Review Round 12, 2026 - Brisbane Lions vs. Fremantle

[Elixuh]

Watching dogs v pies game lost of 10-12m kicks paid as marks.
You do wonder if we being singled out.

I don’t know how they’ve been instructed - whether it’s pay particular attention when officiating lions games or it’s across the board for all teams - but it’s become a bias against us. Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, who knows. But it was jarring watching how lopsided it was officiated tonight.

 

[Gadzorks]

I think the short kicks keeping the ball strategy has been figured out. Watch Freo (and every opponent) crowd the corridor the second we get the ball. We can't pick through like we used to. We're stuck going down the line. Feels like a crack down on 15m kicks too, shockingly inconsistent mind you.

Also not sure about our zone defensive, they just kept going straight through it. Not quite sure what the answer is there.

I'd like to see us play a bit more like we did in the 4th all the time, play on at all costs, take the game on, we looked dangerous. Handballs 166 to 101.

The corridor also gets crowded because of the lasso rule.

Everyone now takes greater risks through the corridor rather than risk the ball going out if the kick isn't exact.

Has neutralised our advantage, and confused our players. Opposition have been defending us in the corridor for years. We need to catch up.

 

[Bucking Beads]

We really did have a bad off season. The after glow of going back to back allowed us to be a bit too comfortable.

We lost 2 defensive players and didn't really have a plan to replace them by the looks of it..

We will be ok long term but turning it around this year feels like an uphill battle.

They're already banged up and tired with very few players playing their best.

I wonder if Fages has one last little play to get this lot motivated.

Beating the suns next week appears to be a pipe dream tbh.

 

[martinson]

We really did have a bad off season. The after glow of going back to back allowed us to be a bit too comfortable.

We lost 2 defensive players and didn't really have a plan to replace them by the looks of it..

We will be ok long term but turning it around this year feels like an uphill battle.

They're already banged up and tired with very few players playing their best.

I wonder if Fages has one last little play to get this lot motivated.

Beating the suns next week appears to be a pipe dream tbh.

I really expected a backs to the wall desperate effort today for a few reasons too long to elaborate on.

But it didn't happen . We just looked tired and disinterested at times with bursts of intensity as if once we turned the switch on we'd be fine.

But mostly we knew we were done from early on. Doubtful of anything special in the games remaining but still hoping.

Forget injuries and who might come back. It's up to whoever we have out there over the next few weeks.

 

[Jivlain]

Dunkley needs to be saved from himself. Needs time off. Couldn’t even make the distance on a set shot. A long way off the guy who had 18 tackles in a semi final last year

Dunkley's not traditionally great in front of goal, and I generally wouldn't rate him from long range anyway.

Now, yes, he is certainly under duress this year, but that's just not what I'd cite in making that case.

 

[davemc_lions]

I don’t know how they’ve been instructed - whether it’s pay particular attention when officiating lions games or it’s across the board for all teams - but it’s become a bias against us. Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, who knows. But it was jarring watching how lopsided it was officiated tonight.

It is someone vs the Pies. Where the crowd and Nick have a lot of say over the umpiring.

 

[010203]

This is the night the 3-peat dream died. Tonight, we were too easy to play against when we don't have the ball and that's been the case for pretty much the entire season. This looks like a year akin to what Geelong and Collingwood had after winning their most recent flags.

 

[bungalow_bill]

Change Rayner’s role. I would actually make him do an accountable job of taking a small/medium defender and nullifying him. Rayner is at his best when he causes chaos, but without accountability he fades out. In that role he would have to work hard but would reap the rewards. I reckon he could cause turnovers leading to goals if he had a very defined role with a clear focus. Accountability is everything for him.

Rayner reminds me of the quote, to whom much is given much is expected. We know that with his crazy level of talent he is capable of tearing games apart, so it's frustrating when he doesn't do this on a regular basis. Anyway very astute post.

 

[Lions Flag 2020]

This is the night the 3-peat dream died. Tonight, we were too easy to play against when we don't have the ball and that's been the case for pretty much the entire season. This looks like a year akin to what Geelong and Collingwood had after winning their most recent flags.

Disagree. We are banged up and low on confidence. BUT we can turn it around once we get our best team out on the field. At the game tonight it was obvious we couldn’t win relying on Logan as our only tall forward. It was bouncing straight out. On the defensive end it is obvious that Andrews is floundering because we are missing Payne, Lester and Zorko. It’s hard to win footy games with a depleted forward AND backline. Get our full team back (Allen, Hippy, Payne, Zorko, Linc, move Gallop forward). Makes a huge difference.

