Review Round 12, 2025 - Brisbane Lions vs. Essendon

[Dalions]

People talking about managing players and giving some a rest.
I thought the players themselves did that pretty well last night, midfielders barely raised a sweat (except Hugh who tried his guts out all night) our defenders didn’t go within cooee of one of their forwards all night and our forwards just plodded through the game mostly.
Good to see Kai kick a couple.
The funny thing is that Bombers supporters probably walk away from that one thinking their team is actually ok but if our team got out of first gear that game wasn’t even close as the first quarter showed.
Onwards and upwards we get a nice little 8 day break now.

 

[T Rick]

Kicked 1.6 in second qtr hurt us a little bit, reminded me of our old habits over the last few seasons. Any win is a good win,up the mighty LIONS.

A lot of those points were very gettable goals. Nail 3 of them and it is game over. Really hurts momentum.

 

[dlanod]

Time to microwave the memberships lmao

Membership cards on your phone makes this expensive now.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

A lot of those points were very gettable goals. Nail 3 of them and it is game over. Really hurts momentum.

Nothing like missing multiple goals you should kick for keeping your opponent in the game and their heads up.

 

[Sproj]

We consistently make PFs and more recently GFs, we know how to manage a season and peak when we need to. Relax.

 

[Happy_Neale]

Highlight was the Fox commentary giving constant updates on Nate Caddy waiting to get back on the ground from the interchange

 

[braddsey]

Membership cards on your phone makes this expensive now.

The house fire that starts when the lithium battery explodes is a bit of a concern too. You’d really really want to be microwaving your membership… it would take something like a loss to St Kilda to make it worthwhile.

 

[FFB1]

Not at all fussed about last night, coming off 5 day road trip break and another road trip next week (and another two weeks later). Would be a concerned if today was 30 August not 30 May, and we were 8th not 1st/2nd. Point in time our percentage means SFA with that draw, and ours is so far behind the rest fighting for a top 4 spot there’s no need to bust a gut to catch up.

 

[The Flying Belgian]

As frustrating as we can be once we get the sniff of an easy kill (players running forward of the ball and not pushing hard enough back), I'm happy if we keep banking the wins...

 

[LongLion]

Tbh, i really couldn't give a toss. I saw a shit performance, so i'm going to call it a shit performance.

You do realise that this was Essingtons Grand Final. We are now the hunted. Yes, I was disappointed in our effort but we still won and the sky is not falling in. Take a Bex, have a good lie down. Yours is an over reaction.

 

[Elixuh]

The only positive to be taken from tonight is that i don't have to watch this garbage anymore.

See you next week

 

[uzabuz]

Well that operation thread did its job, only took one match.

Loved Noah’s desperation in the last, has been great this year overall. Glad Kai is finding form, his inside 50 kicks are magnificent.

Midfield balance is off this year I think we have too many accumulators. Wouldn’t mind Marshall coming in for Levi for a couple of weeks.

 

[Cockliff38]

I think we can all agree Sam Day

14

Sam Day

Age

32

Ht

196cm

Wt

106kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

4.6

3star

M

3.5

4star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.7

4star

D

8.0

2star

K

3.6

1star

HB

4.4

3star

M

1.9

2star

T

1.5

2star

G

0.9

4star

D

8.6

3star

K

3.2

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

0.8

3star

G

0.2

3star

is just about indispensable now

 

[Elixuh]

I think we can all agree Sam Day is just about indispensable now

I know one person who won’t agree, but yes it was pretty clear from the get go this season. Issue is his longevity and what our plan b is.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Frustrating watch. We are getting dragged down to our oppositions level at the moment. Our forward structure is poor with Hipwood getting cooked because he is now rucking as well. Man I miss Daniher.

We just need more people to step up and play with a high intensity instead of cruising through games.

Neale, Zorko and Andrews have all been below their best.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I know one person who won’t agree, but yes it was pretty clear from the get go this season. Issue is his longevity and what our plan b is.

Hasn't helped that H. Smith has been injured at the same time.

 

[Elixuh]

Hasn't helped that H. Smith has been injured at the same time.

I’m bullish on Henry but not sure he is the answer to this specific question. We need a big body full time forward who has the craft and can at worst 50/50 contests all day. I don’t think Henry has that experienced forward craft yet.

