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2026 Pre-Season Thread

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irel said:
It’s around this time three years ago that Morris really announced himself in an intra‑club hit‑out. Gallop followed a similar trajectory not long after, and now it looks like Curtin is tracking along the same pattern. There’s something about that late‑preseason window where the genuine talents start to separate themselves from the pack.
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2 years ago. Mind boggling isn't it.
 
Email sent. Thanks weevil .

Everyone who has commented, cut and paste your comments and email the club too. And everyone that agrees.

Let's start a campaign.
 

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Grasshopper17 said:
Did bits and pieces. Cody Curtin spent (much) more time in ruck (for both teams I think?) and did OK. Couple of nice goals. Bit of a lumbering gait but he still gets around the field alright considering how ugly it looks!
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Many kiddies are sent off to do Little Athletics; unfortunately Cody misheard and attended Little Aesthetics. Done good but.
 
Grasshopper17 said:
Skills were pretty slick weren't they. I mean the game opened up of course the longer it went, got a bit end-to-end towards the finish. Defence became more about structure than pressure. But still there was decent pressure when needed.

A couple of times a couple of the A team blokes (Cam, Kai, Wilmot notable examples) would do some lackadaisical/lairy/show-off move, mess it up, but then it was like they gave themselves a talking to immediately and they'd spend the next 10-15 seconds chasing and smothering and tackling etc like crazy, trying to make up for it.

Oh, one thing I need to point out. I don't recall there being any 50 metre penalties. AT ALL. Let alone for the stand rule which apparently has plagued match sims for other teams. Great signs if we have got this right already. Hopefully the umpires were umpiring it the same way the Vic umpires will and we don't get a huge shock in opening round.
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The 50ms - must have learnt their lessons from last week! There were at least 5 or 6!!
 
Looks like Linc is playing off HB. That is provocative stuff. He’s Zorko esque and probably a bit better defensively.

Haven’t seen a minute of him play but Curtin has the build of someone who will become a quality AFL player.

Kiddy really the main guy that I have everything crossed for.
 

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LION CUB STEALS THE SHOW, EMERGES AS EARLY-SEASON BOLTER — Callum Dick
Brisbane’s now-annual “unearth a key forward of the future” match simulation has served up another one to watch with 200cm swingman Cody Curtin stealing the show on Friday night.
Two years ago Logan Morris booted five goals in the corresponding pre-season hit out to signal his imminent AFL arrival and last year Ty Gallop did the same, with both players ending the season in the senior side.
And this was Curtin’s time to shine, with the No.43 pick in last year’s draft providing the highlight of the afternoon when he pulled down a hanger on centre wing mid-way through the third quarter that could have been a 2025 Mark of the Year contender.
Starting for the “A-team” in the Springfield scrimmage, Curtin played as a key forward alongside Morris, Gallop and star recruit Oscar Allen while also spelling Darcy Fort in the ruck whenever the veteran went to the bench.
In a 10-minute patch, Curtin took three intercept marks and booted two goals — including a handball receive running snap on the siren that got his teammates buzzing.
With Sam Draper set to miss at least Opening Round with a foot injury - and Eric Hipwood still on the road back from his ACL — Curtin could be an early-season bolter off the back of Friday’s form.
Or, like Morris and Gallop before him, be forced to bide his time until later in the season.
Allen, Morris, Gallop and Curtin all booted multiple goals in a promising early sign of forward line cohesion as the Lions eye three premierships in a row with another new-look forward 50.
But it was Kai Lohmann who ended the afternoon with the biggest bag after cashing in with four fourth quarter goals.
All-Australian Hugh McCluggage picked up where he left off last year, leading the midfield for touches and impact - and was nigh-untackleable.
After an off-season of off-field drama Lachie Neale was again among the best on ground and looks cherry ripe for Opening Round in a few weeks’ time.
Lions fans can get excited about the looming return of Keidean Coleman, who got through the full match without hassle and looks to be right in the selection frame for the start of the season.
The lethal left-footer, who has missed almost two full seasons with knee and quad concerns, started hot and did not miss a target in the first half.
How the Lions fit him into a backline that already has Dayne Zorko, Darcy Wilmot and Jaspa Fletcher is a happy headache for the coaching staff.
Fletcher did not play on Friday but is expected to feature in Brisbane’s practice match against Carlton next week, at which point we should get a clearer picture of the backline puzzle.
Josh Dunkley also sat out the scrimmage but is expected to be fit for the start of the season.
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weevil said:
I can’t believe it’s 2026, and people are questioning whether our social media is that important. It’s literally where all the money and the influence are, and right now we are pissing our once-in-a-generation opportunity up against the wall.

Our club clings to this super-outdated view that social media is a digital newsletter rather than an income generator and a weapon.

We are leaving shitloads of cash on the table. Look at the data from Nielsen or Deloitte. Sponsors aren't dumb; they don't just pay for a logo on a jumper anymore. They pay for engagement. A huge chunk of sponsorship value (studies estimate 40-60%) is generated purely through social channels. Our tokenistic socials are so thin and generic that they are literally costing the club hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue every year.

And engaged fans spend way more. If you feed the fans great content, they buy memberships and merch. It’s not theory; there are hard numbers that back all that up.

Giant international sporting clubs are basically now global media companies that happen to play football on weekends. They are not doing that because it’s “fun”; it's half their freaking revenue.

We are losing the PR war. I know the club loves the small target strategy. But the academy saga is a great example of where that now gets us.

