Coach Fages and the coaching group

[mpal6]

Controversial opinion I know, and easy to say in hindsight (although I did also say it in foresight, just not here). But I reckon we used the Qualifying Final as a bit of a dry run, to see how we went against Geelong with just our standard "plan A", knowing that Chris Scott had to put all his chips in that night given we had beaten them the last 3 times. He couldn't leave it till Grand Final day to know whether all his great ideas were going to work.

But we had that luxury. As a result, we did absolutely bugger all about the Mullin tag on McCluggage, even less about Dempsey's influence on the wing, we kept up our incredibly risky ball movement all night, and we let their spare behind the ball dominate. About the only move we made was Rayner to the goal square, which was hardly a new development, when he was being shut down by O'Connor.

Then in the Grand Final, we sent Ah Chee to Dempsey, McCluggage went to another Geelong player at times, and we made the key move of using our spare on the front side of stoppages to allow us to chain out of congestion by hand, reducing the impact of Geelong's spare, so much so that by the 2nd half they had been forced to go one on one in their back half, which is when the game really opened up and Charlie capitalised.

Of course the implication of using our spare in that way (rather than going like for like and putting ours behind the ball also, as we often do), was that we had to win clearances, or at least stop Geelong winning them, and we got well on top in that area after half time.

But it was brilliant coaching to use that Qualifying Final as a learning tool for the Grand Final. Geelong had to fire all their shots in that game, they did so, we knew it, they knew it, and we made the most of it 3 weeks later.

I was very surprised Chris Scott didn't go for one more move in the Grand Final. Disrupting Harris Andrews. He played Neale on him again which was really weird considering Neale has been consistently beaten by Chief and still hasn't figured out how to play him.

Melksham showed a template of how to annoy Harris and make him lose focus. Taking Harris out by playing say Jack Martin or someone who has the leap to jump on him and sit on his head would've brought a different challenge to our defense. I was so paranoid of another coaching group replicating this Melksham move that I religiously didn't even bring it up in a single bigfooty post up until now.

 

[Grasshopper17]

I was very surprised Chris Scott didn't go for one more move in the Grand Final. Disrupting Harris Andrews. He played Neale on him again which was really weird considering Neale has been consistently beaten by Chief and still hasn't figured out how to play him.

Melksham showed a template of how to annoy Harris and make him lose focus. Taking Harris out by playing say Jack Martin or someone who has the leap to jump on him and sit on his head would've brought a different challenge to our defense. I was so paranoid of another coaching group replicating this Melksham move that I religiously didn't even bring it up in a single bigfooty post up until now.

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

 

[Section 5]

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

Maybe
That's the luxury of having Will, Neale, McCluggage, Bailey, Rayner, Levi.
Then we still have Dunkley who they won't tag and possibly Annabel.
This is on the assumption they leave Fletcher, Wilmott and Zorko in defense.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

Maybe just an issue with having a front running midfield. Similar to us but sometimes a tagger can throw out the mix. Especially with a dud ruck

Stanley rucking and Clark playing in the backline instead of Bews cost them big time

Jhye Clark coughed up half the goals in the first 3 quarters and it was an all timer clanger to bring Stanley in and waste blicavs. Could've at least played him on Harris

 

[Dalions]

Maybe just an issue with having a front running midfield. Similar to us but sometimes a tagger can throw out the mix. Especially with a dud ruck

Stanley rucking and Clark playing in the backline instead of Bews cost them big time

Jhye Clark coughed up half the goals in the first 3 quarters and it was an all timer clanger to bring Stanley in and waste blicavs. Could've at least played him on Harris

Stewart was a big loss for them as he usually tears us a new one.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Stewart was a big loss for them as he usually tears us a new one.

I think he’s usually below his best against us but we were able to exploit Clark and Stanley. Stewart would have been a big upgrade on either

 

[Dalions]

I think he’s usually below his best against us but we were able to exploit Clark and Stanley. Stewart would have been a big upgrade on either

Stewart is always one of their best against us, in the Prelim last year without him and Henry keeping them in the game we would have smashed them.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Stewart is always one of their best against us, in the Prelim last year without him and Henry keeping them in the game we would have smashed them.

He has played 11 games against us

 

[rye]

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

geelong were already using 2 stoppers in mullin and o'connor. clark was playing small defender so maybe its unfair to count him in the same category, but he was assigned an almost entirely negative role as well. when you start getting into 3-4+ pure negating players in your team you are carrying too many players who contribute little to nothing to your own gameplan imo and suffer as a result.

will also has the benefit that neale and mccluggage are higher priority tag targets than him for the time being.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Interesting interview with Phil Smyth. Most of the Lions stuff is later on

 

[Mr Ripper]

Interesting interview with Phil Smyth. Most of the Lions stuff is later on

Soders, too, has a deep connection to the Lions.

 

[morsie]

Soders, too, has a deep connection to the Lions.View attachment 2497181

Mark Bunn and Stephen Paxman for the Lions.Hope they weren't ringers