Review Qualifying Final 1, 2021 - Melbourne vs. Brisbane Lions

[Lazza16]

I think there are three options all have risk.
Adams has played as a forward for the Dogs, and Payne covers in the backline
Payne, reckon with is speed and physicality he could play lead up forward type role
Ballenden

Prefer Harris more than Adams forward.....taller and not a shocking kick. Dogs a tad short in defence.

 

[MSB ROYS]

People are being very harsh on Fullerton. Yes, he is not ready, but there is so much potential in him.

Our list management is what has cost us. We did not replace Martin and have persisted with Smith after 7 years of nothing. Fullerton has been our only option as a second ruck and has been put in the role as we lack an alternative. It is hardly his fault that he is our only option to play in these massive games when he was recruited as and still is a long term project. He will be better for the experience but he needs time.

Agree Mazza44. Fullerton is a third tall who should take a few forward half rick contests only. He is still very raw and needs considerable development. I would definitely play Archie Smith this week - we have nothing to lose.

 

[Shaq attack]

If we want to maintain structure the Archie comes in and Oscar plays forward. Flipping Andrew’s or Adams forward won’t work and reeks of desperation.

my changes for next week:
OUT: McStay, Cockatoo, Gardiner
IN: Smith; Ah Chee, Lester

 

[bato]

It's quite staggering how Mathieson gets away with those shitty kicks 40m into the air that go absolutely nowhere.

Do they instruct him to do that at training? It makes no sense.

 

[jackess]

Oscar rucked 90% of the game. Can’t see any point in bringing Archie in.

 

[martinson]

Totally outplayed. As others have said, winning without McStay was always going to be a miracle. Hopefully we can regroup and play well next week, but on that performance we are no chance for the flag. Pity as I was hoping for the AFLW and AFL double! I can't help but think that not having our seconds play many competitive games for most of the last two years means that bringing new players in too risky for our coaching panel (who are risk adverse for better or worse).

Another massive issue. It's hard bringing in guys into a final that have played very little footy relatively. I'd still seriously consider Ballenden and definitely bring in Payne.

Just an observation ,when Daniher was our only effective tall why did we insist on kicking it miles in the air when under pressure on the wings . Scrubbing it closer to the ground would have at least have given us some hope.

 

[On the quiet]

Oscar rucked 90% of the game. Can’t see any point in bringing Archie in.

considering the quality of his opponent I thought Oscar was very good last night.

 

[Lazza16]

If we want to maintain structure the Archie comes in and Oscar plays forward. Flipping Andrew’s or Adams forward won’t work and reeks of desperation.

my changes for next week:
OUT: McStay, Cockatoo, Gardiner
IN: Smith; Ah Chee, Lester

Likely to play Doggies who are not confident in the ruck so no need to bring Archie in to play O forward. Following week McStay returns for prelim....business as usual.

 

[rusty08]

Harris can be a good defender when he plays BACK SHOULDER - he can spoil everything and his opponent leads him to the contests. I have said it for years... when he players back shoulder he dominates.

Every so often he gets seduced into being the Lever/Range type and plays loose and floats forward and he gets slaughtered.

He is a wonderful defender, his issue is attitudinal at times IMO. Fingers pointing, hands on hips.

And.. he is clearly injured.

Or playing on valium......

 

[martinson]

Last night is still raw and we're jumping to a lot of conclusions off the back of an ordinary performance against a very good ,fit team.

But we haven't played against one of the top teams in a while and a lot of the things we were hoping weren't a problem got shown up.

We've finished Top 4 ,2 seconds ,last 3 years so if we lose next week a 1-5 record in finals would justifiably raise a lot of questions. It's a very important game for us. As David King would annoyingly say 'for who we are as a football team'

 

[Section 5]

This game was always going to be hard to win
Once McStay went down with only 8% game time the Lions were always going to struggle.
A 33 point loss not a bad result considering
Need a more versatile sub for finals in future
Lost the game in the 2nd quarter (by 22) and held them to a 3 point loss in the 2nd half
The 2nd half was not a bad effort considering.
Things may have changed slightly if Charlie kicked a goal very late in the third. Too far out for an around corner kick. But he had a great game

Media and everyone giving Melbourne a big wrap and i think they should have won by a bigger margin. But they didn't
On the positive/negative
We had many good players way down on form and hopefully they got a reality check
I would hope and expect a better all round team effort next week at the Gabba
All is not lost, just need to find suitable replacement for McStay to free up Joe, together with a couple of other changes

 

[mpal6]

If we want to maintain structure the Archie comes in and Oscar plays forward. Flipping Andrew’s or Adams forward won’t work and reeks of desperation.

my changes for next week:
OUT: McStay, Cockatoo, Gardiner
IN: Smith; Ah Chee, Lester

I was thinking the same but against Sam Draper or Doggies midfield, we might get monstered in the middle. I don't want to move Oscar from the center with the form that he's in currently, he'll be needed more over there.

