Review Round 9, 2025 - North Melbourne vs. Brisbane Lions

[Big Sauce 21]

Outside of Rayner I also thought we were poor in the air F50. Charlie Comben had a field day

 

[Lazza16]

Hey......not Dizzys fault he was sub!!!!!

 

[Lion_LegacyXL]

Outside of Rayner I also thought we were poor in the air F50. Charlie Comben had a field day

Cam and Eric were actually good, too many others were passengers or just simply had an off night.

 

[Paul Mac]

Eventually or if Doedee gets back into the team do we think that Harris could be swung forward for any period of a game. Obviously depends on game situation but wonder if in Fages thoughts that this is a serious option or discussion point down the track. People will say why would we want to move our key backman which i completely get but i just wonder if it is a chess move the coaches seriously will think about?

 

[blueiris]

Like Neale said we can take the 2 points and run

Zorko 5
McCluggage 4
Dunkley 3
Wash 2
Levi 1

 

[Ceebee]

Think we need to acknowledge that North played really well .

Getting the draw was a bonus for us to be honest .
We just couldn’t get our game going with their pressure.

A few of our boys look to be playing sore .

 

[3KZ is Football]

I love making up quotes.

I prefer to stick to the facts.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Think we need to acknowledge that North played really well .

Getting the draw was a bonus for us to be honest .
We just couldn’t get our game going with their pressure.

A few of our boys look to be playing sore .

Some of them also had issues with their vision because they kept mistakingly kicking and handballing it to players wearing North jumpers.

 

[martinson]

Thought the Harris 50 meter penalty moment was reflective of the majority of our players attitude / mindset during the game tonight. Just really poor and we seriously lowered our colours.

That was pathetic by Harris and I'm sure he'll reflect on that. Got pinged and then wanted to have a huge sook that cost us a goal at a pivotal point of the game.

Arrogance that we thought we were going to win it anyway.

As Captain that was a big fail.

Nonetheless he played better than most and he was frustrated the ball got kicked to him. But he wouldn't have done that against the Pies or Geelong.

 

[martinson]

Dunkley was clearly our best player imo.

Got us out of jail time and again. Just so smart in a contested situation when he's outnumbered.

The guys should look at the vision of his desperation and team oriented play tonight.

 

[martinson]

Eventually or if Doedee gets back into the team do we think that Harris could be swung forward for any period of a game. Obviously depends on game situation but wonder if in Fages thoughts that this is a serious option or discussion point down the track. People will say why would we want to move our key backman which i completely get but i just wonder if it is a chess move the coaches seriously will think about?

It's not a bad option.

But Harris is the lynchpin of our defence. You're risking a lot taking him out of there , unless we think we're going to lose anyway.

 

[thedaz]

Wow, that was a very tough watch today, and a very disappointing effort considering that we could have won that match if some players had been a bit more sensible.

My votes went to Zorko, Dunkley, Answerth, McCluggage and Rayner. But I have to admit that outside Zorko and Dunkley, it was tough going.

I've got my own match report written up here if any interest.

Have to say I have some concerns about Logan Morris' form. He has not been great recently, and while he's grabbed a handful of goals here and there, he often goes missing for long parts of the game.

Realise he's still very young and inexperienced, but we desperately need a tall forward to put more pressure on defences. That said, he was unlucky not to be paid the mark at the end which was clear.

 

[Nunez]

I prefer to stick to the facts.

You live in your own distorted reality though my friend. Much like how BRAB thinks he's Chris Fagan.

 

[irish]

Just home after the game , first ground was A1 no wind even Clarco thought it was great to play on so no excuse about playing in tassie

Rucks got chopped up , murdered in the middle after half time

Forwards very haphazard at best , Eric was a positive and raynor showed a bit

We looked tired after half time

Poor performance you could see coming before half time

Does a draw help us ? Maybe as our % shows no chance of improving

Umpires were shocking at best. Pushed the Roos over the line at any opportunity

Few bums need a kick

 

[rye]

i did say day was a bigger loss than most would appreciate. was giving our forward line shape and was clearly the guy we were structuring around (albeit in part due to the fact he is quite immobile). with morris and lohmann struggling for continuity, losing day is just a bridge too far to have that line functioning. gallop has to come in next week for one of the rucks

i thought fagan was over using the sub as a 'soft' way to drop someone but credit to clarkson for recognising we had subbed off a runner for an (ineffectual) tall and that subbing off a tall for a runner was his path to winning the game.

 

[martinson]

Wow, that was a very tough watch today, and a very disappointing effort considering that we could have won that match if some players had been a bit more sensible.

My votes went to Zorko, Dunkley, Answerth, McCluggage and Rayner. But I have to admit that outside Zorko and Dunkley, it was tough going.

I've got my own match report written up here if any interest.

Have to say I have some concerns about Logan Morris' form. He has not been great recently, and while he's grabbed a handful of goals here and there, he often goes missing for long parts of the game.

Realise he's still very young and inexperienced, but we desperately need a tall forward to put more pressure on defences. That said, he was unlucky not to be paid the mark at the end which was clear.

