Review Round 8, 2026 - Essendon vs. Brisbane Lions

[Cockliff38]

Our short kicks are definitely on notice. Not only were a number of decent 15-20m passes called play-on, there were a few occasions where the umpire's held their whistle to signal mark by a half-second, causing us to take an extra step or quickly play-on (Zorko had a shocker turnover in the middle of the ground from this). Hopefully just a case of "rule of the round"

 

[luthor]

Our short kicks are definitely on notice. Not only were a number of decent 15-20m passes called play-on, there were a few occasions where the umpire's held their whistle to signal mark by a half-second, causing us to take an extra step or quickly play-on (Zorko had a shocker turnover in the middle of the ground from this). Hopefully just a case of "rule of the round"

I'd love to see stats on "NOT 15" calls by club.

I have a feeling we would be clear leaders.

They seem to want to call them on suspicion against us, perhaps due to our well publicised kick/mark style of play?

 

[Eyn Styn]

I actually do a similar thing for the posters on this board. I have a comprehensive spreadsheet on each poster.

I've seen the photo, yes my second wife was a cousin, so?

 

[PertRoosOsborne]

Our short kicks are definitely on notice. Not only were a number of decent 15-20m passes called play-on, there were a few occasions where the umpire's held their whistle to signal mark by a half-second, causing us to take an extra step or quickly play-on (Zorko had a shocker turnover in the middle of the ground from this). Hopefully just a case of "rule of the round"

The disparity between the 15 metres required for a kick and the 15 metres required before bouncing the ball has always perplexed me.

 

[Eyn Styn]

Oh, and this was the Brisbane Lions second greatest winning margin against the bombers, two points shy of the largest.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Everyone showed patches of what they can do. An excellent training run.

Motty - outstanding.

Curtain - huge upside. Always chasing. Always aggressive. Embarrassed Mackay.

Our rucks are becoming a first class combination.

Hughie building.

No wonder we left a few goals out there. So easy it was boring.

- especially in terms of our ruck combination. He’s had his detractors, but Darcy Fort is an ‘A Grade’ ruckman, especially in terms of his defensive work on the deck and his clearance rate in the centre restart. Darcy had 13 Centre Bounce Attendances and three personal clearances, only surpassed by McCluggage (9) and Dunkley (4). His work around the ground is improving and there is no doubting his football smarts. More to the point, he is a perfect foil for Draper, who should be considered our number one ruckman. Having a two time Premiership ruckman as your ‘second string’ is a massive advantage for the Lions and certainly one that Fagan is very happy to lock in. To be able to share the ruck role so effectively also gives us the option of resting Draper forward if we want to really stretch opposition defences. I thought Fort’s short pass to McKenna for a goal was all class.

 

[Maboo]

So only 10% of us are woke?

I have no idea what woke means, but the only thing I find insulting is that some slapper was sneaking around where they shouldn't. I put this on par with somebody sneaking into someones room, taking photos of their diary and posting it online.

 

[Brizzys Squizzy]

One thing I was worried about this year with the new rules was the increased importance of Centre Clearances as it was probably our only major weakness in the midfield last year.

But credit to the coaching staff (and whether intentional the recruiting of Draper) and mids for now becoming the best team at Centre Clearances AND scoring from them. No doubt it is fueling our offense which is in a way better shape than last year.

Found this a very strange comment.

14 times had more C. clearances.
5 times had the same C.clearances.
4 times got beat in C.clearances.
As for finals went 2 & 2 for the 4 games.
Room for improvement sure but major weakness absolutely nowhere near it.

 

[Maboo]

Next poll should be “Are you angry that your club isn’t following Lions best practice game preparation?”

Brad Scott should also give his players a copy of the photo and thank the Lions for pointing out their weaknesses.

 

[morsie]

I'd love to see stats on "NOT 15" calls by club.

I have a feeling we would be clear leaders.

They seem to want to call them on suspicion against us, perhaps due to our well publicised kick/mark style of play?

I would love someone with a laser thingy to measure all the calls and the actual distances.I sm sure some were well over 20 metres but I could be delusion

 

[morsie]

I have no idea what woke means, but the only thing I find insulting is that some slapper was sneaking around where they shouldn't. I put this on par with somebody sneaking into someones room, taking photos of their diary and posting it online.

Must have been an uncle

 

[AFLQLD]

The AFL media whiteboard:
Caroline Wilson
Strengths: good contacts in clubs, analytical on some actual big issues
Weaknesses: self-important, holier than thou

Kane Cornes
Strengths: N/A
Weaknesses: thinks he is edgy and “not afraid to say controversial things” rather than, you know, just an attention-seeking idiot.

Damien Barrett
Strengths: IF Damo had a strength…
Weaknesses: THEN it still wouldn’t help him be a better journalist.

Eddie Maguire
Strengths: cares about the game
Weakesses: only in Victoria

Gerard Whateley
Strengths: tries to sound knowledgeable about the game
Weaknesses: likes to dwell on pointless stuff

Jon Ralph
Strengths: possibly not the worst AFL media personality.
Weaknesses: close to the worst media personality

Brian Taylor
Strengths: has a short nickname
Weaknesses: the first three volumes of his list of weaknessses are available now at all good bookstores.

Feel free to add.

 

[M Malice]

If forced to nail down my podium finishers in the worst AFL pundit Olympics, in no particular order I'd go with >

Damien Barrett, Jon Ralph, Jay Clark. With plenty of others pushing for a podium finish.

