Review Round 2, 2023 - Brisbane Lions vs. Melbourne

[KissKiss]

That last 12 minutes was a fair deflating period. Whether its a soft attitude or a poor coaching decision to try and hold the game. We don't seem to be well drilled on what to do.

The first 3 quarters were great though. Such a massive change in attitude from the week before. Lot of guys came to play and actually run and work hard. Ashcroft is just giving to be such a star.

Think I was pretty impressed by the defence today. Andrews, Payne and Joyce were all pretty good tonight. No Coleman but we had some great nearly Coast to Coast transitions to goals

And Zorko was pretty immense. Great return

 

[Nathan Barley]

Turn it up. Beat the form team of the last few years for 3.5 quarters, but it's the irrelevant last half quarter where we racked up injuries in garbage time that matters?

That's not glass half empty, that's glass 12.5% empty.

Only 11.1% of teams play in the GF which should be our target

 

[dlanod]

Only 11.1% of teams play in the GF which should be our target

Most teams who win a GF win less than 87.5% of their games

 

[Nathan Barley]

What are you on about?

You realise that they still won right?

The team played as if they were told to get through the last 12 minutes and shut the game down. And then Melbourne came out firing. Did you not see the intensity lift from the Lions player when they realised that the game could be on the line?

Told to shut the game down and.....

 

[mattsmob]

When we win you often walk away angry. How pathetic, going from 40 up to winning by 11. This happened last year and % WAS an issue d again we cant finish games off - Brownys graph again rings treu with us being unable to stem goals.

You can walk away angry if you’d like. Going into this week 0-4 was a very real possibility. We put that to bed and showed our best is as good as anyone, the last 10 mins of that game can’t be ignored but if people can’t see how strange and difficult that situation was then there’s not much point explaining it.

 

[Toffee Lion]

Was setup to be a pretty comfortable win by 40+ points, arguably felt like we were more likely to increase the lead as well. Really solid midfield bounce back and made Melbourne look second rate, was rapt with the performance. So you take those positives and focus on them moving forward.

Those last 10 minutes though, some seriously soft efforts and very questionable footy. It was a glimpse of the Port game showing through once again and that concerns me. 4 points, got a lesson though as well. Learn from those last 10 minutes and take the positives of the first 110.

What a strange game though lmao, never gonna see one like it again.

 

[dlanod]

I'd agree with you if I hadn't seen exactly the same thing for three quarters last week as I saw in the last 12 minutes tonight.

I saw a pathetic effort for three quarters last week. This week I saw a great effort into the game was put on ice for close to an hour at a point where we had a pretty insurmountable lead. I choose to notice the difference in circumstances.

 

[flat_eric]

The melts in this place are ridiculous… we were all over them and 40 points up. Like others stated, one team was in damage control, the other with nothing to lose. The last few minutes weren’t fun but we were unreal tonight. Take nothing off them!

This

 

[Squizz89]

They said we may have had a few casualties tonight. Other than Berry and Bailey with ice on the hammy, who else was in strife? Zorko got taken off presumably just as precaution?

 

[dlanod]

Fwiw definitely should have played it smarter with backwards chips,etc to run down the clock. No need to keep sending it back to them.

 

[notliondown]

I reckon Bailey cost us 4 goals tonight in missed and broken tackles that resulted in direct Melbourne play. It was really obvious that he was a weak link tonight defensively and while he's never been great in that regard he just looked off tonight.

 

[3KZ is Football]

We won the game and that is a start. Having Fort back in the team was great. He stays. Ashcroft was sensational and Zorko was brilliant. Dunkley and Neale were great and Joe Daniher was the pick of our forwards. First game in Melbourne next week. Really looking forward to that.

 

[KissKiss]

Told to shut the game down and.....

And we demonstrated we don't know how to execute it. Its definitely a concern that we don't seem clear on how to hold the ball. Dev rushing the long ball when we had spares back was pretty dumb

 

[The Flying Belgian]

The stat being bandied around percentage is a little overblown. Might be ~13% now, but at the end of the year is works out around 2%. Still not to be ignored, but not quite as bad as it sounds initially.

 

[notliondown]

Fwiw definitely should have played it smarter with backwards chips,etc to run down the clock. No need to keep sending it back to them.

I think that's what worried me about that period is that we tried to play our normal style at half pace... which clearly doesn't work. We could have been a lot smarter in shutting down the game.

 

[Nunez]

I'm convinced plenty here think players are robots. ****ing hell. Get a grip.

 

[LionsMaw]

The melts in this place are ridiculous… we were all over them and 40 points up. Like others stated, one team was in damage control, the other with nothing to lose. The last few minutes weren’t fun but we were unreal tonight. Take nothing off them!

I think people here with your opinion have missed the point. To go from 40 pts up to only winning by 11 pts and making a rabble look world class. That is total bull shit.

Typical Brisbane. Once we're ahead of the opposition we take the foot off their neck and let them back into the game. It's almost like we feel sorry for beating the opposition and we want them to feel good too.

 

[Tom14]

I’m not going to beat up on the team for the weird last 10 mins. I can’t see any scenario where the team up by 40 benefits from a 40 min stoppage. When it counted we were harder and tougher and it was really good to see.

Just fingers crossed on any injury concernsz

 

[KissKiss]

Fwiw definitely should have played it smarter with backwards chips,etc to run down the clock. No need to keep sending it back to them.

Thats the worst bit of the last section (baring injuries). It was a great chance to practice killing the game and we seemed to have no idea on what to do. We were clearly not coached well on this

 

[BangyBangy]

The last 12 minutes cannot be ignored.

Agree. I can't see where our next win is coming from.

 

[JasRulz63]

Thought Zorko's role tonight is his ideal role, none of this half back stuff. I do think it's a role that Bailey could continue to model his game around.

 

[thedaz]

Last 12 minutes aside, thought McKenna was really quite good tonight. Great speed off the back - what we've been missing for a long time.

 

[Warwick]

Rayner has to get that rushed snap at goal from 40-45 out of his game. He continually skies them and they fall 25m short. A little more awareness he could put a team mate into some space.

 

[JasRulz63]

Thats the worst bit of the last section (baring injuries). It was a great chance to practice killing the game and we seemed to have no idea on what to do. We were clearly not coached well on this

At some point it's gotta be on the players for not being able to execute a game plan. I doubt what what we saw transpire was what the coaches had drawn up.

 

[MSB ROYS]

Optimism is healthier than pessimism.