Unofficial Preview Semi Final Saturday 7:35pm vs Gold Coast @ GABBA

[Nathan Barley]

OK I'll give a proper reply.

What we don't have is Charlie from 3 years ago. Charlie is a shadow of his best self. Charlie had very little impact in last years finals, just like he had very little impact on last weekends game, apart from our first goal being a joe the goose out the back goal to Charlie.

We don't have a fit and firing Cal Ah Chee, we have the banged up version this year. Similarly with Lohmann being under done.

We don't have Joe or Eric.

We've got a banged up Berry, as opposed to last year when was in career best form. We've got a banged up McCluggage.
We don't have Neale.

We don't have Payne.

We don't have Answerth.

We're a significantly different side to last year, both in terms or personal and health.

The one thing we have going for us is experience. But last weekends game severely rattled my confidence that, that is enough to get through this weekends game.

A significantly different team that won more home and away season games with a tougher draw........

 

[briztoon]

A significantly different team that won more home and away season games with a tougher draw........

Yes. They've been falling month by month from a lucky opening stretch where we played poorly, but kept winning.

 

[M Malice]

You watch how hard Gold Coasts small forwards work. None of them are "stars", they're all role players who run and tackle all game long. Same goes for their mids, but some of them are genuine stars.

And then Kingy on First Crack last night pot shotting both Ashcroft boys as one way runners who won't work back defensively. You can add Hughey and Bailey to the joggers list.

Yep, we will never win a Premiership with such sloths in our team, time for a rebuild.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Yes. They've been falling month by month from a lucky opening stretch where we played poorly, but kept winning.

The freo and Hawks wins didn't get you up and about?

 

[Tom14]

I've seen very little of this on here.

The vast majority on here would prefer for Starcevich, Ah Chee and Neale to stay.

I actually can't think of one poster here who matches your description above.

I've seen plenty of posts saying 'well if they are going to leave we'd get a better return now,' mainly in relation to Bailey and Neale. Starce and Cal are irrelevant, I think most accept they are out the door.

 

[Tom14]

OK I'll give a proper reply.

What we don't have is Charlie from 3 years ago. Charlie is a shadow of his best self. Charlie had very little impact in last years finals, just like he had very little impact on last weekends game, apart from our first goal being a joe the goose out the back goal to Charlie.

We don't have a fit and firing Cal Ah Chee, we have the banged up version this year. Similarly with Lohmann being under done.

We don't have Joe or Eric.

We've got a banged up Berry, as opposed to last year when was in career best form. We've got a banged up McCluggage.
We don't have Neale.

We don't have Payne.

We don't have Answerth.

We're a significantly different side to last year, both in terms or personal and health.

The one thing we have going for us is experience. But last weekends game severely rattled my confidence that, that is enough to get through this weekends game.

We don't have Leigh Ryswick. We don't have Aaron Cornelius. No Sam Sheldon, Llaane Spaaaaaaaaanderman, or James Hawksley.

 

[Tom14]

Yes. They've been falling month by month from a lucky opening stretch where we played poorly, but kept winning.

I'd give this post more credence if I'd seen it 6 weeks ago.

The doomer gimmick was fine in 2019-2022 where you'd pop up and accurately indicate we weren't a finished product and (less accurately) SHOULDN'T have done the neale trade.

As I've said I think this year is done and we could well lose to Gold Coast but I'm not taking any serious criticism out of last week into this week or going forward.

Our way of play has been very, very successful and yeah Kingy can pull vision of things going badly last week and make very broad conclusions but frankly we were just beaten in fundamentals of contest and structure.

Its an overall aberration this season (the pies loss was as bad, the suns loss was purely built on ridiculous goalscoring from clearance so not comparable) and I don't think there's anything to take away longterm.

 

[Tom14]

I'd give this post more credence if I'd seen it 6 weeks ago.

The doomer gimmick was fine in 2019-2022 where you'd pop up and accurately indicate we weren't a finished product and (less accurately) SHOULDN'T have done the neale trade.

As I've said I think this year is done and we could well lose to Gold Coast but I'm not taking any serious criticism out of last week into this week or going forward.

Our way of play has been very, very successful and yeah Kingy can pull vision of things going badly last week and make very broad conclusions but frankly we were just beaten in fundamentals of contest and structure.

Its an overall aberration this season (the pies loss was as bad, the suns loss was purely built on ridiculous goalscoring from clearance so not comparable) and I don't think there's anything to take away longterm.

To credit Briz here's a post/thread where he was WAY OUT IN FRONT with his opinion:

I’ll get the headline out first.

We won’t win a premiership with a midfield that has Neale and Lyons as the two main drivers.

My view is pretty simplistic.

We have little drive out of defence. Very little run and carry to break lines and set up attacks from turnovers.

We’re very one paced and small in the midfield. We don’t have a Petracca or Bontempeli or Oliver or Wines type. Simply put, we don’t have the players in the midfield to bully an opposition. We get exposed by run and carry on the turn over and through the midfield, because Neale, Lyons, McCluggage and Berry are all slow getting back defensively when we lose the ball.

Up forward, Cameron and Daniher can go in to Prima Dona mode, and not do the defensive things needed from them. They can sulk, and just be downhill skiers at times.

Our game plan is much more about minimising our weaknesses, and plays to our strengths. We currently lack the personal to switch to a plan B. We are very well coached, especially following the game plan, but we don’t have personal or depth to adapt when the game plan isn’t working or we suffer significant injuries.

