my coaches in junior footy were big on this, very disappointing to hear us not doing it as an AFL team.

 

[Skoob]

Match Review ****ing joke.
Hanley;

Pearce Hanley, Brisbane Lions, has been charged with a level two striking offence (125 demerit points, one-match sanction) for striking Lindsay Thomas, North Melbourne, during the third quarter of the round four match between the Brisbane Lions and North Melbourne, played at Etihad Stadium on Sunday April 21, 2013.

In summary, due to his previous poor record, his one-match sanction must remain at one match, even with an early plea.

Based on the video evidence available and a medical report from the North Melbourne Football Club, the incident was assessed as intentional conduct (three points), low impact (one point) and body contact (one point).

Body contact????
He grabbed the weak prick by the jumper and pulled him backwards and the campaigner fell over. What a crock of shit.

On the Redden charge, it was there but geez. It is what it is but I remember thinking at the time about round 1 when Rocky copped a knee to the head. Rocky penalised for losing his feet and making low contact. Not sliding in mind you. It was a bullshit free because he went for the ball and tripped on the shit surface. (I still maintain the contact wasn't even below the knee). The difference for Reddo was than Cunnington kept his feet. Simple as that. As I said, it was there but it highlights the farce of the low contact rule. (not so angry about Redden's charge as reminded of Rocky's free against for getting the ball)
Yesterday the commentators noted that Redden would be in trouble because he didn't go for the ball. Cunnington already had his head down, how do you go for the ball? Well you would have used to have gone in lower to get it but you can't get the hard ball anymore. Had he gone in lower would have meant a likely free for sliding/low contact. In fact they will be able to scrap that silly stat (hard ball gets) because hard balls are a recipe for suspension.
I hope the week off gives Hanley's knee and quad a chance to clear up.

 

[BuntonRules]

Think it may have beena bit later, with LT doubled up on the ground. Irish vendetta.

 

[Toffee Lion]

Just a little bit of venting but have the North Melbourne supporters gotten worse with time or was I just blind for so long?

Sitting at the footy was horrific on Sunday, so many of their supporters were sledging our boys every time they came to the bench, calling them dogs and filth like they were animals, even when we play Collingwood it's never that bad that they have to verbally abuse them each time they come for a spell on the bench.

Then on BigFooty it's even worse, I always liked North as a club but gee their supporters are down the bottom of the barrel with Richmond.

Also Lindsay Thomas is a diving prick.

 

[Bert Man]

Or one just down on confidence. If you're afraid of stuffing it up you tend not to call for the ball or encourage others.

I always thought that to make a side very uncommitted to each other.

The best sides are the ones who really call for each other and make sure you know it when a player is about to run down your team mate.