Preview North Melbourne v Brisbane Lions

[Zhesty]

IMO the umpiring was in our favour early but changed drastically in their favour after that. However, I have been reading through this thread and every second post is about the umpiring and I am sick of it. The umpiring is not the reason we lost the game. Infact North's poor kicking early was the only reason we stayed in the hunt. Yes the umpiring was terribly unfair but we Lion supporters are coming off as complete sooks. We all know the umpiring was shocking but the continual posts about it are just boring to read and add nothing to the discussion of the thread.

On the game, I thought we are really starting to show some signs for the future but still have a long way to go. If buchanon had even average skills he would be a star. Too bad his skills are shocking but I do like the intensity that he brings as a sub.

 

[greendiesel]

At the game I thought the umpires hurt us in the 1st and and slaughtered us in the 3rd.....2nd was quite balanced I thought with us maybe getting the better.
Haven't seen the Lions live since the Doggies game....but can see significant improvement. Decision making has drastically improved as have the general skills. The team was very good for 3 quarters despite Norf having more shots at goals...With good players to come back eventually and more kids to come through, the near future is very bright.
Mitch Clark behind or beside the play is very very lazy.
Someone should teach Hanley ( star-in-making ) how to zig zag or shimmy....always runs in straight lines and gets caught a lot...but if anyone wants this bloke dropped they should book in for a lobotomy post haste.

 

[Football Pope]

What rule have I broken? I am referring to the umpiring standard in a football match. I am not trolling either, I genuinely believe we were badly shafted in the first half.



I suppose I should be pleased that you at least acknowledge that much.

Yeah..I guess... every little bit of acknowlegement helps you and your Clubs plight for existence!... So go for it!..

 

[Mooch]

Read into what you want mate!

Hanley's mistakes were because he was taking the game on. Apart from the couple of times he got caught with the footy i thought he had a really good game as a running half back flanker. At times both he and McGrath streamed through the midfield and we looked fantastic.

You're over-simplifying it. Yes each time Hanley got caught was when he was trying to "take the game on" but half the time he just made a bad decision. Like bouncing the ball after three steps with a defender on his tail. Bad decision. I like Hanley a lot but he deserves some criticism for this game and hopefully the coaching staff can use that to coach him through the week, so he is better next week.

To blindly say "don't worry about the ****-ups because he was trying to take the game on" is crazy to be honest.

 

[Daz]

That was some of the worst umpiring I've ever seen. You blokes were unlucky that so many of those decisions happened around goal. Here are the goals for what it's worth. I haven't counted how many poor decisions there were but I'm sure one of you will want to.

[YOUTUBE]iTYYaueTBnY[/YOUTUBE]

Oh and please card Teffy. I'm begging you.

 

[Dylan12]

The umpiring is not the reason we lost the game. Infact North's poor kicking early was the only reason we stayed in the hunt. Yes the umpiring was terribly unfair but we Lion supporters are coming off as complete sooks.

To be fair, most Lions posters when criticising the umps have qualified that North would have won regardless and not used the umps as an excuse as to why we lost...well I don't recall reading one and most have acknoweldged our deficiencies as being a big problem of our inability to win.

 

[Last of the Roys]

As others have said, you can't fault Goose's endeavour, however the concern I have for Goose is that forwards are different beast to years gone by. Across the whole league, his best match-up is probably Browny, but besides that, key forwards these days are fast and cover a lot of ground. Goose is very good in one on one contests, but I have come to realise over the last week is that he is only best suited to a certain type of opposition, which there aren't a lot of. Would still keep him for one more year as a back-up.

That is my thought exactly. He can only play on a slow forward that tries to win body contests because that is Maguire's one remaining strength. That hardly happens these days due to the drastic changes to the rules re hands in the back, and the incredibly fast nature of the game.

IMO it is looking more and more likely he will be delisted at the end of the year. I would bring in Collier for the last five games and give him an opportunity to show he may make something of himself as a permanent back. His height isn't a problem - same as Maguire's. Surely he is faster than Maguire. He is more attacking and his skill level is about the same although he can occasionally make some absolute shocking clangers. The one area where he would clearly lose out to Maguire is body on body contests (Collier 86kg vs. Maguire at 100kg). It may be too tough an ask, but we need to find out.

Time to look to the future.

