2021 Lions Off-season

[Section 5]

This article from the AFL site a couple of days ago asked 8 people their predictions
The part regarding Premiers and ladder finish for 2021 listed below.

1 x Premiers
3 x Runners up
1 x4th
2 x5th
1 x8th Cal Twomey

Don't think the Lions are flying below the radar

If you are good enough i think you can win the Premiership from 6th position if the bye round at end of season stays
Top 4 is better of course.

Crystal Ball: Our predictions for the 2021 AFL season are in

Premiership, Brownlow, recruit of the year. We make the call

www.afl.com.au

 

[Ralphy2017]

This article from the AFL site a couple of days ago asked 8 people their predictions
The part regarding Premiers and ladder finish for 2021 listed below.

1 x Premiers
3 x Runners up
1 x4th
2 x5th
1 x8th Cal Twomey

Don't think the Lions are flying below the radar

If you are good enough i think you can win the Premiership from 6th position if the bye round at end of season stays
Top 4 is better of course.

Crystal Ball: Our predictions for the 2021 AFL season are in

Premiership, Brownlow, recruit of the year. We make the call

www.afl.com.au

Be interesting to compare those above predictions with some of the AFL Fox presenters, not that I have any respect for David King, just think he seeks a headline. As mentioned by a couple poster, Lions got virtually no mention last night by Lyons, Riewoldt, Brown, Healy as contenders for 2021. They seemed keen on Port as one of the main challengers and Richmond as the team to beat. Still if we are flying just below the radar for a young team that is fine with me.

 

[Dylan12]

Credit to Linc to get himself added to the leadership group.

Dan is a favourite of mine so goes without saying how highly I rate him.

 

[martinson]

Credit to Linc to get himself added to the leadership group.

Dan is a favourite of mine so goes without saying how highly I rate him.

McCarthy has been perennially underrated so good to see the recognition he has within the club. Maybe those who call for him to be dropped every time he doesn't show up on the stats sheet will drop off ,hopefully.

Ultimate team player who is still improving now that he's strung a couple of seasons together.

 

[Quigley]

McCarthy did a lot of work with the midfield in the practice games. With Rayner going down his time in there probably goes up when the season starts.

 

[jackess]

Zorko said on the podcast pre Rayners injury he was set to play about 80% game time: 70 forward and 10 midfield but would spend more time in the midfield.

Matho will probably come in and spend at least as many minutes in the midfield as Rayner would have and not much will change IMO

 

[Dalions]

Zorko said on the podcast pre Rayners injury he was set to play about 80% game time: 70 forward and 10 midfield but would spend more time in the midfield.

Matho will probably come in and spend at least as many minutes in the midfield as Rayner would have and not much will change IMO

I will admit that Matho has been a bit of a standout in a couple of the intraclubs this pre-season.
Unfortunately we didn’t really get to see him in the games against GC.
The first one that he played was a low pressure game so a bit hard to tell.
But he apparently played pretty well in the VFL scratchy.

 

[Dalions]

 

[jackess]

I will admit that Matho has been a bit of a standout in a couple of the intraclubs this pre-season.
Unfortunately we didn’t really get to see him in the games against GC.
The first one that he played was a low pressure game so a bit hard to tell.
But he apparently played pretty well in the VFL scratchy.

If Rayner was earmarked to play mostly as an inside mid I'd suspect Matho or CEY will get first crack

 

[Dalions]

If Rayner was earmarked to play mostly as an inside mid I'd suspect Matho or CEY will get first crack

Matho offers more than CEY if you ask me.

 

[jackess]

Matho offers more than CEY if you ask me.

I think his weakness are less likely to be exploited than CEY. Hopefully he's been working closely with Neale and picked up a few things from him

 

[Dalions]

I think his weakness are less likely to be exploited than CEY. Hopefully he's been working closely with Neale and picked up a few things from him

If Matho makes the round 1 team?
It is a really good opportunity for him to play a fair chunk of games and cement himself a contract for next year.
If he only plays the first month of the comp and then finds himself being replaced by one of the younger boys, things are looking grim.

 

[briztoon]

If Matho makes the round 1 team?
It is a really good opportunity for him to play a fair chunk of games and cement himself a contract for next year.
If he only plays the first month of the comp and then finds himself being replaced by one of the younger boys, things are looking grim.

Honestly, I’ll be more concerned if Mathieson isn’t replaced by one of the younger second or third year players.

 

[jackess]

So who do we select as the sub?

Someone flexible would be good or do we make sure we're covered for the player we can least afford to lose eg. Oscar or Harris?

 

[Dalions]

So who do we select as the sub?

Someone flexible would be good or do we make sure we're covered for the player we can least afford to lose eg. Oscar or Harris?

Once Dizz is back, it would be Lester for me.

 

[M Malice]

So who do we select as the sub?

Someone flexible would be good or do we make sure we're covered for the player we can least afford to lose eg. Oscar or Harris?

As long as it's not the same bloke more than a couple of weeks in a row.. unless the schedules line up and he can get some reserves games in to keep the match fitness up.

 

[jackess]

Once Dizz is back, it would be Lester for me.

Do we specifically train Lester to cover multiple positions?