Other option will be to play Lester or Payne forward on a defensive role.

 

[mpal6]

Last night is still raw and we're jumping to a lot of conclusions off the back of an ordinary performance against a very good ,fit team.

But we haven't played against one of the top teams in a while and a lot of the things we were hoping weren't a problem got shown up.

We've finished Top 4 ,2 seconds ,last 3 years so if we lose next week a 1-5 record in finals would justifiably raise a lot of questions. It's a very important game for us. As David King would annoyingly say 'for who we are as a football team'

We are a structure based team. Once Berry got moved to play second tall, we were out of balance in terms of nullifying Oliver / Petracca. The result was kind of inevitable in my opinion, but I enjoyed the fact that we slowed it right down and even got close to 19 points going into fourth. Gave ourselves a chance, third quarter was a great fightback from us. In a weird way, it almost feels like we walked away without showing all our cards from this one due to McStay injury.

Dees could've won by more surely, they had 28 scoring shots to our 15. We would've also got them real nervous if we kicked 1 or 2 early in fourth. Let's see if we earn our way back to meeting them again in finals this year. Will be very interesting if we do.

 

[davemc_lions]

if you look who can replace McStay contest and bring the ball to ground

Ballenden not sure he offers more than Fullarton.. Better mark . Fullaron zero marks again last night
Lane and H Smith both young
McFayden more McCarthy type mid
Throw Harris or Adams forward maybe

Honestly you think Big O the better choice as someone who contests and brings ball to ground.
So do you put him forward and go Archie.. If we play the dogs they do not have a ruck now as English is forward.

 

[martinson]

One thing I would not do is play Archie against the Dogs in a final if it's them. Nor Essendon for that matter.

 

[lioninthesand]

Last night is still raw and we're jumping to a lot of conclusions off the back of an ordinary performance against a very good ,fit team.

But we haven't played against one of the top teams in a while and a lot of the things we were hoping weren't a problem got shown up.

We've finished Top 4 ,2 seconds ,last 3 years so if we lose next week a 1-5 record in finals would justifiably raise a lot of questions. It's a very important game for us. As David King would annoyingly say 'for who we are as a football team'

I am really starting to dislike next week for this reason, I think straight sets looms large and being 1-5 in finals would solidify the well known fact that - this group have an element of mental fragility on the big stage.

The only caveat I put on our record is this - up until this finals series we have lost to Richmond, GWS and The cats who all went onto be Grandfinalists.

So, if we are about the 3rd or 4th best team each year, which betting and experts suggest we are, then really we are just finishing where we we should.

If we lose next weekend, then I'll be annoyed. We would be 1-5 including 4 home loses in finals which just starts to not stack up at all.

 

[lioninthesand]

Brad Johnson

Brad Johnson

Age

47

Ht

182cm

Wt

87kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.7

5star

K

14.1

5star

HB

5.6

4star

M

5.9

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.5

5star

No current season stats available

D

12.8

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

2.6

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.2

3star

G

0.6

3star

said something last night that perfectly summarised my main observation of this group this year.

When it's on our terms, we are electric a fantastic footy team.

When it's not on our terms - we don't seem to have the will/want/capacity to turn things around.

Its either a landslide Harlem globe trotters win or we scrape a win againts a s**t team.

Or... we are challenged and we just roll over.

 

[twhowler]

Spot on about Hippy and Rayner but we're wasting our time with Cocky. He can't run anymore. That sprint to the boundary with Jake Lever was sad. The Cockatoo from Geelong days would have done Lever by 10 meters. Delist?

He’s only just got back to playing. Maybe he won’t get back the p

Probably really should have finished the year 5th because I think that is about where we sit at the moment.

