Review Round 11, 2025 - Hawthorn vs. Brisbane Lions

[bungalow_bill]

Out of all the players on our list, Clugg is the least underrated in my view. Top 3 automatic pick every week and severly hinders our game if he's not playing. Not sure people would agree with your underrated comment on Hughie.

Quite a few neutrals have him in their AA team as well. Perhaps underrated in the sense that if he played for a Big V club he would be talked about a lot more.. think Bont,Danger etc

 

[bungalow_bill]

Some random thoughts:

Credit where credit is due - the coaching staff could have taken what might have been seen to be the easier option, and drop Fort off the back of Gawn's dominance last week. I don't think any of us would have thought twice if that was the case.
Instead, they gave O an extra week (at least), and backed Fort in, against a pretty good ruckman fresh from a week off.

Fort repaid them in spades. I also thought he coped better with the speed of the game this week, too (not nearly as many hack kick forwards).

Hopefully Cameron realises he does still have "it".

Good to see Lohmann reading the play in the last and getting to the drop of the ball - he has to be better for the run, surely......

Payne monstering Gunston was reminiscent of Joel Smith owning JG at the 'G a few years ago (if only for a qtr or so in that particular game). JG was completely out of tricks yesterday, and Payne looks super confident at the moment. Let's hope he stays fit for the whole season, and gets into A-A discussions (which he's absolutely capable of).

Watching it live, I felt we covered their spread really well, and forced them wide as a consequence. No doubt that was a coaching directive, and played into our hands beautifully.

Best four qtr game this season from Ah Chee - hopefully he can keep something like that up for the second half of the year. Rayner too had his moments - those last quarter misses would have been the icing on the cake (for a relatively low disposal game).

Loving watching Bailey at the moment - he himself may not be a 4 qtr player week in, week out, either, but seeing him have the confidence to spin, fend off, and even tackle better, suggests to me he has confidence back in his body (ankle), and he's proving a handful for opposition sides. No wonder Tas have (perhaps tongue in cheek) circled his name........

My only nagging doubt is whether we've let "playing on emotion" creep in a bit over the past few weeks (that I seem to recall David Noble mentioning a few years ago). We get up against Nth/Mel, and should have gone on with both of them, but we switched off as if we had nothing to play for. We did have a point to prove against Hawthorn (bogey team, we're on the rebound, etc), and low and behold, we win, and win well.

Whilst I fully expect us to account for Essendon, I hope we don't get "up" for the teams we feel we have a point to prove against, and drop our bundle when we come up against "lesser" teams.

Payne is in God mode at the moment. Jack Reacher with speed. Quite possibly our most important player right now, or at least on par with Neale & McCluggage.

 

[bungalow_bill]

Downloaded the match replay from the AFL site and there are all sorts of weird things going on sound wise. The best was just after half time, there was a black screen and some general chatter going on topped off by Gary Lyon muttering 'what the **** is this?'

 

[GenericUsername202]

Leading into the game, I was listening to a podcast (it was either Browny's, Buddy and Shane or the Roar Deal) I can't recall which one but it was about how the umpires do not like being taken for fools and that it would eventually come back to bite the Hawks in the arse when legitimate ones are 'missed' because the umpire won't call them out of fear of being taken advantage of.

Everyone in the media was saying this as well, even I mentioned it last week. Hawthorn have played themselves in a hole by drawing free kicks, because now a lot of genuine ones will be ignored, because the automatic assumption of the umpire would be that the hawthorn player ducked into it.

 

[Coastal Lion]

Well it's taken a while to get to this, been busy getting egg off my face!

I thought the poor form / bad habits we had would take a little while to work through if we could. That was bloody impressive. As old man fages says had to win the game more than once too.

THE GOOD

Payne - poor last week, excellent this week. Starting to back himself and go for the ball leaving his opponent behind. Just need him to make his bad games better - when he is off it really seems to affect his confidence

Hipwood - he was just so selfless even though he didn't kick a goal. 3 goal assists! most on the field. just kept feeding out perfect handballs. Throws himself in to every contest.

