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- Aug 12, 2016
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Round 1 Preview – Saturday 19 March 7.10 pm(AEST) Gabba
Brisbane Lions v Port Adelaide
Footy is back! Will be great to have crowds in Melbourne again and hopefully footy will be back to some form of normality.
Looking forward to the start of another Season full of optimism after the third season in a row with top 4 finishes in 2021 for the Lions. Unfortunately falling out of the finals in dramatic style by 1 point against eventual Grand Final runners up to an umpire aided Western Bulldogs in front of a ropeable Brisbane Crowd at the Gabba, can still remember the boooos at the umpires after the game and I honestly think they were scared to walk from the ground.
Port Adelaide would also be reasonably confident coming into the year with a couple of finals seasons under their belt. Although with a bit of trepidation after a Preliminary Final defeat to the Western Bulldogs where they were smashed through the middle of the ground and effectively all over the park with a bruising 6-9-45 to 17-14-116 defeat.
Injury lists – Lions will be coming in with only 2 missing from what many consider to be their best 22 with Eric Hipwood (knee) and Kiddy Coleman (hamstring) both unavailable. Dayne Zorko should be available but will be a little under done with an ongoing Achilles issue which hopefully will now be resolved after an op last month.
For Port, Charlie Dixon (ankle) will likely be unavailable, Orazio Fantasia (knee) will also be unavailable after recent surgery. After coming up sore after the game against the Crows last week, Tom Clurey has gone in for surgery and will miss the start of the season. Robbie Gray is expected to be ok after pulling up sore with Hamstring awareness during the game against the Crows.
Last time we met – Round 7 at the Gabba with the Lions the victors 13-15-93 to 5-14-44.
Highlights of that game -
We have had a pretty good run of late against Port with wins in 4 of the last five.
New Interpretations - It will be interesting to see how the season pans out with the new interpretations to rules with holding the ball and umpire abuse.
1 of our culprits Zorko, hasn’t yet played an official game with the new interpretations so will have to learn to hold his tongue quickly and Mitch Robbo ofcourse.
Pre Season Form – The Lions have had 2 wins against Crows and the Bulldogs.
Against the crows it was a low contact hitout but a good game to blow out some cobwebs to get the season underway.
And against the Bulldogs it was a bit more of a physical hit out similar to the intensity of an in season game. And the Lions had a good solid first half and holding on for a win in the second half.
And Port had a slow starting effort against Gold Coast but coming good in the second half but untimately going down in a rusty performance. And a win against Adelaide in windy conditions but similar to the game against GC they were slow out of the blocks but had a good second half to come away with a comfortable win.
As for this year, I think the Lions have come into the year with an extra focus on starting the year off well and are much fitter as a result. Lachie Neale looks back to his best and running better than I have ever seen him this pre-season and with some renewed vigour after off season turmoil and talk of a switch back to Freo. Another full pre-season into Daniher and Cockatoo who looks so much fitter and stronger and all round, Answerth and Berry finally with a good run without injury, the team looks a little leaner and fitter than the beginning of last year and therefore will hopefully hit the ground running and start the season well after a couple of slow starts the last couple of years.
A quick look on the Port Board And according to most they have already lost this game and not many think they stand much of a chance. In fact one thinks that Hipwood will kick 5. HaHaHa.
On that, we are without Hipwood in this game and he does usually play well against Port so we will miss him in this game.
And of course the Sack Hinkley claims have begun.
Now to the game – So with Dixon out I would assume they will play all 3 of Finlayson, Georgiades and Marshall in their forward line, so I think we will have them covered there with our three talls in Harris, Gardiner and Adams but it is at the other end of the ground where it gets interesting with us likely to play Daniher, McStay and a resting ruckman (rotating x 2) and Port missing Clurey there will be a bit of a miss match in height in our forward line and that is where we could take advantage as we usually tend to do against them.
If we can get on top of them in the middle of the ground and get the ball forward quickly then we can take advantage of the miss match up forward and score quickly. And hopefully take Allir’s intercept marking out of the game because he will have to man up on someone.
The midfield battle will be a good one with each team boasting one of the last 2 Brownlow medallists in Neale and Wines, and Lyons and Boak. And then with the support staff of Zorko, Bailey, Berry, McCluggage, Robbo, Rayner, Cockatoo opposed to Butters, SPP, Duursma, Drew, Amon and Rozee. I think we just bat a little deeper in there and should get the better of them as the night roles on.
The other battle that I am keen to see for us is in the Ruck to see how the O’Mac and Fort combo go, Lycett is apparently struggling with a bit of back issue and if he plays, will they bring Hayes in for back up?
In short I think the Lions are primed for this one and are keen to get off to a good start to the season. Cant wait to get back to the Gabba.
Starting 22 for me:
B: Gardiner, Adams, Starcevich
HB: Answerth, Andrews, Rich
C: Robinson, Bailey, McCluggage
HF: Zorko, McStay, McCarthy
F: Cameron, Daniher, Rayner
R: O’Mac, Neale, Lyons
I: Berry, Fort, Cockatoo, Madden
Sub: AhChee (toss up between AhChee and Madden for the 7th defender).
Next in line:
Dev, Prior, Lester, Wilmot (suspended) Sharp, Payne, Fullarton.
Lions by 46
Odds: Lions $ 1.51 Port $ 2.58
Enjoy the game and gamble responsibly.