We will be a very good home and away team, and still finish high. But we lack the one or two game winners through the midfield that will win the big games in finals.


Where it went wrong. Getting Lachie Neale at the expense of continuing to build through the draft. To many draft misses in the 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 drafts.

Most clubs build their core team through the draft. Our draft wins have been;
2015: Hipwood.
2016: McCluggage. Berry is still a wait and see.
2017: Bailey and Starcevich. Rayner has yet to live up to the hype/hope.
2018: Complete wiff. Answerth is still a wait and see.
2019: Still to early to tell. Coleman looks good. There’s hope for Robertson and Prior.
2020: To early to tell.

That’s not enough wins, and no game winner in the midfield.

Even if we get two good kids this year, and Ashcroft next year, I fear we still might be missing that game winner in the midfield.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

The freo and Hawks wins didn't get you up and about?

...or the pies, and the cats, and the dogs ?

 

[M Malice]

Our way of play has been very, very successful and yeah Kingy can pull vision of things going badly last week and make very broad conclusions but frankly we were just beaten in fundamentals of contest and structure.

David King is a analytical small fry clickbaiter, you could go through vision of just about every game ever played and pick out players apparently not putting in effort.

 

[irel]

Insert [tank gif] here.

 

[Tom14]

David King is a analytical small fry clickbaiter, you could go through vision of just about every game ever played and pick out players apparently not putting in effort.

Sadly I think last week was much more about Cats good rather than Lions bad. Pies-Cats GF

 

[M Malice]

Sadly I think last week was much more about Cats good rather than Lions bad. Pies-Cats GF

Lions v Crows GF

 

[Nathan Barley]

I mean we might lose but if you ran 100 simulations of like match outcome I'd say somewhere between 55-60 of those we'd be winning

 

[irel]

Lions v Crows GF

Ah yes, the return of the Prodigal Son for the Croms.

 

[Happy_Neale]

HN Day rarely takes a mark. He dropped one last week right in front of me when contesting with a Geelong small out on the wing. No one was surprised that he couldn't take it and I was relieved that the ball went out of bounds immediately. Some one has stated that he was our most highly rated forward which is a silly stat. He was less bad than the rest IMO.

Gryan Miers did outmark him at one point which was very cringe.

 

[M Malice]

Fages was a little cranky in his pre game presser today, I like cranky Fages, reeks of steely determination.

 

[mattsmob]

I'd give this post more credence if I'd seen it 6 weeks ago.

The doomer gimmick was fine in 2019-2022 where you'd pop up and accurately indicate we weren't a finished product and (less accurately) SHOULDN'T have done the neale trade.

As I've said I think this year is done and we could well lose to Gold Coast but I'm not taking any serious criticism out of last week into this week or going forward.

Our way of play has been very, very successful and yeah Kingy can pull vision of things going badly last week and make very broad conclusions but frankly we were just beaten in fundamentals of contest and structure.

Its an overall aberration this season (the pies loss was as bad, the suns loss was purely built on ridiculous goalscoring from clearance so not comparable) and I don't think there's anything to take away longterm.

Does he really have that much of a doomer take? Both of your takes have a pretty fine line between them by the sounds of it although Briz maybe presents it a little more pessimistically.

Don’t think it’s a doomer take to say that injuries are a massive hit to our chances of winning

 

[Nathan Barley]

Gryan Miers did outmark him at one point which was very cringe.

There's a lot of confirmation bias when this happens to our players. It's really not that uncommon if the kick isnt to the talls advantage and the small uses his body well (borderline illegally).

Even Zorko spoiled Ben King that one time when he should've gone harder at the footy

 

[Nathan Barley]

Does he really have that much of a doomer take? Both of your takes have a pretty fine line between them by the sounds of it although Briz maybe presents it a little more pessimistically.

Don’t think it’s a doomer take to say that injuries are a massive hit to our chances of winning

Briztoon isnt phrasing it like that though

Hes baiting people into a conversation where he can set up "I told you so" when we lose

 

[Tom14]

Does he really have that much of a doomer take? Both of your takes have a pretty fine line between them by the sounds of it although Briz maybe presents it a little more pessimistically.

Don’t think it’s a doomer take to say that injuries are a massive hit to our chances of winning

Briz's doomer take is historical. Consistently from 2019-mid2023 he'd pop up bemoaning list deficiencies and us giving up on rebuilding through the draft by doing the Neale trade.

 

[3KZ is Football]

We don't have Leigh Ryswick. We don't have Aaron Cornelius. No Sam Sheldon, Llaane Spaaaaaaaaanderman, or James Hawksley.

James Hawksley.

 

[mattsmob]

Briz's doomer take is historical. Consistently from 2019-mid2023 he'd pop up bemoaning list deficiencies and us giving up on rebuilding through the draft by doing the Neale trade.

Agreed but that doesn’t feel the same as saying he feels bad about this weekend and outlining why

 

[mattsmob]

Briztoon isnt phrasing it like that though

Hes baiting people into a conversation where he can set up "I told you so" when we lose

Agree the phrasing is different but the actual point his making is probably one a lot of people can agree with.

Injuries have hurt us this season and a few of our experienced players we need the rely on have been quite disappointing

 

[M Malice]

James Hawksley.

Bryce Retzlaff >>>>> James Hawksley.