Lohmann - he was second with 2 goal assists. thought he got back to reading the game. also lowered his eyes really well. he is quite a good field kick, can keep it low and get it to forwards fast

pressure! more of that please

coaching - we came with a plan to stop conceding high frees vs hawks and did it really well

Noah - excellent job on Watson. I was critical of him last week. But have also said before when he came in to the side last year we looked instantly better

Fages - again i think he misses a few things, use of sub eg! but what a great man-manager he is. calm. the fact the players wanted to win a coach milestone game so much says it all. and he didn't break any kfc banners!

Mcg form - starting to think this might be our best stadium

You melbourne fans - loved the noise coming through. going to book tickets at that lions end vs the pies.

Fort - excellent game. as others have said pace of the game seemed to be something he adjusted to

Charlie in form - i still wonder where he is at in his career arc. but can also see why fages sticks with him. would not go well in the 2s would he

THE (POTENTIALLY) BAD

I am just a watch on this. Hoping that we can start bringing more effort in the less hyped game as the season goes. Mind you we don't have a lot of them. which goes to...

Our draw is quite touch for the rest of the year. Compare it to geelong's in particular. they have essendon and richmond twice for the rest of the year! The points dropped to north and the dees will likely cost us top two as at the pies have a decent draw too. still as long as we can finish top 4 we should be battle hardened and a loss in week one of the finals is not always a disaster is it?

Hawthorn's form - this was a really good win. But in hindsight the hawks haven't beaten a lot. Want to see what we roll out vs crows / giants / cats before the bye to see how we are traveling

THE (KIND OF) UGLY

Zorko has been phenomenal but want him to A clean up some of the turnovers and B stop going for goal from 50m. ONce last week and once vs melbourne he just bombed away and got nowhere near it. On point A it's not a huge recalibration, just pulling the risk profile back 5%. maybe i am being fussy!

If your got a head like a smashed mudcrab like myself leave the egg...I hear you on Zorko but his aggressiveness when kicking in and general play sets up so much for us always going to be a few that get picked off i personally can live with it.

 

[Coastal Lion]

topped off by Gary Lyon muttering 'what the **** is this?'

Wtf is this...I think it was Dunstals door dash delivery which consists of 3 x LG Big Mac meals

 

[twhowler]

If your got a head like a smashed mudcrab like myself leave the egg...I hear you on Zorko but his aggressiveness when kicking in and general play sets up so much for us always going to be a few that get picked off i personally can live with it.

Yeah i guess it's hard to tell Zorks to ease off a bit. Maybe he is an all or nothing type player. The OOF didn't bother me that was a skill error. It's more the outrageous attempts he makes when seem like a 5% chance

THAT SAID sometimes when we have nobody having a crack at running for the risky pass, i think he tries one almost to send a message - hey guys give me some options cause otherwise i will kick it to the oppo

still standby he needs to lower his eyes in to 50. that goal vs sydney got him carried away perhaps...

 

[Ceebee]

My son just tried to get 4 tickets to the Giants game , ridiculous high prices , does anyone know why they would be so much more expensive than usual as in $99 to $150 .

 

[dlanod]

My son just tried to get 4 tickets to the Giants game , ridiculous high prices , does anyone know why they would be so much more expensive than usual as in $99 to $150 .

They need to gouge everyone while they can before the new stadium comes online.

 

[martinson]

Yeah i guess it's hard to tell Zorks to ease off a bit. Maybe he is an all or nothing type player. The OOF didn't bother me that was a skill error. It's more the outrageous attempts he makes when seem like a 5% chance

THAT SAID sometimes when we have nobody having a crack at running for the risky pass, i think he tries one almost to send a message - hey guys give me some options cause otherwise i will kick it to the oppo

still standby he needs to lower his eyes in to 50. that goal vs sydney got him carried away perhaps...

