Review Round 3, 2024 - Brisbane Lions vs. Collingwood

[RoyBoy17]

How many players actually continually improve over the years?

Big questions marks on our ability to improve and develop players. It seems they reach a base level early and then just plateau or go backwards.

The skill level has been deplorable. Fumbles everywhere. Players making the same poor decisions over and over again. There is probably a whole range of reasons but it’s quite clear we haven’t had the best of preseasons.

 

[lioninthesand]

You could see it a mile off that we were done after last year. Said it in the off season and that we’d lose to Dockers and Pies and I’m the one being negative. It’s about facing reality that many back slappers here, Facebook and the roar deal crew won’t. God forbid coming to the realisation many have been saying for months and being shot down accordingly.

Remember when Fagan has been saying all off season we won’t be one of those losing grand finalists that meekly float off to obscurity the following year. Cool story Fages.

There’s been a crew of doubters (who I get along with better than most) who have predicted we are ‘done’ and fagans ‘done’ at the start of the last 4-5 seasons.

There was always a chance that we succumbed to the GF loser, year after fall away, we had been up for 5 years.

No one could have categorically predicted that though.

Not sure gloating about finally, correctly guessing our demise is really worth talking about.

The old.. ‘if we are good’ I’m happy we win (give no credit) and ‘if we lose I can gloat about being right about us being s**t’… trick.

 

[Lion_LegacyXL]

View attachment YouCut_20240329_084937065.mp4

 

[Nathan Barley]

How many players actually continually improve over the years?

Big questions marks on our ability to improve and develop players. It seems they reach a base level early and then just plateau or go backwards.

The skill level has been deplorable. Fumbles everywhere. Players making the same poor decisions over and over again. There is probably a whole range of reasons but it’s quite clear we haven’t had the best of preseasons.

Definitely huge questions over development and drafting. Most of our guns seem to come from trades, our academy and father son selections

 

[buttermuffs]

Re-watching it on kayo now. Honestly what do Danny and Erica bring to this team? Softest key forwards in the comp by a country mile. Yet our team knows they are soft but keep bombing it high, long and slow for opposition to just out body them and rebound with ease. In contrast to the Pies who have on talent s**t forwards but they give them every chance possible with fast penetrating kicks that create instant pressure on Brisbane defenders. Don't get me started on our pathetic tackle rate this season... I think we have been dominated in the tackle count vs opposition tackle count every game so far.

Our women’s team are the reigning premiers and still people feel the need to link femininity to weakness. Be better.

 

[Thomasno]

pretty sure our tackling efficiency against FREO was 52 %, but our tackling efficiency has been a issue for a while.

Does the club have a tackling coach..???

Remember when Rich used to help out the Broncos on the side as a kicking coach?

We need to throw some money at a broncos player and get them to come teach our boys how to lay a f*cking tackle

 

[buttermuffs]

Hopefully this is our Bulldogs game from last year when Joe n Erica copped it from every direction and then turned their efforts around.

Just had a toasted cheese sandwich for breakfast and that got me thinking it may be time to unleash the Breville!

I thought this group was better than this pissweak misogynistic bullshit.

 

[SizeMatters]

Our women’s team are the reigning premiers and still people feel the need to link femininity to weakness. Be better.

Linked femininity in what way sorry? I’m a bit lost.

 

[Thomasno]

I don't really blame the umpires. The AFL itself has completely cooked the rules and how the game is adjudicated. Until they fix holding the ball, the game will be an unpredictable, almost impossible game to adjudicate with any certainty.

What they need to do is do what the NFL does - have teams of umpires. So the same four umpires will do games every week for the whole season. That way they learn how each other adjudicates decisions, and build some consistency between them - so at the very least there is consistent adjudication within matches.

Instead of how it is now, where each umpire has their own idea of what the rules are so what’s a free down one end is let go down the other.

 

[buttermuffs]

Linked femininity in what way sorry? I’m a bit lost.

