Review Round 22, 2017 - Melbourne vs. Brisbane Lions

[winged1]

McStay's form (and particular his body work in defence) has been on an upward trajectory this year, but the weekend was definitely a step back. There were times when he didn't even compete in the air. Throw in two critical turnovers in defence too... not sure where the admiration for his performance is coming from

The back line struggled for cohesion the entire game. But there were glimpses from all of them at different times.

 

[winged1]

Dizzy had his best for a while, I noticed only one shoulder was strapped. For the first time in a while he looked like he could get his hands well above his head.

Walker was solid again and moves a little better than I have given him credit for.

Close did a lot of little things that were important and defensively worked hard. Two hard running spoils in the first half stopped the dees from breaking out. He also lead hard up the ground. He had 3 score involvements and kicked a goal. He didn't get a lot of it but played his role. He needs continuity at this level.

Robbo had a couple of brain farts but also ran hard and got us out of the crap offensively a few times.

Dees aren't a bad side and we ran them close despite the umpires drinking the Melbourne finals cool aid

 

[fanackapan]

The back line struggled for cohesion the entire game. But there were glimpses from all of them at different times.

Yeah, I thought they squared or won most of the contests they got to. Where they were beaten was mostly from entries in which Melbourne orchestrated good blocks to get Hogan/Pederson uncontested marks, and a few occasions where guys like McStay and Witherden were caught playing a little bit loose on their opponents. These are things fixed by better backline organisation, and continuing improvement of our defenders' judgement in seeing the blocks and set plays emerging, which will come with experience and improving leadership. The good side is that they all seem to have the physical skills, and are ahead of the curve in terms of judgement and cohesion for their ages, despite (maybe even because of) the volume of inside-50s they've been dealing with.

 

[BlackGun1]

Thought that was one of Mathieson's best games. Drew some very fair free kicks at important stages of the game and kept us in it with his clearance work.

 

[davemc_lions]

Went with my eldest was a good game and great to go to a game hoping for a win.
Happy they kept on it umpiring was its same great non standard I think this year is the worst.
Walker is doing well, Basti playing great, Rocky hiding in the forward line is dangerous.
Beams apart from one brain fade fantastic. Squizy ran those little legs, Beast was in and under.
Withderden/Alison/McCluggae played well when you think they first year players. Cutler gone past by a few now
Gardiner kicked a goal and was more then solid. I actually like him he does the team defensive thing I think people miss that.
A lot of players got passes.
Yes a few stupid things done.
Do we get N Robbo to give some angry pills to our big men Close should of taken a few out

Some stupid over handball cost us a few goals each way. A few times in the forward line no one would have a &(*&(*&*(& shot
How many times do we handball to a guy about to get tackled, are they calling for it or we just see a lions jumper.
Some of the guys skills need working on in the off season, a few switches that where kicked to slow and turn over.

We really need to get someone who can take marks in the forward 50 apart from Beams/Basti getting 2-3 a game
We have lost a lot of games to big bodied forwards marking inside 50 last few games Hogan (8) , Redpath(7), Darling(6), Kennedy (5),Riewoldt (5)
Honestly McStay is learning to be a defender so I cut him some slack. But if we want to swap any of our low picks for a good defender it be a blessing.
Maybe McStay can go forward again.

 

[LongLion]

Thought that was one of Mathieson's best games. Drew some very fair free kicks at important stages of the game and kept us in it with his clearance work.

Beastmode will get better as he gets stronger. Still gets bustled out of they way more than I would like but understandable as a 2nd year player. Like him as a one grab in an under player. Good with his handballs, still needs to work on his ball use going forward. Lot to look forward to with his game style.

 

[Sanchez365]

Just some random thoughts on the game, some have been mentioned but worth reiterating:

Second quarter we had a seriously good rub of the green for the 10-15 mins we were on top. Something like 3 free kicks in a row for a goal and a few nice 50m penalties. Was evened up more or less in the rest of the game but shouldn't be too worried about the umpiring today.

