Coach Fages and the coaching group

[Grasshopper17]

I was very surprised Chris Scott didn't go for one more move in the Grand Final. Disrupting Harris Andrews. He played Neale on him again which was really weird considering Neale has been consistently beaten by Chief and still hasn't figured out how to play him.

Melksham showed a template of how to annoy Harris and make him lose focus. Taking Harris out by playing say Jack Martin or someone who has the leap to jump on him and sit on his head would've brought a different challenge to our defense. I was so paranoid of another coaching group replicating this Melksham move that I religiously didn't even bring it up in a single bigfooty post up until now.

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

 

[Section 5]

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

Maybe
That's the luxury of having Will, Neale, McCluggage, Bailey, Rayner, Levi.
Then we still have Dunkley who they won't tag and possibly Annabel.
This is on the assumption they leave Fletcher, Wilmott and Zorko in defense.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

Maybe just an issue with having a front running midfield. Similar to us but sometimes a tagger can throw out the mix. Especially with a dud ruck

Stanley rucking and Clark playing in the backline instead of Bews cost them big time

Jhye Clark coughed up half the goals in the first 3 quarters and it was an all timer clanger to bring Stanley in and waste blicavs. Could've at least played him on Harris

 

[Dalions]

Maybe just an issue with having a front running midfield. Similar to us but sometimes a tagger can throw out the mix. Especially with a dud ruck

Stanley rucking and Clark playing in the backline instead of Bews cost them big time

Jhye Clark coughed up half the goals in the first 3 quarters and it was an all timer clanger to bring Stanley in and waste blicavs. Could've at least played him on Harris

Stewart was a big loss for them as he usually tears us a new one.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Stewart was a big loss for them as he usually tears us a new one.

I think he’s usually below his best against us but we were able to exploit Clark and Stanley. Stewart would have been a big upgrade on either

 

[Dalions]

I think he’s usually below his best against us but we were able to exploit Clark and Stanley. Stewart would have been a big upgrade on either

Stewart is always one of their best against us, in the Prelim last year without him and Henry keeping them in the game we would have smashed them.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Stewart is always one of their best against us, in the Prelim last year without him and Henry keeping them in the game we would have smashed them.

He has played 11 games against us

 

[rye]

Yeah I thought he might have had someone paying closer attention to Will Ashcroft as well. Reckon that will be something Will has to get used to more regularly in 2026.

geelong were already using 2 stoppers in mullin and o'connor. clark was playing small defender so maybe its unfair to count him in the same category, but he was assigned an almost entirely negative role as well. when you start getting into 3-4+ pure negating players in your team you are carrying too many players who contribute little to nothing to your own gameplan imo and suffer as a result.

will also has the benefit that neale and mccluggage are higher priority tag targets than him for the time being.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Interesting interview with Phil Smyth. Most of the Lions stuff is later on

 

[Mr Ripper]

Interesting interview with Phil Smyth. Most of the Lions stuff is later on

Soders, too, has a deep connection to the Lions.

 

[morsie]

Soders, too, has a deep connection to the Lions.View attachment 2497181

Mark Bunn and Stephen Paxman for the Lions.Hope they weren't ringers

 

[010203]

Great story about Fages in the Q Weekend magazine, which is also available to read via the Courier Mail and Herald Sun websites.

 

[Maboo]

Great story about Fages in the Q Weekend magazine, which is also available to read via the Courier Mail and Herald Sun websites.

It makes a nice change from the constant regurgitation of the unimaginable betrayal.

 

[Ceebee]

It makes a nice change from the constant regurgitation of the unimaginable betrayal.

Lachie and Jules were still part of the story .

 

[Maboo]

Lachie and Jules were still part of the story .

Haha, I must be so used to reading about it, it just didn't register, even though their name is in the headline. Ok looking back back it was a stupid comment.

 

[Perrip]

Haha, I must be so used to reading about it, it just didn't register, even though their name is in the headline. Ok looking back back it was a stupid comment.

Tbf, it's like 1 paragraph of the article. Good insight from Fages into the club response to the situation and his thoughts on it.

And this year, the man who was unsure whether he should even take the job a decade ago will attempt to propel the Lions to a historic premiership three-peat despite the turbulence and distraction of midfielder Lachie Neale’s public marriage breakdown.
When the news broke, Fagan and footy manager Danny Daly spent a considerable chunk of their three-week Christmas break speaking on a daily basis with each other, Neale, his management and family, as well as player leaders, club executives and the AFL about their approach.
The welfare of Lachie, his wife Jules and their two children had to come first, but ultimately the Lions hope the dual Brownlow Medallist can learn from his mistake after admitting he had “let my family down”.
“We are like a family, really,” Fagan says from the club’s pre-season camp at Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.
“Every now and then one of your kids might not go down the right pathway and you have got to help them through it. And that is what we do with any of our players who may run into any issues in their lives.
“Down the track, you hope this is something Lachie can really learn from.
“But we really feel for everyone involved. Jules, too. Both sides of the situation.”

 

[Section 5]

I will put this video here.
He mentions this "Hey Guys! I had to heavily edit the video content in this one due to copyright. I hope you can still follow along ok but it makes for a clunky edit."

It is an opinion on the Lions ball movement.
Posted 6 days ago even though he uses the Freemantle game as an example
Interesting enough