Review Round 20, 2023 - Gold Coast vs. Brisbane Lions

[Thomasno]

During the game comments were made about how the coaches didn't do a thing to try and wrest control back or mitagate the dominance that the Suns were applying... were those hot takes or were there actually moves made that I didn't see (I have no faith in the commentary team providing such insights so asking here!) that simply didn't work?

I suspect that our selection choices severely limited the options that we had to play with when things weren't going our way expecially when it came to the midfield...

Coaching issues. The suns knew we wanted Payne to play on King so Harris could float, and countered that by getting King to essentially force himself to play on Harris. Problem was that Harris still wanted to float, and it took us until after half time to address that and change our structure. King got 5 goals in this time, because there was literally nobody manning him at times.

Neale being hard tagged out of the game by Miller too - like fine, it happens, but again it took us until well after half time to actually a) do anything about getting Neale the support he needed to get loose, and b) go about putting a tag on Anderson ourselves, who was essentially controlling the game.

Thought we did better in the second half on those fronts and had more than enough opportunities in the end, but inaccuracy cost us there. Just took our coaching staff way, way too long to do anything about it.

 

[Thomasno]

I feel like we’re playing better this year but struggling to find a way to win when we dont have the game on our terms unlike some of our ugly wins in previous seasons

The Crows, Hawks and Suns games we should’ve been able to find a way to get over the line but seemingly just played progressively worse as the game progressed

Collingwood, Richmond, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton etc we clearly go in with a plan and comprehensively win (or should have won in the case of the Melbourne MCG game).

I said it a few weeks ago, but I have a feeling we’re focussing in on the big games against “good” teams and assuming the “easier” games will take care of themselves.

Which is all well and good except they’re not taking care of themselves. We’ve won all of our hard games this year so far, if we’d won even half of the “easy” games we should have we’d be on top. It’s the only thing that’s giving me hope for finals still, in that there won’t be any “easy” teams to get complacent against. I’ll reserve judgement until the Collingwood rd 23 game though

 

[Thomasno]

There wouldn’t be another team, bar Dogs in the early 2000’s who have had this much talent and have been up this long, and are still so far from it. We are a rare case, fans have a right to be annoyed tonight. A month out from finals and same old same old.

I mean you could’ve said the same thing about Geelong between 2011-2022


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Thomasno]

We need to stay out of bath tubs for the remainder of this season.

I hear there’s a pool at a hotel in Pakistan that has wonderful form-finding qualities

 

[irish]

Any advantage a team can get in finals is huge playing at the Gabba changes our whole dynamic , so too put in spiritless non effort like last night was more than disappointing, yes we have some tough games too play and top 2 may be a bridge too far however that was a game we should have won easily to keep us in contention for a home final

We were never in it , well done to Gold Coast they came to win and made us second rate. At this time of the season you should be rolling out your best footy not that rubbish

 

[Pride of lions]

Coaching issues. The suns knew we wanted Payne to play on King so Harris could float, and countered that by getting King to essentially force himself to play on Harris. Problem was that Harris still wanted to float, and it took us until after half time to address that and change our structure. King got 5 goals in this time, because there was literally nobody manning him at times.

Neale being hard tagged out of the game by Miller too - like fine, it happens, but again it took us until well after half time to actually a) do anything about getting Neale the support he needed to get loose, and b) go about putting a tag on Anderson ourselves, who was essentially controlling the game.

Thought we did better in the second half on those fronts and had more than enough opportunities in the end, but inaccuracy cost us there. Just took our coaching staff way, way too long to do anything about it.

Some great points here. However with respect to Andrews,he is one of our captains who has played 150 games plus ,so surely he could see what was happening with King and made some adjustments on field. Simply playing off him and leaving it up to other defenders was just totally incomprehensible. King was just gifted goals by Andrews lack of leadership. No one seems to want to take any responsibility when we are under pressure and it is a major weakness imo.

 

[lioninthesand]

I mean you could’ve said the same thing about Geelong between 2011-2022


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Not really though, because the core of that group and coach where part of a flag win in 2011. My statement about Fages and the core of this group wouldn’t stand if we won a flag in 2019.

But I agree, the cats are a good example of ‘staying around the mark and eventually getting another 1’ more than, being up for a long time and not winning one, I think.