Thought we had quite a few chances in the first half to completely open up Melbourne and just kept butchering it in the last kick going inside forward 50. I think Hibberd (maybe) took a bunch if intercept marks in the first half and was reading it really well. We honestly should have been up at half time.

It sounds bitter when talking about a guy that kicked 6 goals, but I didn't think that Hogan played an overly impressive game. He was on the end of some great midfield work by the Demons, the one thing he did was kick straight but most of his goals would have been no more then 30ms out almost directly infront. It seemed he got quite a number of goals being the out the back player, in particular one where he took an uncontested mark 15m out.

Gardiner played one of his best games in a while, that run down tackle on Gartlett in the (last qtr?) was a gem.

Rocky I thought played really well in the last quarter when the game was on the line. The over the head handball to McCluggage was nice.

Hipwood seemed pretty quiet today, did notice a couple of times he used his body well to protect the space to take the mark, but thought for most of the day he struggled to get involved.

Walker was great, took a lot of excellent contested marks up on the wing and a few in the forward line. Really cemented his place in the starting 22 with a performance like that. Did have a bit of a shudder watching him go up in the ruck against Gawn today though.

Martin had a massive game, I was surprised at how he competed against Gawn in the ruck and made a big difference to the outcome. Was probably the key reason why we didn't get dominated from the centre square or clearances as he nullified Gawns impact. Also did a great job of shutting him down around the ground, I remember seeing Gawn had 0 disposals after the first quarter.

Taylor was most impressive with his shrugging of tackles. A few times it looked like two guys had him and he just shook them off and went about his day. Was great to see he is finally building that strength to do that.

Bastinac unfortunately lost the laser like goal shooting when he popped that one OOF. But he has been impressive over the back half of the season and a solid contributor.

Even though we didn't get the win, was a good game in the end to only go down by a few goals.

 

[BlackGun1]

Beastmode will get better as he gets stronger. Still gets bustled out of they way more than I would like but understandable as a 2nd year player. Like him as a one grab in an under player. Good with his handballs, still needs to work on his ball use going forward. Lot to look forward to with his game style.

I've been a critic of his lately and I began to doubt his long term potential but he really impressed me yesterday. I think he will develop into a very important glue player

 

[Cockliff38]

Just some random thoughts on the game, some have been mentioned but worth reiterating:

Second quarter we had a seriously good rub of the green for the 10-15 mins we were on top. Something like 3 free kicks in a row for a goal and a few nice 50m penalties. Was evened up more or less in the rest of the game but shouldn't be too worried about the umpiring today.

Thought we had quite a few chances in the first half to completely open up Melbourne and just kept butchering it in the last kick going inside forward 50. I think Hibberd (maybe) took a bunch if intercept marks in the first half and was reading it really well. We honestly should have been up at half time.

It sounds bitter when talking about a guy that kicked 6 goals, but I didn't think that Hogan played an overly impressive game. He was on the end of some great midfield work by the Demons, the one thing he did was kick straight but most of his goals would have been no more then 30ms out almost directly infront. It seemed he got quite a number of goals being the out the back player, in particular one where he took an uncontested mark 15m out.

Gardiner played one of his best games in a while, that run down tackle on Gartlett in the (last qtr?) was a gem.

Rocky I thought played really well in the last quarter when the game was on the line. The over the head handball to McCluggage was nice.

Hipwood seemed pretty quiet today, did notice a couple of times he used his body well to protect the space to take the mark, but thought for most of the day he struggled to get involved.

Walker was great, took a lot of excellent contested marks up on the wing and a few in the forward line. Really cemented his place in the starting 22 with a performance like that. Did have a bit of a shudder watching him go up in the ruck against Gawn today though.

Martin had a massive game, I was surprised at how he competed against Gawn in the ruck and made a big difference to the outcome. Was probably the key reason why we didn't get dominated from the centre square or clearances as he nullified Gawns impact. Also did a great job of shutting him down around the ground, I remember seeing Gawn had 0 disposals after the first quarter.

