Review Round 10, 2025 - Brisbane Lions vs. Narrm

[Ceebee]

Did it look like it was there this time last year?

Let's not overreact too much just yet. We've banked early wind and are in a slump. We will work our way out of it if we're good enough. History says we are.

We are basically just trying to get our team sorted to be honest .
Some of our best players in the finals , Joe gone Starc injured , Kai coming back from injury , Ah Chee down on form .
Charlie struggling , Lachie tagged more , Will struggling a bit Oscar not right and Harris seems to be struggling with fitness .
I am not concerned.
Happy that Kiddy got through and Gardiner kicked goals.

Loving Jaspa , he is a ripper and Hughie and Zorks played well .

 

[pod17]

We are sorely lacking Joe, or even a McStay up the line. So many times tonight guys rebounding off half back looked up with nothing to kick to. The KPF hole is looking deeper the more rounds we get into the season.

On top of that, our rucks have been smashed in successive weeks, which (without checking numbers) has led to a loss in clearances. We look like a different midfield unit when Dunkley and Berry are missing or below their best.

We also need to be less predictable to our opposition. They know we want to play an uncontested mark game, largely looking to switch to stretch their zone, then bite off something in the corridor. I thought last year in our finals run we showed good adaptability to try something new when our style wasn’t working. Realistically, it’s working less and less this year, so there’s going to have to be a shift or some innovation.

It’s a blend of personnel, game style and attitude for mine. Personnel can’t be addressed until season’s end so we need to focus on what we can control. It’s not insurmountable, but certainly some issues to address.

 

[Toffee Lion]

I’m overseas and just saw the result but reading the beginning of this thread and seeing so many write us off after last year is puzzling.

We are 7-1-2. Can we play better? Yes but that should mean there is less reason to panic.

I trust this group, I trust our coach. Well find form at the pointy end of the season and that matters more than Round 10.

I’m going to the game against the Hawks at the MCG and quietly expect a big response in a huge match.

 

[LionCub29]

Another 30 largely innocuous possessions from Washcroft, really needs some work on his kicking decision making and execution. Lachie should be an excellent teacher about how to turn that around.

Dizzy & Zac were superb, the rest were largely meh.

 

[noosaboy]

We are sorely lacking Joe, or even a McStay up the line. So many times tonight guys rebounding off half back looked up with nothing to kick to. The KPF hole is looking deeper the more rounds we get into the season.

On top of that, our rucks have been smashed in successive weeks, which (without checking numbers) has led to a loss in clearances. We look like a different midfield unit when Dunkley and Berry are missing or below their best.

We also need to be less predictable to our opposition. They know we want to play an uncontested mark game, largely looking to switch to stretch their zone, then bite off something in the corridor. I thought last year in our finals run we showed good adaptability to try something new when our style wasn’t working. Realistically, it’s working less and less this year, so there’s going to have to be a shift or some innovation.

It’s a blend of personnel, game style and attitude for mine. Personnel can’t be addressed until season’s end so we need to focus on what we can control. It’s not insurmountable, but certainly some issues to address.

Really! Your key forwards were great and ruck wise you got beaten by the best ruckman we have seen since Polly Farmer or John Nicholls. Lions in a good spot just going but still right where they need to be! Long way to go

 

[noosaboy]

We are sorely lacking Joe, or even a McStay up the line. So many times tonight guys rebounding off half back looked up with nothing to kick to. The KPF hole is looking deeper the more rounds we get into the season.

On top of that, our rucks have been smashed in successive weeks, which (without checking numbers) has led to a loss in clearances. We look like a different midfield unit when Dunkley and Berry are missing or below their best.

We also need to be less predictable to our opposition. They know we want to play an uncontested mark game, largely looking to switch to stretch their zone, then bite off something in the corridor. I thought last year in our finals run we showed good adaptability to try something new when our style wasn’t working. Realistically, it’s working less and less this year, so there’s going to have to be a shift or some innovation.