 

[Squizz89]

Not really though, because the core of that group and coach where part of a flag win in 2011. My statement about Fages and the core of this group wouldn’t stand if we won a flag in 2019.

But I agree, the cats are a good example of ‘staying around the mark and eventually getting another 1’ more than, being up for a long time and not winning one, I think.

Difference with Geelong is they’re able to continually refresh their list through FA/trades due to their location.

Whilst we have attracted some pretty handy players the past few years, I can’t see that lasting forever unfortunately given where we are based.

Mind you, we have got lucky having both Will and Levi coming through around the same time, so there’s that.

 

[Thomasno]

Difference with Geelong is they’re able to continually refresh their list through FA/trades due to their location.

Whilst we have attracted some pretty handy players the past few years, I can’t see that lasting forever unfortunately given we’re we are based.

Mind you, we have got lucky having both Will and Levi coming through around the same time, so there’s that.

I think we’ve done well enough at keeping the decent youth coming in (especially with our father/sons) that we’ll continue to be competitive every year and continue attracting high profile players. To me the club is prime, more so than any other team at the moment, to really be the next Geelong and just bash the doors down for the next decade

 

[Bigncheesy]

It will be a good lesson. Let’s face it, every dog has its day and it was definitely the Suns. Everything went their way. No one blocked for Neale and poorly let him get bashed. Not sorting the King situation was embarrassing. Gunston showed his age badly and so hard to watch someone with Danihers skill unable to convert when needed. Bailey was sorely missed on Sat.

 

[Jivlain]

Uphill sissies?

Hardly, our issues are largely about going downhill

Need to deal with that damn yeti

 

[Nathan Barley]

Zorks not happy. Don't blame him

‘Groin region is bruised... it must’ve been an accident’: Lion surprised Miller escaped sanction for ‘squirrel grip’ accusation

‘F***ing grabbed my nuts!’: Audio reveals Lion’s response to foul play as injury details emerge

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[dlanod]

Hardly, our issues are largely about going downhill

Need to deal with that damn yeti

Just cheat, and you go too fast for him to ever catch you.

 

[Tom14]

Zorks not happy. Don't blame him

‘Groin region is bruised... it must’ve been an accident’: Lion surprised Miller escaped sanction for ‘squirrel grip’ accusation

‘F***ing grabbed my nuts!’: Audio reveals Lion’s response to foul play as injury details emerge

www.foxsports.com.au

Zork being a bit of an annoying guy on the field has coloured perception of Touk Miller over the last few years. Good player but a bit of a dick too.

I know its the sort of stuff some praised Rocky and Pearce Hanley for saying about the GH5 in 2013 but Touk giving Tom Lynch a spray when he decided to leave GC after 8 years of service (and dealing with the bullshit that team had around it) is pretty silly. Its a professional game, grow up.

 

[The Zork]

Not really happy that Zorko’s complaint could fall on deaf ears seemingly because of the “Zorko factor”.

If McCluggage made the complaint would it be handled differently? I’d say probably.
If Touk Miller

11

Touk Miller

Age

30

Ht

178cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.7

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

12.3

5star

M

3.7

4star

T

5.4

5star

CL

4.2

5star

D

22.0

5star

K

11.4

4star

HB

10.6

5star

M

2.9

3star

T

4.8

5star

CL

4.1

5star

D

17.8

5star

K

5.8

3star

HB

12.0

5star

M

3.0

3star

T

3.8

5star

CL

3.0

5star

made the complaint against Zorko would it be handled differently? 1000% it would be.

 

[Lace Out]

Need to move on from Squirrel Miller we have finals to play

 

[MacMum]

Need to move on from Squirrel Miller we have finals to play

I'm not a huge fan of Zorko but just maybe in this case he feels let down by the umpire, the MRO and even the club, by no reports/complaints made after the above incident ... if everything he says is true then I also don't blame him for having his say about it.

That sort of incident has to be stopped. I'm surprised the club didn't put in a complaint, if his bits and pieces are bruised like he said.

That sort of thing is just not on and cannot be excused.....or brushed aside as if nothing had happened.

Zorko unfortunately reminds me of the boy who cried wolf..... that because so often he mouths off to make a big deal over nothing, when something

genuinely does happen, nobody believes him.....could be a lesson in there for him to think about.