With Dan going down I would strongly consider bringing Archie in to shoulder some of the load in the Ruck so Oscar can spend a bit more time forward. Just for this week until Dan is back the following week.
Probably more likely we go with Ballenden though.

We all know that Chris Fagan likes the 3 tall options in the forward line so with us running out of options maybe it is worth a gamble bringing Archie in just for the one game.

i get fagan going 3 talls when we have mcstay / joe / hippy. Maybe you can pursue that with one down. Certainly not 2. Their replacements mean we are seriously weakening the team if we still go 3 talls.
I would go:
Payne for Gardiner. Darcy looks way off.
Lester for Mcstay.
Archie for Fullarton.
Ah Chee for Cockatoo if fit.
Dev Roberston for Prior.
Forwards are Oscar / Daniher / Lester.

 

[jackess]

Brad Johnson said something last night that perfectly summarised my main observation of this group this year.

When it's on our terms, we are electric a fantastic footy team.

When it's not on our terms - we don't seem to have the will/want/capacity to turn things around.

Its either a landslide Harlem globe trotters win or we scrape a win againts a sh*t team.

Or... we are challenged and we just roll over.

I don't think that's the case I think we're just a bit slow and don't have the flexibility. Not sure if it's that different to other teams.

We did well in the first and third to grind the game out when it wasn't going our way.

 

[Suitcase]

I loved how clean Coleman was when the ball hit the deck in defence. Also looks very composed and uses the ball well. He is exactly what we need back there, great move by Fages and the coaches.

 

[martinson]

He’s only just got back to playing. Maybe he won’t get back the p

i get fagan going 3 talls when we have mcstay / joe / hippy. Maybe you can pursue that with one down. Certainly not 2. Their replacements mean we are seriously weakening the team if we still go 3 talls.
I would go:
Payne for Gardiner. Darcy looks way off.
Lester for Mcstay.
Archie for Fullarton.
Ah Chee for Cockatoo if fit.
Dev Roberston for Prior.
Forwards are Oscar / Daniher / Lester.

I get why you're saying it but a forward line of Daniher ,Oscar and Lester as your 3 talls wouldn't fuel dread in any opposition.

Oscar can probably ruck just about the whole game against the Dogs and I don't see the point of Archie. Fingers crossed Oscar doesn't go down.

I'm left with Ballenden to come in somewhere. McStay is out, Gardiner would need half a miracle to get up and Fullarton really struggled but I still think we'll stick with him. With Payne and Ballenden next cabs off the rank. Lester for Gardiner. Ah Chee /Dev for Cocky/Prior.

 

[martinson]

I don't think that's the case I think we're just a bit slow and don't have the flexibility. Not sure if it's that different to other teams.

We did well in the first and third to grind the game out when it wasn't going our way.

Agree ,we're well coached and get the most out of ourselves in H/A . In finals we need to go up a gear and the team we had in last night just didn't have it in them , some guns were well down on form, we did our best with what we had out there.

 

[Lion_LegacyXL]

We had 15 scoring shots after 4 quarters of football, we usually average that in a half.

 

[MacMum]

We have what, 40 on our list? I find it hard to believe we cannot find other good defenders from that list.

We have a good midfield and forward line, our back has let us down quite a few times this year, whether by injury or other. ....that needs to be fixed.

Over the pre season find out who might have a knack or a want to re-train as a defender. There surely would be 3-4 who might be willing to give it a go. If not we need to draft/trade for some.

If we have some spare defenders they can step in when needed, even if a bit slow or not a great kick but can tackle or punch it forward to a teammate etc....

....we need to concentrate more on our defence, big time.

 

[mpal6]

I am really starting to dislike next week for this reason, I think straight sets looms large and being 1-5 in finals would solidify the well known fact that - this group have an element of mental fragility on the big stage.

The only caveat I put on our record is this - up until this finals series we have lost to Richmond, GWS and The cats who all went onto be Grandfinalists.

So, if we are about the 3rd or 4th best team each year, which betting and experts suggest we are, then really we are just finishing where we we should.

If we lose next weekend, then I'll be annoyed. We would be 1-5 including 4 home loses in finals which just starts to not stack up at all.

I'm off the opposite view - bad loss, chance to play at home and atone for missed opportunity, we play well at Gabba usually. If we're serious, we'll win this one. The win also means we come up against Port, I like our chances against them.