Yeah we can't rely on Logan at this point in his career.

The ump called play on when he knocked it in the air in that marking contest so when it came down and he grabbed it again play on had already been called.

 

[martinson]

i did say day was a bigger loss than most would appreciate. was giving our forward line shape and was clearly the guy we were structuring around (albeit in part due to the fact he is quite immobile). with morris and lohmann struggling for continuity, losing day is just a bridge too far to have that line functioning. gallop has to come in next week for one of the rucks

i thought fagan was over using the sub as a 'soft' way to drop someone but credit to clarkson for recognising we had subbed off a runner for an (ineffectual) tall and that subbing off a tall for a runner was his path to winning the game.

The last player on our list to be sub would be Dizz imo , especially when Fort and Oscar were in the team.

Inexplicable and I'm sure there's a reasoning so it'd be interesting to know what it is.

 

[twhowler]

Sub decision - only way i can see it making sense is if the plan was Fort off at 3qt after working over Xerri. As we have seen talls as sub can really backfire. Poor call.

Mids were poor - the broken or totally missed tackles. And the clearances where north would have 3 players out the front in metres of space. Lacked effort and structure in there.

So many players looked out of form or touch. Weird as the conditions looked fine. I still resent being given off broadway games as reigning premier.

Gallop should be given a go as the resting ruck forward doesn’t suit us at all. Has Day been outmarked this year? He would have made a difference. But can’t rely on him at all with a 6 week hammy. Hence this is the time for Gallop. Yes we would be young in terms of key forwards, but Hippy is very experienced as are most of the smalls.

We are a bit week to week or quarter to quarter this year. I think we’ll know more when we hit the Hawthorn stretch pre bye in 2 weeks. Can’t afford to limp in to the bye again as if we likely losses to hawks / cats / giants / crows. And we have the dreaded 5 day break before the dons.

Need to turn up next week, get the points, then set ourself for a big few weeks.

 

[rye]

The last player on our list to be sub would be Dizz imo , especially when Fort and Oscar were in the team.

Inexplicable and I'm sure there's a reasoning so it'd be interesting to know what it is.

i think fagan has said in the past that he likes to make the next guy up sub regardless of position - was probably when we kept playing fort in the sub role. if you are the 23rd best guy on the list on form, you get picked as sub.

a couple factors made gardiner a terrible sub today though

• north have the worst key forwards in the league. even if one of harris, lester of payne went down we would have coped well enough
• we lost one of our best runners in the first quarter and gardiner is one of the worst runners at the club
• we kind of stuffed up gardiner's role when he did come on. it pushed fletcher up the ground more and we lost drive from the back half as a result. i think we would have been better off if we had gardiner play a role on comben and rotate the rucks off the bench so only one was on the ground at a time. might have made them more effective against xerri
• as much as i like gardiner he is definitely not the 23rd man on the list over guys like bruce, tunstill, mckenna or even marshall

 

[martinson]

We're lucky to be 7 and a half because the only game we've lost we got demolished in and all the ones we could've lost we managed to get the chocolates.

I've got faith in our players ,our season's build up ,our system and our coaching but our form isn't anything special except somehow we're on top of the ladder.

So we're in as good a position as you could hope for the next important run of games.

The player we need back is Starcevich.

 

[thedaz]

i think fagan has said in the past that he likes to make the next guy up sub regardless of position - was probably when we kept playing fort in the sub role. if you are the 23rd best guy on the list on form, you get picked as sub.

If that's true, I'd be very very concerned.

Yes, realise the guy won a premiership last year, but it seems a huge wasted opportunity to not use a sub strategically week to week.

Clearly it was a poor choice this week given the unfortunate early injury to Berry. We needed someone with run and carry who could inject speed into the game and play potentially multiple positions. Hence why a McKenna or even a Tunstill or Dev Robinson would have been more ideal, as others here have already noted.

 

[Suitcase]

Was at the game and was very disappointed with that 2nd half. We were shite. The umpires didn't make it any better either, they had a shocking second half themselves.

I'll forget that one pretty quick I hope.

 

[martinson]

Fagan made a good point in the presser that if no one else has a draw this year a draw is as good as a win.

Lol. I was thinking that in the last 90 seconds. Once Hipwood kicked that point the key was to not let them score. Payne's thump over the boundary line was a beauty. They had loose players everywhere and it was kicked to a contest. Thankfully.

 

[3KZ is Football]

You live in your own distorted reality though my friend. Much like how BRAB thinks he's Chris Fagan.

Isn’t he? I keep sending him the emails.

 

[martinson]

If that's true, I'd be very very concerned.

Yes, realise the guy won a premiership last year, but it seems a huge wasted opportunity to not use a sub strategically week to week.

Clearly it was a poor choice this week given the unfortunate early injury to Berry. We needed someone with run and carry who could inject speed into the game and play potentially multiple positions. Hence why a McKenna or even a Tunstill or Dev Robinson would have been more ideal, as others here have already noted.

McKenna's the man because he can go forward or back and provides run.

Daylight between he and Dizz.