 

[JB42]

Concerned about Ashcroft brothers attitude. No willingness to do team first things like tackle, chase, etc... Levi picks and chooses when he wants to try. Jumping out of the way of an easy chest mark because there may have been contact coming was telling. Will refuses to tackle and just kicks it blindly if he feels like he will be tackled. Untouchable golden boys who play like entitled private school boys.
What Fagan has done to Fletcher is criminal. He is the most talented kid on the list who can spread and run both ways. Expecting him to play lock down defender has taken away all his strengths and confidence. If it continues much longer, his development will go backwards and he'll end up with a b grade back flanker instead of an a grade star.
When Fletcher moved onto wing/mid (albeit when the game was over), the run, spread, dare was much improved.
Gallop needs to go forward... let's not forget he was arguably bog in the prelim at CHF in his 4th or 5th game and pivital in the GF. Why turn him into a back when we need targets and size up forward? Joyce has proven to be a solid lock down defender (well ahead of Gallop in terms of pure defensive work). Bring him in and move Gallop forward.
Rant over, but the jury is in... the last three weeks are a theme and not 'outliers' or 'mulligans'. Fagan needs to make some genuine changes, drop some experienced players and make a statement about the effort required to play in this team. Too easy to take easy options to drop Marshall (who tried his arse off and was ok last week)..

 

[SpecialBruce]

People are in dreamland if they think Payne will be back this year.

It was a serious injury. Even if he got back into the reserves in round 22, it would take at least 4 or 5 games to get him up to match fitness.

By that stage, if our season isn't over, he won't be replacing someone who has earned their spot in a semi final win for example.

He won't be back this year.

 

[ZoBlitz]

ZoBlitz the integrity of the vote is compromised if I can only give 4 votes. This is a disgrace.

Doh, stupid phone. Updated.

 

[twhowler]

Concerned about Ashcroft brothers attitude. No willingness to do team first things like tackle, chase, etc... Levi picks and chooses when he wants to try. Jumping out of the way of an easy chest mark because there may have been contact coming was telling. Will refuses to tackle and just kicks it blindly if he feels like he will be tackled. Untouchable golden boys who play like entitled private school boys.
What Fagan has done to Fletcher is criminal. He is the most talented kid on the list who can spread and run both ways. Expecting him to play lock down defender has taken away all his strengths and confidence. If it continues much longer, his development will go backwards and he'll end up with a b grade back flanker instead of an a grade star.
When Fletcher moved onto wing/mid (albeit when the game was over), the run, spread, dare was much improved.
Gallop needs to go forward... let's not forget he was arguably bog in the prelim at CHF in his 4th or 5th game and pivital in the GF. Why turn him into a back when we need targets and size up forward? Joyce has proven to be a solid lock down defender (well ahead of Gallop in terms of pure defensive work). Bring him in and move Gallop forward.
Rant over, but the jury is in... the last three weeks are a theme and not 'outliers' or 'mulligans'. Fagan needs to make some genuine changes, drop some experienced players and make a statement about the effort required to play in this team. Too easy to take easy options to drop Marshall (who tried his arse off and was ok last week)..

Fagan spinning the magnets was rare!

And it worked.

Really really hope he is open to some positional changes.

As you say Fletcher is on life support down back. He has a way better tank than Bruce and Levi, and is great in open contested footy. Get him on the wing.

Ty does some really nice things but completely loses his opponent at least once a quarter. Much better for him to do that in the forward line. Give Morris some support. I don't care if Joyce is not 'the future' we would be a better team with him in now over Curtin, allowing Gallop to go forward.

Thought Neale was very poor tonight. Lots of panic handballs.

Will's body language is terrible. Watched him for 5 minutes. I worry with some of our players how much they have formed bad habits, but maybe it's just a 2026 thing.

The end of the games was what we should focus on. Bring that. Freo relaxed a bit but couldn't really stop us when they tried to bring it back under control. I was saying last week we just over-do kick mark. It is looking very slow right now.

Clugga can't keep playing mid. Definition of insanity.

 

[braddsey]

Rayner

• 7 disposals at 57% DE
• 1 disposal in second half.
• Will not be dropped.

Curtin

• 7 disposals at 57% DE
• 4 disposals in second half
• 1 goal
• Will be dropped

I would drop them both, but I will say this, Curtin is 19 and in his first year, Rayner is 26 and debuted in 2018. I think Curtin gave us more tonight.

Watching the final qtr now on replay. Rayner is on screen plenty, but can’t get a clean touch. 1 disposal and 2 tackles in the 2nd half is concerning. I’m a big Cam Rayner apologist, but even i’m running out of excuses.

(Still, I’d run with him next week over Curtin).

 

[Lions Flag 2020]

Hugh isn’t fit. He literally had his hands on his hips sucking in the big ones 5 minutes into the game. The SOO injury derailed his season.

 

[braddsey]

I don’t know how they’ve been instructed - whether it’s pay particular attention when officiating lions games or it’s across the board for all teams - but it’s become a bias against us. Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, who knows. But it was jarring watching how lopsided it was officiated tonight.