 

[Pride of lions]

The MRO is a joke,if this happened the other way around Zorko would have copped at least 2 weeks. There is no consistency whatsoever with the MRO decisions, never has been since Christian took over. Total disgrace that this wasn’t sent to the tribunal on a misconduct charge.

 

[Thomasno]

Zork being a bit of an annoying guy on the field has coloured perception of Touk Miller over the last few years. Good player but a bit of a dick too.

I know its the sort of stuff some praised Rocky and Pearce Hanley for saying about the GH5 in 2013 but Touk giving Tom Lynch a spray when he decided to leave GC after 8 years of service (and dealing with the bullshit that team had around it) is pretty silly. Its a professional game, grow up.

Nah, Lynch (and May) are by all accounts grade A d*ckheads and from what I’ve heard the club weren’t super upset with them leaving from a culture point of view. Happy for Touk to blast Lynch

 

[buttermuffs]

I reckon the co-captain might be a bit embarrassed with his defensive efforts when they watch the tape back this week. Not only could he get nowhere near it, he couldn’t be arsed getting near his opponent going the other way either.

While Harris and Payne had quite poor games like everyone else they were not helped at all by the no pressure delivery inside fifty from the Suns’ midfield. Was at the game and it was so clear that the defence was constantly left to fend for itself. Ben King was playing super deep, and when the ball managed to so easily transition out of the midfield Harris and Payne were often caught out. While King shouldn’t have managed to take so many marks they were almost always to his advantage due to poor midfield work.

 

[Squizz89]

While Harris and Payne had quite poor games like everyone else they were not helped at all by the no pressure delivery inside fifty from the Suns’ midfield. Was at the game and it was so clear that the defence was constantly left to fend for itself. Ben King was playing super deep, and when the ball managed to so easily transition out of the midfield Harris and Payne were often caught out. While King shouldn’t have managed to take so many marks they were almost always to his advantage due to poor midfield work.

Nah I was talking about the other co-captain mate although Harris’ game wasn’t great either, but as you say the defence wasn’t exactly helped by what was happening up field.

 

[buttermuffs]

Some great points here. However with respect to Andrews,he is one of our captains who has played 150 games plus ,so surely he could see what was happening with King and made some adjustments on field. Simply playing off him and leaving it up to other defenders was just totally incomprehensible. King was just gifted goals by Andrews lack of leadership. No one seems to want to take any responsibility when we are under pressure and it is a major weakness imo.

Sometimes you get beaten though. Darcy Moore was beaten by Curnow and JUH. Curnow is Curnow obviously and JUH had an marking game where the ball just stuck to his hands. Good offence just beats good defence on some occasions. King stuck every mark, which was a lot different compared to some of his games like against Port where he couldn’t take a mark against Bergman.

 

[Maboo]

Zorks not happy. Don't blame him

‘Groin region is bruised... it must’ve been an accident’: Lion surprised Miller escaped sanction for ‘squirrel grip’ accusation

‘F***ing grabbed my nuts!’: Audio reveals Lion’s response to foul play as injury details emerge

www.foxsports.com.au

Touk Miller is a just a sad little puto, grabbing someone’s nuts is gutless.

 

[p4p1]

Personally, I thought the weekend showed why we needed Dev to be in. Lachie was well held, Dev could have played the defensive role while Dunks went ball hunting without having to be so defensively accountable. Previously Will would have been able to get more involved while Lachie was being held. We don't need to replace players like for like but we do need to adjust our plans or players' roles when we have someone who is not easily replaced come out.

Maybe the coaches decided to let Zorko have a last crack at a mid role in a game they expected us to win handedly and based off that performance, he clearly isn't up to that anymore.

Gunston was back to pre-training block form. I don't see him coming out of the side either way. Rayner was terrible, whether it is the wrong role for him or not, he still needs to be more involved.

I'm not prepared to go after the coaches, I think it is possible they tried a couple of things/gave some guys a last chance to make their case against a team we should have easily accounted for. Gold Coast, tactically played really well. But all teams will come finals and they also would have taken notes on how GC dominated us. Our selection was clearly wrong which is something fairly easy to fix.

I agree with others about an 11 man leadership group being too much. At one time, more than 50% of our on field players could be in the leadership group.

 

[p4p1]

Can Ah Chee play midfield? Has more agro in him than Neale

Has the tank, not sure about anything else though.