 

[Cockliff38]

Was prepared to put the midfield's hot and cold form down to playing Gawn and Xerri, but you have to do better against Goldstein wheeled out from the retirement home. I'd like to see Berry roll through as another defensive-minded mid to support Dunkley; it's a very forward running mid mix when you've got Neale, WAsh and then Bailey and Rayner going through. Granted McCluggage has stepped up defensively this year.

Berry is important as a winger but once Kiddy is back we should have a wing rotation of him/Bailey/LAsh/Fletcher to enable him to give spurts in the guts.

Forward pressure also horrendous tonight. One step forward, one step backward for Cam and Charlie atm.

 

[Sproj]

Oscar Allen

12

Oscar Allen

Age

26

Ht

196cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.1

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

2.8

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.2

4star

will be amazing for us in the third-fifth seasons in our five-peat.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I’m bullish on Henry but not sure he is the answer to this specific question. We need a big body full time forward who has the craft and can at worst 50/50 contests all day. I don’t think Henry has that experienced forward craft yet.

He certainly can't get the forward craft while he is injured can he. I understand your sentiment but I would reckon he would have been playing in the top team if he was fit.

 

[mpal6]

Without a doubt the lowest point of the last 7 years. This essendon team is missing half of their players, and we barely scraped over the line against them. A real champion team should have won this by 100+. Games like this is why we're pretenders and won't accomplish anything this season. The north game, the melbourne game, the essendon game, the collingwood game. This one somehow tops the rest as being more embarrasing than the other. The only positive to be taken from tonight is that i don't have to watch this garbage anymore.

It wasn't pretty but not sky's falling level yet. We seem to raise ourselves to the opponents level or fall down to scrap with them so far this season. Only blip in that was Collingwood when we genuinely didn't have the legs by second half to go with them.

I'm actually looking forward to our next run of games now. All are genuine arm wrestles and I believe our players will be up for the fight.

I was worried we may have a Port Adelaide type season of handing out solid beatings to bottom teams but completely fall apart against top sides. We seem to be behaving the other way around which is good in my view and better for us in the second half of season.

 

[martinson]

People talking about managing players and giving some a rest.
I thought the players themselves did that pretty well last night, midfielders barely raised a sweat (except Hugh who tried his guts out all night) our defenders didn’t go within cooee of one of their forwards all night and our forwards just plodded through the game mostly.
Good to see Kai kick a couple.
The funny thing is that Bombers supporters probably walk away from that one thinking their team is actually ok but if our team got out of first gear that game wasn’t even close as the first quarter showed.
Onwards and upwards we get a nice little 8 day break now.

That's very true. I said at half time we should've been 8 in front and haven't played that well.

They got a sniff and us getting from 3rd gear to even 2nd gear was a stretch.

I swear Payne and Andrews must have sunk a few before they went out last night . Made Caddy look like the next big thing.

Hipwood rucking takes away a weapon and adds nothing to rucking.

Joe has left a big hole . Day back is important but looking at his history whether we can rely on him to the end of the season is problematic. So maybe prepare for that somehow.

It's hard to switch it on all the time in the AFL so despite the fact that our performance was well below par (imo) it's a relief to get the 4 points and we now focus on how to stop Keays next week.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Fages has basically said publicly that banking wins is good enough. Can't help but think the team is of the same opinion and maybe getting ahead of themselves

If it wasn't for the Hawks win I'd be worried but we've shown we can still stand up and the small forwards finding form is encouraging

 

[western royboy]

We just seem to dominate for periods and burn chances and then when the tide turns we look completely lost at times.

Hard to believe our record given some of the spasmodic performances but I will take it. Not the time to be playing your best footy.

Tough few weeks ahead

 

[martinson]

Fages has basically said publicly that banking wins is good enough. Can't help but think the team is of the same opinion and maybe getting ahead of themselves

If it wasn't for the Hawks win I'd be worried but we've shown we can still stand up and the small forwards finding form is encouraging

I'm sure we took the banking wins philosophy into the Melbourne and North games and paid the price.

Still ,have to be happy with where we're at and the next 3 weeks are going to tell us how the year might pan out.