 

[acuguy]

You're over-simplifying it. Yes each time Hanley got caught was when he was trying to "take the game on" but half the time he just made a bad decision. Like bouncing the ball after three steps with a defender on his tail. Bad decision. I like Hanley a lot but he deserves some criticism for this game and hopefully the coaching staff can use that to coach him through the week, so he is better next week.

To blindly say "don't worry about the ****-ups because he was trying to take the game on" is crazy to be honest.

The times he tried to take the game on and got caught were on the TV the right options. We want our running players to break the 50metre arc and have shots at goal rather than short passing to 50/50 forward contests. It is hard to judge on tv but when Hanley was run down i cannot remember seeing anyone tearing past him for the handpass etc etc.

The only valid teaching point is the don't bounce after 3 steps but as correctly called by the commentary team it is probably a natural instinct thing after spending your life playing gaelic football.

But i stand by my judgement that if our players are making mistakes taking the game within their ability range then i am happy for them to do so.

Hanley has stated he wants to play midfield, we need midfied goal kickers who can carry the ball and break the 50metre arc. He can do this, i say carry on Pearce!

 

[Judge]

. The one area where he would clearly lose out to Maguire is body on body contests (Collier 86kg vs. Maguire at 100kg). It may be too tough an ask, but we need to find out.

Time to look to the future.

I'd be prepared to bet Collier is closer to 96kg than 86kg.

We had Tom at training a couple of weeks ago (for the Under 9 team I coach), and standing next to him and doing some drills he is much taller and heavier than I am (183cm, 88kg). Nice bloke as well.

Tom can drive us all to distraction at times, but I still see some promise in him and agree that he should be given the rest of the season in the seniors to allow a decision to be made on him. Hopefully he can justify his retention (sorry 3KZ), it's not like we are well stocked with talls.

 

[Ceebee]

98.9 talking about the umpiring in yesterdays game now.
Not impressed.

 

[GingerGreatness]

Those that asked for a 'package' of yesterday's rubbish - have posted what i could nail together (bit of a rush job) in the 'complaint' thread.

 

[jackess]

Anyone from North thinking that the umpiring decisions went against them need to look at the scores when Patfull and Black were incorrectly called for HTB. Both of which resulted in goals.

 

[Grimreepah]

But, if you dive into the contest and end up on top of the ball the interpretation is you MUST get the ball out or it is a free, even if you have had no prior opportunity and made an attempt.

I wouldn't say he 'dived' into the contest. He gathered the ball and than was tackled to the ground.

 

[Last of the Roys]

No point arguing with the stupidity of some posters Grim

As an aside, in contrast to what was suggested by a North supporter, I am now certain that Out of bounds on the full free kicks are not countered in the official champion data free kick count tallies as used by the AFL and the Herald Sun. Banfield kicked 3 out of bounds on the full and was not awarded any free kicks against - OOF now just goes down as a clanger as opposed to how it was recorded 20 years ago.

Some other interesting stats from the Herald Sun
- North had 19 scoring shots to our 12 from stoppages
- they also had 17 scoring shots to our 8 from turn overs
- we actually won the kick-in scoring shots 3 to 2 I think

 

[Dylan12]

Was just looking at the stats before and disappointed to see that our three tall defenders had stats of Maguire (3), Patfull (4) and McKeever (7).

I must say those stats weren't noticeble whilst at the game and a bit has already been spoken of Maguire, but what on earth has happened to Patfull recently? He is definitely an integral part of our side, but he used to provide so much rebound and attacking forays in years gone by and we rarely see it these days, maybe it has something to do with the absence of Merrett and the added responsibility.

 

[luthor]

, but what on earth has happened to Patfull recently? He is definitely an integral part of our side, but he used to provide so much rebound and attacking forays in years gone by and we rarely see it these days, maybe it has something to do with the absence of Merrett and the added responsibility.

Criticism of Patfull is a little unfair, I think.

We haven't had a settled back six all year.

First Staker went down in Round 1, then both Drummond and Adcock had injury issues and to cap it all off, we lost our number one defender in Merrett.

We have even had to shuffle McGrath in and out of the forward line, sometimes in desperation to find another scoring option.

Just about the only constant has been Patfull himself and maybe Hanley....and, apart from the fact that Pearce is more geared to the rebound style of play, Hanley is still learning how to play the game!

Little wonder the poor bugger hasn't had too much time to do anything else than to try to shore up a much beleaguered defense.

 

[GingerGreatness]

Just a couple of highlights.

[youtube]35yjCjjJ7V8[/youtube]

[youtube]COjf4JRo5bo[/youtube]