Bassat and Lyon operated a long-term coordinated hit job on us. They controlled almost the entire news cycle with lines like "nepo babies" and "compromised drafts," making themselves look like victims of a rigged system and taking attention away from their own failures. They completely rag-dolled us, and that is ultra-easy for anyone to do because our one and only strategy is to roll over and play dead at the first sign of trouble.

And playing dead was okay back when we were so weak we didn’t threaten anybody. But that time is over. We are in a fundamentally different position now. We are a behemoth, but we are still acting like we are a minnow; we have a colossal target on our backs, and everyone is going to be gunning for us for years to come.

Let's look at what we did this week, well, Fages was out there stumbling through some bizarrely esoteric and weak argument about the Saints paying too much for players being somehow “bad for the comp”...But that’s okay our social channels had us covered because they were posting generic "Happy Birthday" graphics and slow-mo gym reels...They fix everything.

We have a massive platform to bypass the Vic-centric media and give OUR side of the story, and we just don’t use it.

Litrally off the top of my head:
  • Where was the sassy post pointing out what an advantage the Melbourne clubs have with the Grand Finals always played at the MCG? Do the Vic clubs actually care about fairness...or is it just fairness for them?
  • Where was the infographic showing we’ve had one top ten academy pick ever?
  • Where were the pictures of some of our sensational mid-range draft picks that are now superstars of the comp and their pick numbers? “Pick #15 Zac Bailey: It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it” or "Pick #61 Harris Andrews Queensland Academy selection - perhaps someone could have bid sooner?"
Those are probably OTT but you get the idea. And it’s not just in your face socials; it can be conveyed through subtle lines in the media: Where is Fages saying that when he got to Brisbane, he felt the club had a real victim mentality and blamed everyone else for our own problems? Where is he working into the conversation that Adelaide didn’t seem to have had any problem at all rebuilding in a “compromised draft”?

Those are some really basic arguments in this debate that the club has completely failed to prosecute in any way, shape, or form.

The club gives the fans no ammunition to fight with. Just posting good vibes and whatever meme is trending right now is not a strategy. Sometimes a fanbase needs depth. By refusing to engage with deeper topics, the club leaves its fans unarmed. Saints powerbrokers make "nepo babies" arguments, and their fans and the media run with them. If a Lions supporter wants to argue the point, they have to come up with the whole argument themselves because the club is too scared to post anything other than a goal celebration.

That doesn’t mean stop the fun stuff; that’s still the primary engine. And it doesn't mean they have to be super aggressive. But for the love of god, blend in some actual substance every now and then. Explain the academy mechanics. Defend the shield when a rival CEO attacks our integrity. Tell us some real player stories. Give us an actual narrative to get behind rather than just repeating "Believe" every five freaking minutes.

But rather than do any of that, we just let the Saints run around, saying and doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. And it’s over, it’s too late now, we lost the argument we barely even participated in, and the Saints are now taking the piss, stomping on our grave, because they know we are too timid and weak to ever fight back.

So aside from the whole pissing away huge amounts of money thing, we are sitting ducks, passively waiting around to be kicked to the curb by the next bully that comes along.

We are not in Kansas anymore. We need to play the media game just as loud and just as smart as the Vic clubs. Because the “quieter and dumber” strategy no longer cuts it.

/rant
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I’ve been against those that have petitioned for more website content - because I simply don’t know what the metrics are in terms of output and input.

But you have to be in the social media game. And we aren’t.

Most of the content the club will produce will be completely uninteresting to me (like the stuff hawthorn produces) but many will love it and it’ll get eyeballs.

I have nfi but you almost need a marketing influencer type who understands the engagement and they can learn anything they need to about footy on the job.

We seem very 2010 online presence.
 
BuntonRules said:
Email sent. Thanks weevil .

Everyone who has commented, cut and paste your comments and email the club too. And everyone that agrees.

Let's start a campaign.
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Email sent also, to every email address of the Lions I could find. 👌
 

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Don’t have much to add.

Not sure if it was mentioned, but Academy kids Hodge and Murray played. Couldn’t pick Hodge out at all, but he was getting his name called a bit at various times by teammates.

Murray is such a smooth runner, and had a couple of nice kicks on the wing, and one coming out of defence.

I was impressed with Curtin, in that he produced significantly more than I was expecting. We might be shelving the idea of him playing in defence, if Henry Smith can’t get his body right.

However Waller playing ruck for the reserves really impressed me. Big leap on the kid, constantly jumping over Fort at centre ball ups. He’s still skinny, but has put a fair amount of muscle/weight on compared to last year. But the most pleasing aspect is that he didn’t look like a dear in the headlights scared, rather showed the aggression needed to go up in the ruck.

Saw Hippy at halftime. Walking freely and nothing on his knee.

Fairly disappointed in OA. Looked unfit, looked lackadaisical and even timid at times. He looked like he tried, but didn’t have it in him to compete at the level. Either that, or he was just going through the motions and didn’t want to get hurt. Went in to defence in the second half when Andrew’s went off, and had a trainer talking to him out on the field for a while.

I watch how players move out on the field. It’s obvious Cameron has had an ankle issue for a couple of years now. Well Allen has an issue with his right knee, it’s causing him some discomfort, even when walking.

The other standout for me was Gallop. He just clunks everything that comes to him. Arms out stretched and no double grabs or a slight fumble. The ball just sticks first time, every time. And he’s a very good kick for goal.

Annable is such a natural. Good runner, and just makes good decisions.

Reville has to be in our best 23. I have him ahead of Coleman at this stage.

Brain still has a fair bit to work on. He’s not slotting in to that Starcevich role yet.
 
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