It’s a blend of personnel, game style and attitude for mine. Personnel can’t be addressed until season’s end so we need to focus on what we can control. It’s not insurmountable, but certainly some issues to address.

And let’s be honest Joe drove Lions supporters mad other than his finals series FM

 

[martinson]

To take some positives out of the game Bailey is back as a gun and will be better still if we can feed him a bit more. Gotta give credit to Dizz , his experience showed on a few occasions where he made good decisions .

Hipwood's been a target who generally delivered so far this year but rucking is definitely not for him and it took away his potency in attack which we missed.

I'm a little underwhelmed that the 2 guys who really tried to get us going were Lester and Zorko. You can add Fletcher to those 2 I guess. I know most things emanate from the midfield but our small forwards bar Bailey when he was in there were crap today. Charlie has become a very frustrating player.

 

[The Zork]

I feel with W Ashcroft by foot his brain is operating at a very high level when he’s got possession in semi space - he sees an option that is difficult to pull off, but his delivery by foot is not at the same level.

 

[pod17]

And let’s be honest Joe drove Lions supporters mad other than his finals series FM

Not sure that’s true. 50+ goals playing second ruck in 2023 & 2024, I’d say most of us saw him as a very consistent performer.

 

[Brizzys Squizzy]

Any chance the afl website could get the fagan press conference up. Deadset worst website going around

 

[martinson]

And let’s be honest Joe drove Lions supporters mad other than his finals series FM

Not right.

He was a consistent gun player in most of the games he played for us. Should have been AA twice. Too may people listen to the trolls in the media who flat out looked for every silly thing he ever did, which wasn't that often , and then got their meal ticket highlighting it.

 

[Squizz89]

Not sure that’s true. 50+ goals playing second ruck in 2023 & 2024, I’d say most of us saw him as a very consistent performer.

Joe was frustrating at times obviously, but I always felt comfortable that when he was out there we’d have a score in us which would keep us competitive, whether he directly or indirectly kicked the goals himself.

I look at that forward line this year without him and an aging Charlie and I just don’t feel the same way. I wonder if you asked the players to give their truly honest thoughts whether they think the same thing.

 

[The Zork]

And let’s be honest Joe drove Lions supporters mad other than his finals series FM

Drove some mad, probably. The vast majority embraced the match winner, ruck relief and just general enigma he was.

 

[Clarkythelion]

Hit outs

Gawn 46
Forte 15
Aiden Johnson 7
Hipwood 1
Darcie Gardner 1

Disposals
Gawn 22
Forte 11

Hit outs favoured Melbourne 53 to Brisbane 15
Centre Clearance 18 to Melbourne 11 to Brisbane

Gawn 7 marks, Forte 2

North Melbourne showed some cracks well against Melbourne we just fell through the crevasses. Then Gawn, they say is a generational player, maybe the best there has been in that position. But I'm not blaming Forte alone, I swear in the last Qtr our backline were looking for Gawn coming out and just kicking it to him so it came back in. The switch was on, over and over to play around him be we pinpointed him and delivered it beautifully.

It seemed being there we are just not playing for each other, one such example was a string of handballs coming down the wing, we had a man over all the way just popping it over the top, jut one player to go Loman, if he just pops it over a clear run into goals - but no he tries to cut inside, show boat, gets caught, turnover and back it goes. Our leaders seemed to loose their poise, Harris was bad, Dunkley just blindly kicked away, Zorks had a quite one, Neal was held for the first half at lease tagged by Oliver, we just played like individuals

Positives - ahhhhhhhhh - welcome back Kiddy.

Hawthorne have a big bodied dominate ruckman they didn't take to Darwin and gave him a rest - smart move. Our cupboard is bare to do anything and now teams know, tag Neal and go hard at our ruckman and you can beat them. Yep we have other midfielders but Neal seems to only one that can scout around the non-dominate ruck or win ball at the feet of an opposition ruckman. We just had too many passengers tonight.

I do like Fagan's reaction in the Press conference, we need a bit of head banging now or we will loose 4 or 5 in a row.

