Davemonkey
Strider of the middle way.
- Mar 13, 2012
- 4,199
- 5,793
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
- Other Teams
- Video games are a team aren't they?
Full disclosure: some idiot forgot to put himself into the ballot, as did his friends. I am not sure I am the right person to be writing this.
This is the almost annual festival of Blues Whacking at The Gabba (let us forget what happened at Marvel in 2019). It is also the Davemonkey Chief Cup where Chief is ritualistically whacked with a rolled up Footy Record by an excited Davemonkey every time the Lions score or the Blues do something dumb. There have been a lot of whackings in the past years. This year I will have to hit with rolled up neoprene mats from my board game collection or throw empty beer cans at him.
The game
This game promises to be a bit of a dead rubber, with Brisbane having home finals locked up and Carlton even mathematically out of the finals race. It feels like it will only go one way with a question of "how big should the margin be?" but I feel like that kind of cockiness can get us in trouble so as the coach says "we have a lot of respect for the Carlton Football Club, and they've been playing some good footy this year."
The Opposition
Except I have seen the Blues twice this year (with aforementioned whacking receiver) thanks to our unusual circumstances. I went away from the Blues/North game with a strong sense of "neither of these teams will bother us", and that was reinforced by the game against Collingwood. They can have flashes but are too reliant on the same old soldiers. I can't tell whether they remind me of the 2018 Lions (in it but not quite able to put it together, but it is coming) or the 2015 Lions (1 more season away from a coach sacking). Either way the Lions should be able to handle them.
They look best across the back line, especially with Doc's long kick (2nd biggest loss from the GH5) but they seem hopelessly disorganised going into the forward half and spill the ball as often as mark it. The Pies were able to ultimately exploit this (they were almost as bad going forward) and I can't see them handling our high pressure game. Given how solid our back 6 are I can't see this being a problem.
The one place that North were able to expose them was when they could run the ball and move it quickly. Execution let them down in the end, as well as some solid work from the Blues mids, but again, that vulnerability suits our style of play. We can open them up and if we kick straight (at least as well as last match) then it could get ugly.
The Lions
I don't foresee too many changes to be honest. I saw some optimistic Berry (in)s, but I doubt we will risk JBez before the finals. Linc may come back in but who drops out in that case, I am guessing Archie, leaving the Big O to handle the Carlton rucks with Zorks getting a few more cheeky chop outs forward
. (New rule McStay and Oscar can't be off at the same time).
CEY will be good for the run last week and he did some solid, if workmanlike efforts. I would like to see someone other than Zorks protect Neale if he is getting a hard tag, and CEY seems the best suited to play enforcer.
Lions by 30.
This is the almost annual festival of Blues Whacking at The Gabba (let us forget what happened at Marvel in 2019). It is also the Davemonkey Chief Cup where Chief is ritualistically whacked with a rolled up Footy Record by an excited Davemonkey every time the Lions score or the Blues do something dumb. There have been a lot of whackings in the past years. This year I will have to hit with rolled up neoprene mats from my board game collection or throw empty beer cans at him.
The game
This game promises to be a bit of a dead rubber, with Brisbane having home finals locked up and Carlton even mathematically out of the finals race. It feels like it will only go one way with a question of "how big should the margin be?" but I feel like that kind of cockiness can get us in trouble so as the coach says "we have a lot of respect for the Carlton Football Club, and they've been playing some good footy this year."
The Opposition
Except I have seen the Blues twice this year (with aforementioned whacking receiver) thanks to our unusual circumstances. I went away from the Blues/North game with a strong sense of "neither of these teams will bother us", and that was reinforced by the game against Collingwood. They can have flashes but are too reliant on the same old soldiers. I can't tell whether they remind me of the 2018 Lions (in it but not quite able to put it together, but it is coming) or the 2015 Lions (1 more season away from a coach sacking). Either way the Lions should be able to handle them.
They look best across the back line, especially with Doc's long kick (2nd biggest loss from the GH5) but they seem hopelessly disorganised going into the forward half and spill the ball as often as mark it. The Pies were able to ultimately exploit this (they were almost as bad going forward) and I can't see them handling our high pressure game. Given how solid our back 6 are I can't see this being a problem.
The one place that North were able to expose them was when they could run the ball and move it quickly. Execution let them down in the end, as well as some solid work from the Blues mids, but again, that vulnerability suits our style of play. We can open them up and if we kick straight (at least as well as last match) then it could get ugly.
The Lions
I don't foresee too many changes to be honest. I saw some optimistic Berry (in)s, but I doubt we will risk JBez before the finals. Linc may come back in but who drops out in that case, I am guessing Archie, leaving the Big O to handle the Carlton rucks with Zorks getting a few more cheeky chop outs forward
. (New rule McStay and Oscar can't be off at the same time).CEY will be good for the run last week and he did some solid, if workmanlike efforts. I would like to see someone other than Zorks protect Neale if he is getting a hard tag, and CEY seems the best suited to play enforcer.
Lions by 30.