Podium finishers in best pundits/expert comments, not play by play commentators.

Luke Hodge, Leigh Matthews, Nathan Buckley. With not many pushing for a podium finish.

Special mention to the abysmal standard of game day commentating or punditry of the likes of David King, Kelli Underwood, Mark Ricciuto

Mark Ricciuto

Age

50

Ht

184cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.1

5star

K

12.8

5star

HB

8.3

5star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.7

4star

G

0.9

4star

No current season stats available

D

16.2

4star

K

9.6

4star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.0

4star

G

0.2

3star

, Eddie Betts, Craig Hutchinson.

 

[Gadzorks]

Found this a very strange comment.

14 times had more C. clearances.
5 times had the same C.clearances.
4 times got beat in C.clearances.
As for finals went 2 & 2 for the 4 games.
Room for improvement sure but major weakness absolutely nowhere near it.

Pfffttt facts. Who needs those, this is bigfooty where we deal in opinions.

 

[M Malice]

Pfffttt facts. Who needs those, this is bigfooty where we deal in opinions.

And long may it continue Gadz.

 

[Gadzorks]

We have been caught playing to our opponents level in last few years. Fight out a win against the better teams then put the cue in the track and scrape past a much lower ranked team. Or lose.

Will multiple demolition wins where we go out and play our brand no matter who the opposition be sufficient to say we have taken 'the next step' in our development?

 

[martinson]

We have been caught playing to our opponents level in last few years. Fight out a win against the better teams then put the cue in the track and scrape past a much lower ranked team. Or lose.

Will multiple demolition wins where we go out and play our brand no matter who the opposition be sufficient to say we have taken 'the next step' in our development?

I'm not all in on this.

I remember when Fitzroy last had their golden run and we were really belting the weaker teams but that didn't translate to a flag.

In this era where you play more games at a frenetic pace and as we see this year where the attrition rate is high I'm all for conserving your energy and pacing the season out. Sure you can risk the odd upset but unless percentage is more important than the end of year outcome I don't much see the point in belting anyone. And it can give you a false sense of your worth when you play more important games.

What Geelong did to us in the first final last year is Exhibit A.

 

[Lockie]

If forced to nail down my podium finishers in the worst AFL pundit Olympics, in no particular order I'd go with >

Damien Barrett, Jon Ralph, Jay Clark. With plenty of others pushing for a podium finish.

Podium finishers in best pundits/expert comments, not play by play commentators.

Luke Hodge, Leigh Matthews, Nathan Buckley. With not many pushing for a podium finish.

Special mention to the abysmal standard of game day commentating or punditry of the likes of David King, Kelli Underwood, Mark Ricciuto, Eddie Betts, Craig Hutchinson.

Cameron Ling discussing this now on ABC puts a fantastic viewpoint on the Whiteboard saga - if someone is smarter than me to post it up. Talks about how no one should apologise for anything on the board and how all great teams use the info. Good on you Lingy!

 

[3KZ is Football]

If forced to nail down my podium finishers in the worst AFL pundit Olympics, in no particular order I'd go with >

Damien Barrett, Jon Ralph, Jay Clark. With plenty of others pushing for a podium finish.

Podium finishers in best pundits/expert comments, not play by play commentators.

Luke Hodge, Leigh Matthews, Nathan Buckley. With not many pushing for a podium finish.

Special mention to the abysmal standard of game day commentating or punditry of the likes of David King, Kelli Underwood, Mark Ricciuto, Eddie Betts, Craig Hutchinson.

Call themselves AFL PUNDITS? Not one of them tipped the RISE OF RYAN LESTER!

 

[M Malice]

Call themselves AFL PUNDITS? Not one of them tipped the RISE OF RYAN LESTER!

I should have put you on the Podium of best Pundits 3KZ, although who do I dump for you? Matthews, Hodge or Buckley?

 

[wakeup]

I think we’re at the point where some people here are getting too worked up about it.

A few D-tier journos are desperately trying to make “fetch” happen with this story, and are failing.

The general footy crowd are just laughing and memeing about it already.

The whiteboard is no different to how these journos review players in real time in print and television without regard to the effect on players in these public forums.

 

[Paul Mac]

Yep Melbourne members have been reamed by the fixturing this year. Saturday sports mean many families miss out when we have these ridiculous Saturday 12.35 pm games. Then we have a three month period where you can’t go and watch your team. Just as well we are making finals, because if we weren’t there would be a drop off in Victorian Membership.

we are atune to it by now 3KZ.
Remember when memberships were actually value for money. The VIC membership you actually pay dearer than what you would paying general admission to each of the 5 games.

 

[Maboo]

Fwiw the abc says the image was shared on in an essendon supporters group. Kudos to the first person who can find the original post on bigfooty.

Its not on Bigfooty, I have tracked down the person who took the image and posted it to an Essendon Facebook page.
His name is Cory Len

 

[Hollow Knight]

Its not on Bigfooty, I have tracked down the person who took the image and posted it to an Essendon Facebook page.
His name is Cory Len

Strengths: spare chins, low wind resistance on head

Weaknesses: petrol station sunnies, you can smell him through photographs

 

[Gadzorks]

Its not on Bigfooty, I have tracked down the person who took the image and posted it to an Essendon Facebook page.
His name is Cory Len

Bloody hell. I never thought anyone would find it, thought it would have been taken down. But I guess the internet is forever.

Kudos to you for finding it.

I bet that bloke is having a very bad long weekend.