Taylor was most impressive with his shrugging of tackles. A few times it looked like two guys had him and he just shook them off and went about his day. Was great to see he is finally building that strength to do that.

Bastinac unfortunately lost the laser like goal shooting when he popped that one OOF. But he has been impressive over the back half of the season and a solid contributor.

Even though we didn't get the win, was a good game in the end to only go down by a few goals.

Well said mate. Glad you pointed out Hipwood's body positioning - walked away really impressed with how he out-pointed a gun in Tom McDonald. Sure he didn't get the scoreboard rewards but it illustrated to me that Eric isn't just an athletic freak, he is smart too.

 

[cheekyLionsFan]

Beastmode will get better as he gets stronger. Still gets bustled out of they way more than I would like but understandable as a 2nd year player. Like him as a one grab in an under player. Good with his handballs, still needs to work on his ball use going forward. Lot to look forward to with his game style.

Reminds me a little of Mat Crouch last year. Gets pushed off a little easy but he hands aren't that bad but needs another preseason or 2

 

[bungalow_bill]

Anybody else see Garlett arrogantly tap Hipwood on the back of the head with the footy as he was walking up to take his free kick? What an absolute assh*le. Not sure if there are rules against that or not (there should be). Would have been lovely to see him stripped off his free kick before he took it!

Will look out for that when I watch the replay. Reckon if he were a Lion we'd all be having a laugh about it. Garlett sounds like the Dees version of Matho

 

[scoman]

What I liked about the game is that we didnt appear to be playing all that well, but managed to hang in there and almost pinch the win. I thought a number of our players didnt have particularly great games, including Taylor, Rocky, Zorko, Basti and Robbo.

 

[Back2Back2Back]

Vince got a $1500 fine in the end.

Our medical reports must be written with crayon or something. Didn't both Beams' come off the ground after their incidents? I thought C.Beams had a concussion test?

 

[jackess]

Vince got a $1500 fine in the end.

Our medical reports must be written with crayon or something. Didn't both Beams' come off the ground after their incidents? I thought C.Beams had a concussion test?

Seems fair to me.

 

[Lazza16]

Lol. There are teams that would give their left nut to have our tall stocks. You also forgot to mention Schache. We're half a chance to snag Ballenden too.

Then there is Richmond doing quite nicely with no talls!

 

[Lazza16]

100% I don't think we should draft any talls other than Ballenden, you'd hope between Freeman/Close/Hammelmann/Schache/Ballenden/OMac/Eagles and even Dawson one will step up. We need midfielders but they must have speed IMO, we are far too slow in the middle, teams get centre square exits against us far too easily.

Skinner?

 

[Lazza16]

Thought that was one of Mathieson's best games. Drew some very fair free kicks at important stages of the game and kept us in it with his clearance work.

Agree.......surprised only 12% in votes

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Low impact compared to Zorko's medium

 

[John_Proctor]

it was a marking contest. Robertson got nothing last week when he was nowhere near the ball and took his eyes off quite a bit before the play and crunched someone. While you could say Vince took his eyes of the ball to hit beams, equally you could say his eyes were tracking the path of the ball.

Zorko outside of the play gut punched someone.

My brief viewing of the C Beams incident was it could have been a free kick to Vince for Beams sliding in and contact with the knees.

 

[BuntonRules]

Vince was committed. Football clash.

 

[Kevvo]

Vince always finds a way to collect his opponent's best midfielder in a dubious way. Something tells me his eyes weren't totally on the ball.

 

[a mayes ing]

Then there is Richmond doing quite nicely with no talls!

Reiwoldt, Rance, Astbury and maybe 1 other iirc.

 

[SizeMatters]

Vince incident similar to the Merrett one a few years back against the Demons.

 

[BangyBangy]

Then there is Richmond doing quite nicely with no talls!

Will be curious to see how they fare come finals.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Vince was committed. Football clash.

Committed but the impact wasn't low