The way Zorks has been charging into the fray desperate to give us some run and a lift when the game's at its most intense has been something to behold the last 18 months.

Don't see many 26 year old's doing anything like that let alone a 36 year old.

 

[GenericUsername202]

My son just tried to get 4 tickets to the Giants game , ridiculous high prices , does anyone know why they would be so much more expensive than usual as in $99 to $150 .

GWS bring next to no fans, so it's a little surprising the club wouldn't prioritise a sell out over profits.

 

[Ceebee]

GWS bring next to no fans, so it's a little surprising the club wouldn't prioritise a sell out over profits.

Yes it seems strange , my grandson is going to the Essendon game with an Essendon member and it’s $70 .

My son and his mate went to the Eagles game and they were $45 and good seats .

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Yes it seems strange , my grandson is going to the Essendon game with an Essendon member and it’s $70 .

My son and his mate went to the Eagles game and they were $45 and good seats .

Tickets were over $200 for the geelong game pre cyclone. Near the 50 nothing special about the seats

 

[Section 5]

Yes it seems strange , my grandson is going to the Essendon game with an Essendon member and it’s $70 .

My son and his mate went to the Eagles game and they were $45 and good seats .

A lot more tickets available for the Essendon game Thursday night.
Not that anything is cheap for that game either. Range $80-$95
Be interesting how many they sell by Thursday morning.

 

[bungalow_bill]

 

[twhowler]

The way Zorks has been charging into the fray desperate to give us some run and a lift when the game's at its most intense has been something to behold the last 18 months.

Don't see many 26 year old's doing anything like that let alone a 36 year old.

It’s the most incredible indian summer to a career

Looked done in 2022

I also think his defensive work when in close is pretty damn good

just a few moments the past 2-3 weeks where he has cost us more often than not with his kicking. It’s a high bar but i think he is capable!

 

[martinson]

View attachment 2325913

Loved this.

Mitch is a fearsome little shit who hates losing .Like Clarko.

 

[M Malice]

Only arrived back a couple of hours ago, what a fantastic long weekend topped off by an amazing performance by our boys.

I have not watched a replay yet, (that is top of tomorrows agenda) but gee we were impressive, dominated the whole game and felt like a 10 goal win at the ground, McCluggage, Payne, Answerth, Neale, Ah Chee, Fort were superb and quit a few others were not far behind.

Very confident that our best footy is THE best footy in the competition.

Also went to Dreamtime(Meh) even the pre game ceremony was nowhere near as emotional as the last one I went to, too much rap music... most of Blues v Giants(Meh) and all but last 15 minutes of Suns v Saints... Suns impressive for most of it but it was v the Saints, can not see the Suns challenging for a flag in their first finals appearance.

Note- How bloody good is the food in Melbourne and love the trams.

 

[The Zork]

The Zorko ability to stop on a dime, change the angle and pull off a kick inside unlocks our game. The one that set up Charlie’s first was top shelf.

The dinky little kick over the top to a running Bailey I think that set up Rayners long bomb.
Then the 1v1 win at centre half back followed by a chaos ball to advantage - their top heavy backs vs our smalls + an agile Eric that set up Ah Chee.
No wonder he frustrates opposition.

 

[Nathan Barley]

View attachment 2325913

Did somebody say KFC?

 

[Lazza16]

We were at that one, waving our Lions flags, celebrating a story-tale end to some wonderful careers.

Our boys were a tad aggressive in this game (aka violent lol). Don't remember how many got suspended.....if any.

 

[On the quiet]

Weddle is faster than all of our players. Don’t think anyone could have caught him. Maybe Charlie could have 2 years ago.

Lester has years of synergy training with this group. His judgement of when to stay and when to go is sublime. That forward run in the gf, wow.

Even if they are exactly the same lester will perform better at this point in time.