If Oscar was to go down have Lester forward with Fullarton or McStay rucking with Daniher
Neale or Lyons go down then Lester plays midfield/forward or replaces Ah Chee who goes to the wing and Robbo/Clug play more onball

 

[chopperduck]

McCarthy did a lot of work with the midfield in the practice games. With Rayner going down his time in there probably goes up when the season starts.

Can easily see him and Charlie playing more minutes. They seem very keen to get more people in the midfield, to help with the limited rotations.

 

[Dylan12]

As long as it's not the same bloke more than a couple of weeks in a row.. unless the schedules line up and he can get some reserves games in to keep the match fitness up.

Agreed.

No doubt the club would have the data, but it would be interesting doing a retrospective over say the last three years to understand how many times the Lions would've triggered the sub had this rule existed during that time.

I guess one way of looking at it is that we've always brought one of the emergencies on the road with us that do the warm up and then go sit in the stand in their sivvies. I guess now they'll just stay in their gear.

In typing that, I now have two other points / questions:

1. I assume now we'll have to bring an extra emergency on the road (two instead of one) in case a player doesn't get up so then we can fulfil the sub as I'm sure you couldn't roll the dice on that player that didn't get up still being the sub (obviously this in of itself will mean our VFL team will be further impacted); and

2. does the sub i.e. .23rd player, that doesn't play get credited with "playing" the game in his games played or does that only occur when he is subbed on due to a teammate coming off with concussion? Obviously when the sub rule was used for those few years the 'sub' was credited with a game (rightly so) even if only playing half a quarter.

 

[Tom14]

Agreed.

No doubt the club would have the data, but it would be interesting doing a retrospective over say the last three years to understand how many times the Lions would've triggered the sub had this rule existed during that time.

I guess one way of looking at it is that we've always brought one of the emergencies on the road with us that do the warm up and then go sit in the stand in their sivvies. I guess now they'll just stay in their gear.

In typing that, I now have two other points / questions:

1. I assume now we'll have to bring an extra emergency on the road (two instead of one) in case a player doesn't get up so then we can fulfil the sub as I'm sure you couldn't roll the dice on that player that didn't get up still being the sub (obviously this in of itself will mean our VFL team will be further impacted); and

2. does the sub i.e. .23rd player, that doesn't play get credited with "playing" the game in his games played or does that only occur when he is subbed on due to a teammate coming off with concussion? Obviously when the sub rule was used for those few years the 'sub' was credited with a game (rightly so) even if only playing half a quarter.

Per reports they get credited even if they don't get subbed on.

 

[Dalions]

Agreed.

No doubt the club would have the data, but it would be interesting doing a retrospective over say the last three years to understand how many times the Lions would've triggered the sub had this rule existed during that time.

I guess one way of looking at it is that we've always brought one of the emergencies on the road with us that do the warm up and then go sit in the stand in their sivvies. I guess now they'll just stay in their gear.

In typing that, I now have two other points / questions:

1. I assume now we'll have to bring an extra emergency on the road (two instead of one) in case a player doesn't get up so then we can fulfil the sub as I'm sure you couldn't roll the dice on that player that didn't get up still being the sub (obviously this in of itself will mean our VFL team will be further impacted); and

2. does the sub i.e. .23rd player, that doesn't play get credited with "playing" the game in his games played or does that only occur when he is subbed on due to a teammate coming off with concussion? Obviously when the sub rule was used for those few years the 'sub' was credited with a game (rightly so) even if only playing half a quarter.

Hopefully on some occasions the VFL team will travel to Melbourne on the same weekend so we will have a solid choice of players to use as the sub.

 

[Dylan12]

Per reports they get credited even if they don't get subbed on.

Just read that here, along with other pertinent info:

The medical sub will also be permitted to participate in another match in another competition, such as a state league game, in the equivalent round, regardless of whether they were activated during the AFL match.

It’s also understood fluoro green and red vests, which sub and ‘subbed’ players from 2011 to 2015, won’t be used, with the medical sub to instead remain in a club tracksuit and sit at the back of the interchange bench during games.

Even if they remain 'unactivated' for a whole match, the medical sub will still have a game added to their AFL career tally and receive a premiership medallion on Grand Final day should their team be successful.

I'm glad an 'activated' player will be able to still play in the VFL.

In regards to the bolded, it is a tad farcical in some respects that a player, lets say Harry Sharp, could "play" or be credited with his first game(s) without actually playing or even still, say a Rhys Mathieson could "play" his 50th (or any other milestone) game, again without actually playing.

Personally, I think a player should only be credited with a game when they actually play a game.

 

[Dalions]

Personally, I think a player should only be credited with a game when they actually play a game.

Talk about gifting a player a game.

 

[dlanod]

In regards to the bolded, it is a tad farcical in some respects that a player, lets say Harry Sharp, could "play" or be credited with his first game(s) without actually playing or even still, say a Rhys Mathieson could "play" his 50th (or any other milestone) game, again without actually playing.

The former is absolutely going to happen to someone this year I reckon, unless coaches are specifically conscientious about avoiding it. That'd be ridiculous.

 

[Dylan12]

The former is absolutely going to happen to someone this year I reckon, unless coaches are specifically conscientious about avoiding it. That'd be ridiculous.

I reckon responsible clubs like ours will ensure it doesn't happen, but I'm even having a hard time with the fact that players are going to have games added to their tally when they aren't actually playing as it just isn't a true reflection of how much they may have "played".