 

[GenericUsername202]

Another 30 largely innocuous possessions from Washcroft, really needs some work on his kicking decision making and execution. Lachie should be an excellent teacher about how to turn that around.

Dizzy & Zac were superb, the rest were largely meh.

Will Ashcroft should be careful, because he's playing like a tom Mitchell type of player where he gets a lot of the ball, but does nothing with it. Lachie really needs to teach him how to be more effective with his disposals, because most of his disposals are 1+2 combos where he wants the handball back for himself. When Lachie gets the ball, he tries to break the game open with his first touch. Will wants to break the game open, but he wants to do it himself, so he always gives the ball to the nearest player and asks for it back right away. And don't get me started on his nonexistent defensive game. Honestly, I would throw levi in the middle and see if the rumours were true about him being the better ashcroft.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Don't get the criticism on Will . For the point you raised and also because he did try to get some fast movement going on many occasions and it didn't pay off often enough because we had few others sparking up.

When a reporter made the point last week that we weren't playing that well and Fages responded well we're on top of the ladder the thought ran through my head yeah , how ??

We're not near the level we need to be or can be but still 2nd on the ladder and the game against the Hawks is an opportunity to see where we're really at.

If it moves kill it.

We all rightly love Will Ashcroft, but this was terrible from him in the second quarter. He showed zero desperation and made zero attempt to back Lester up. He simply stood there watching. This moment was symptomatic of a few players who really aren’t physically committed at key moments. Both Payne and Andrews were playing way too far off their opponents and it cost us. There was minimal desperation when it came to getting the loose ball and our forwards are still torching each other. There are only two or three blokes at this stage playing ‘selfless’ football and it is hurting us.

 

[mpal6]

Except for the fact that tonight was the first time we’ve lost in 5 weeks

Keep some toys in the cot, if you’re going to have a dorm crisis, you’d want to have it when 2 pts out of 1st place!

'They annihilated us': Fagan doesn't mince words after Demons shock

Chris Fagan has a few concerns after two disappointing performances in as many weeks

www.afl.com.au

You may want to ring Fagan too mate. Looks like the dumb coach is also having a crisis, said we got annihilated and we're not around the mark.

 

[Tom14]

Drove some mad, probably. The vast majority embraced the match winner, ruck relief and just general enigma he was.

Joe is my favourite ever lion (Voss/black excepted).

 

[Ceebee]

Not right.

He was a consistent gun player in most of the games he played for us. Should have been AA twice. Too may people listen to the trolls in the media who flat out looked for every silly thing he ever did, which wasn't that often , and then got their meal ticket highlighting it.

Joe was always a whipping boy , people have selective memories ,

 

[Ceebee]

Good thing we scrapped all those wins early season. Time to recover the situation.
2 weeks in a row, overrun.

Need to think about Kai’s position in the 1’s. Maybe needs a couple of games in the 2’s to get match fit.

If we keep giving Charlie games , Kai should be given time too .

 

[Tom14]

Joe was always a whipping boy , people have selective memories ,

He might have been for some but they were always idiots.

 

[Nuggo]

Joe made the easy look hard and the hard look easy at the start of his tenure with us but the last couple of years found the consistency we needed.

 

[martinson]

He might have been for some but they were always idiots.

I could almost guarantee that despite the way we played today if he was in the team we would've won.

 

[Gadzorks]

Berry we missed you.

Lots of kids running around but not enough calm heads when it counted.

Why leave it so long to bring on mckenna? Zorko and Lester show that aged wisdom can better than young enthusiasm.

I really don't understand why we aren't using mckenna's experience to help calm things down. Should have been subbed in during the third.

Anyone know why mckenna just can't get a game or even time on field? Seems a weird..

 

[SpecialBruce]

Gawn was always killing us today. He is the best ruckman to ever play AFL/VFL football. He will be a hall of famer as soon as the waiting list is over post retirement. Criteria is 5 years. He will get it as soon as he is eligible.