Doedee obviously needs time to develop that synergy, but swapping them will cost us in the short term.

How short we don't know, but it's a massive risk in a premiership contending year.

Experience says lester would cope with being dropped but i won't.

Not by me , I gave him a vote instead of Lachie and Will .

Well it's taken a while to get to this, been busy getting egg off my face!

I thought the poor form / bad habits we had would take a little while to work through if we could. That was bloody impressive. As old man fages says had to win the game more than once too.

THE GOOD

Payne - poor last week, excellent this week. Starting to back himself and go for the ball leaving his opponent behind. Just need him to make his bad games better - when he is off it really seems to affect his confidence

Hipwood - he was just so selfless even though he didn't kick a goal. 3 goal assists! most on the field. just kept feeding out perfect handballs. Throws himself in to every contest.

Lohmann - he was second with 2 goal assists. thought he got back to reading the game. also lowered his eyes really well. he is quite a good field kick, can keep it low and get it to forwards fast

pressure! more of that please

coaching - we came with a plan to stop conceding high frees vs hawks and did it really well

Noah - excellent job on Watson. I was critical of him last week. But have also said before when he came in to the side last year we looked instantly better

Fages - again i think he misses a few things, use of sub eg! but what a great man-manager he is. calm. the fact the players wanted to win a coach milestone game so much says it all. and he didn't break any kfc banners!

Mcg form - starting to think this might be our best stadium

You melbourne fans - loved the noise coming through. going to book tickets at that lions end vs the pies.

Fort - excellent game. as others have said pace of the game seemed to be something he adjusted to

Charlie in form - i still wonder where he is at in his career arc. but can also see why fages sticks with him. would not go well in the 2s would he

THE (POTENTIALLY) BAD

I am just a watch on this. Hoping that we can start bringing more effort in the less hyped game as the season goes. Mind you we don't have a lot of them. which goes to...

Our draw is quite touch for the rest of the year. Compare it to geelong's in particular. they have essendon and richmond twice for the rest of the year! The points dropped to north and the dees will likely cost us top two as at the pies have a decent draw too. still as long as we can finish top 4 we should be battle hardened and a loss in week one of the finals is not always a disaster is it?

Hawthorn's form - this was a really good win. But in hindsight the hawks haven't beaten a lot. Want to see what we roll out vs crows / giants / cats before the bye to see how we are traveling

THE (KIND OF) UGLY

Zorko has been phenomenal but want him to A clean up some of the turnovers and B stop going for goal from 50m. ONce last week and once vs melbourne he just bombed away and got nowhere near it. On point A it's not a huge recalibration, just pulling the risk profile back 5%. maybe i am being fussy!

Think you are a bit harsh on Zorko.
With Kiddy out and Wilmott just a tad off, a lot of pressure is on Zorko to get us going from the backline. Sure there were a couple poor kicks and looked like he attempted a goal outside of the 50, rather than looking for an option, but he offers plenty of drive and sets up our offensive game.
Last week IMO, Payne was far from poor, more mediocre. Payne's main opponent never scored a goal in the Dees game. Yes he took that short kick that led to a goal, and I was relieved to see him not taking any short kicks against Hawthorn, but all players make some errors during a game.

Agree, Noah was excellent, I voted for him in my top 5 and glad to see he got coaches votes.

We have 3 significant games, Adelaide, GWS and Geelong, if we win two of these we almost lock up top 4. Win all 3 (a big ask), then top 2 is achievable.

 

[luthor]

View attachment 2325913

Some of his guys had a few too many spicy chicken wings the night before.

Or so I heard

 

[LongLion]

Payne is in God mode at the moment. Jack Reacher with speed. Quite possibly our most important player right now, or at least on par with Neale & McCluggage.

Who said Jack Reacher was slow?

 

[bungalow_bill]

Are Fagan and Mitchell on good terms from his time as AC at the Hawks?