mpal6
Norm Smith Medallist
A huge 16 point Friday night game this week - No.3 vs No.4 !
Both squads have a lot on the line this round - Melbourne Demons with their meddling form line, Clayton Oliver unavailable, forward line not firing, Bayley Fritsch out injured.
Lions have the perennial MCG question, can we win away from Gabba, does this team believe in what it takes? what is the right mix ? who should we play?
Just to shake things up a bit, let's take this preview through the eyes of the great Morpheus.
For Dees, playing Petracca forward is a move long overdue. Goodwin made it this week and got a handsome 4 goal return. But will he stick to it? Will he be able to trust his midfield with Viney, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Hunter and Langdon. Or the Neale, Dunkley, Ashcroft combo is too good to resist and he moves Petracca back to the middle. The other part of the equation is Gawn and Grundy. Last time at Gabba, Gawn was out early and Grundy was left to ruck solo - so this will be a combo which Lions haven't experienced yet when both are playing. Who goes forward and who keeps taking the center bounces? Joel Smith was pushed to sub last round and Ben Brown/Melksham/Petracca held the forward line together. Would the second tall come back now to make Andrews-Payne accountable and free up Petracca? Lots to mull over.
For Lions, oh where do I start? After all the rage around Gunston inclusion last week, Gunners rightly poured fuel to the fire by kicking 6 goals. 6 BLOODY GOAAALLLS !!!! Fagan's pet delivered in spades and made the selection all the more difficult. Poor coach is going to lose rest of the hair in the process with a hoard of players making their way back in Dunkley, Berry, McCarthy. Would we play Fort to counter Gawn/Grundy? Would we play Ah Chee to tag Bowey or Salem? What's the right mix? Just back the kids in again or do we have to do the unpopular thing in dropping Robertson or Fletcher? What about Rich - will he play 2s again or is that single hitout enough to bring him back to equation as well? It'll be a fun selection meeting this week.
Lions don't have to look too far for inspiration. Lions have beaten the Demons both in a high pressure semi-final 2022 at MCG as well as at the Gabba in Round 2. This is not an insurmountable task in 2023 and Demons look weakened compared to last season where they went on an all winning spree in the first 10+ rounds.
Since the Hawthorn loss, Lions have been in a bit of winning run. Lot of reasons to attribute in terms of player selection, coaching tweaks, 2 tall setup and so on - but the players continued to believe. Every single week they walked out, believed in the game plan and played for each other. That's where the 4-0 was built from, no reason why it can't become 5-0 now.
Fagan carries the cross on this one for me - regardless of whether he plays Fort or single ruck, whether he keeps Deven or Fletcher or drops one, whether he brings Ah Chee or Rich back, he's going to make that selection one more time and live with it. He is coming to table along with match committee with their best possible ideas to win this on the drawing board. Hope it comes together for them in team selection this week, this is not an easy week at all. Easy for Morpheus to say let it all go, well Fagan, better hang on to your hat once that team drops coming thursday night
For the Lions, Forget about what happened. What we do coming friday night will set our group up with a new level of belief, belief that can't be put in words but only felt, kind of belief that deep down takes us to that last day in September. As a squad, we are capable, now it comes down to the 1% and what the players are daring to do in that split second when they need to decide and execute. Back yourselves and put an end to this season's MCG curse.
Lions by 5 goals.