Do we always get the queensland umpires? This is where bias (conscious or otherwise) can certainly come in.
VIC games would have a much higher rotation of umps.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Hugh isn’t fit. He literally had his hands on his hips sucking in the big ones 5 minutes into the game. The SOO injury derailed his season.

He got injured against the Dogs

 

[braddsey]

Change Rayner’s role. I would actually make him do an accountable job of taking a small/medium defender and nullifying him. Rayner is at his best when he causes chaos, but without accountability he fades out. In that role he would have to work hard but would reap the rewards. I reckon he could cause turnovers leading to goals if he had a very defined role with a clear focus. Accountability is everything for him.

Perhaps crazy thought, but what about pushing Rayner to the backline again? It was a very brief experiment previously but he is not producing in the front half. See if he can do the lockdown defender role.
Push Fletcher up the ground (where he looked a bit better in the last qtr).

 

[SizeMatters]

One of my mates Dunstall came out last week with the following:



Nothing has changed.

 

[SizeMatters]

I don’t know how they’ve been instructed - whether it’s pay particular attention when officiating lions games or it’s across the board for all teams - but it’s become a bias against us. Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, who knows. But it was jarring watching how lopsided it was officiated tonight.

Swanny ****ing us over to make the optics of his tenure at the Lions grander.

“Look at the rabble they’ve become since I left the helm”

 

[3KZ is Football]

He had a consistent patch of 5 or 6 games where we thought he'd arrived.

Dare I say it . McStay offers more value. Interested in how 3KZ sees that.

Only since you asked martinson.

Statistically, Rayner is a stronger footballer than McStay. That said, they are both frustrating to watch and both have benefited from playing in teams full of champions, where they have been able to bob up with the occasional cameo. Interestingly, Fagan has started using the same language to defend Rayner as he used to defend McStay. Apparently now Rayner’s role is to be a “bull” and he has had a good game if he has competed and “smashed some packs”. Nothing about disposals, tackles, goals, assists and any other established measure of performance. I am waiting for Champion Data to include “Packs Smashed” as a statistical measure. I imagine Rayner’s numbers might disappoint there too.

Rayner’s ‘show reel’ over his career, like McStay’s, is going to look impressive, but his career numbers are going to be ordinary. He is also viewed by the club as some sort of ‘marketing asset’ in a Non-Victorian market and the nexus between form and selection has been broken. If Rayner played for a Victorian Club, he would have been dropped multiple times already in his career, but since he arrived as the Number One Draft Pick at Brisbane, he has been presented as having a totemic value for the club and therefore, undroppable. This has been bad for his football, because, unlike many players, his deficiencies have remained the same since 2018. Over the same time period, how many times has Ryan Lester been dropped and who is currently more vital to our team and who has made the greater contribution to its success during the Premiership period? The question answers itself and the answer ain’t Cam.

Having said all this, he seems like a likeable guy. When I’ve seen him interact with fans at club days, he engages particularly well with children and genuinely appears to enjoy pleasing the fans. The majority of his life is going to be lived outside football and I genuinely hope he is happy and fulfilled.


“Cam Rayner over-estimates the number of disposals he will get in the second half of the Fremantle game by 100%”

 

[3KZ is Football]

Watching the final qtr now on replay. Rayner is on screen plenty, but can’t get a clean touch. 1 disposal and 2 tackles in the 2nd half is concerning. I’m a big Cam Rayner apologist, but even i’m running out of excuses.

(Still, I’d run with him next week over Curtin).

Would you play Joyce in defence and Gallop forward?

 

[Bucking Beads]

Hipwood is back in a 2 weeks. I'd say we've opted to keep Gallop down back because he's showing really good signs down there. They'll likely play Lester, Gardiner , Harris and Gallop down back when all are fit.

 

[McLuggages]

Can we please stop playing Levi on the wing?

Wingers should be elite runners, good kicks, and great defensively.

Levi is none of these things - he does zero damage, he loses his man, he doesn't take ground. He has talent but not on the wing. If he's not ready to go inside (which is fair because he's young and tiny) give him a Zac Bailey

33

Zac Bailey

Age

26

Ht

181cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.9

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

CL

0.9

3star

D

12.9

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

5.6

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.4

3star

CL

0.7

3star

D

13.4

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.8

5star

M

3.2

4star

T

2.8

5star

CL

0.6

3star

or Murphy reid extra man at stoppage role.

The number of times he gets caught playing piggy in the middle because he's late or doesn't want to defend. Enough.

 

[Happy_Neale]

Gee there’s some sad sacks in here. Talking about sending guys in for surgery, everyone is going to leave etc - haven’t you clowns learned anything about this team? It’s not over till it’s over with us and we’re 6-6 with half a season to go. Fagan knows what he’s doing and we’re every chance to get at least one home final. Anything can happen from there