‘Danny and Erica’

 

[notliondown]

Interested in peoples feedback who were at the game. Joey's game against freo i thought was one of his very good games. Seemed to be getting the ball up the wing and around half forward and looks better IMO when able to roam the ground abit and get his 15-20 disposals. With Fort coming in last night did the role of Joey pushing up the ground and time in ruck change? Hard to notice on TV here in Melbourne.

With 2 rucks I couldn't understand Joe ever taking a ball in... And yet there he was. It should have been a game to play deep forwards and use the other ruck to link play.

Instead we had a team of girrafes lumbering around watching balls bounce off every conceivable part of their bodies.

Worse was often the fact that when that happened for the 100th time there was still no small forward crumbing.

Joe just needs to take advantage of his opportunities.... But for me 4 bean stalks is at least 1 too many regardless of role

 

[Nathan Barley]

With 2 rucks I couldn't understand Joe ever taking a ball in... And yet there he was. It should have been a game to play deep forwards and use the other ruck to link play.

Instead we had a team of girrafes lumbering around watching balls bounce off every conceivable part of their bodies.

Worse was often the fact that when that happened for the 100th time there was still no small forward crumbing.

Joe just needs to take advantage of his opportunities.... But for me 4 bean stalks is at least 1 too many regardless of role

There's about 30 players around the ball ins in the forward line. Very little rucks can do. Very common occurrence to have a forward take the ruck and the ruck push a kick behind the play

 

[Squizz89]

Assume no one had the balls to ask Fages in the presser if Charlie is injured and if so, why was he out there on one leg last night?

 

[SizeMatters]

Linked femininity in what way sorry? I’m a bit lost.

Eh. Missed it. Auto type has been awful on my phone. Fat fingers. Had to edit literally every post I made yesterday due to this issue. Wouldn’t sweat it I’ll wait in names.

 

[Sanchez365]

The game was pretty terrible all around, but my big issue really sits with our midfield. Besides Neale putting on an absolute master class in that second quarter, I'm just not sure what is going on. What's frustrating is we just don't seem to have a plan of what to do in there.

The only player we have that tries to move at at a stoppages is Neale, which must be by design. The rucks only play is to try and bring the ball to their feet for Neale to dig out, we must be the easiest team to prepare against week in week out.

Dunkley had a shocker, seemed to have little influence on the game. McCluggage was clearly our second best after Neale and the only one that could deliver inside 50. Oscar and Fort are both 1 half of a ruckman each, so we have to waste two spots to get them both in and they were still bested by Cox.

Then we come to Bailey, Rayner and Robertson, who were used in that order as relief midfielders. Bails had a shocker, the pressure was too hot for him and he couldn't tackle and was caught trying to do too much time after time.

I have been a big proponent of Rayner going in the middle and he had a decent game overall last night. But he has zero midfield craft. He seemed to have no idea where to position himself, wasn't on the move at any stoppage and just didn't seem to read the game well at all. He also had butter hands all night, made to look even worse by Neale, but Rayner wasn't alone in that regard (cough Robertson).

I seriously question our midfield coaching, how can we not have a system yet after 7 years of Fagan that isn't "tap it to your feet for Neale". It's clear noone else has a license to play freely in there, and we have such a small unit that basically noone can break through the congestion the pies put around the ball.

The problem is who do we change in there? Bringing back Lyons who seems to be our only other midfielder with a brain is suicide on the turnover. Maybe moving Lester into the middle when Gardiner comes back? He seems to have high footy IQ and will run defensively. Maybe McCarthy? There really doesn't seem to be much in the reserves besides a handful of very young options. May need to hit the MSD at this rate.

 

[Lionheart182]

4 games after a grand final - sack Fagan. On brand for this board.

 

[CarterS]

Fagan said in the press conference that it's not time to hit the panic button, well a few in here are.

 

[CarterS]

Mental scars from GF, reminds me of Sydney a few years ago.

 

[Bramax]

I can't accept the contention that our guys weren't giving it everything tonight.

We "won" nearly all the stats, including Inside 50's but again, blew many scoring opportunities with wayward kicking on goal

However, collectively the team is just out of form and looks down on confidence.

Daniher and Hipwood looked like they had hands made of concrete, although there was interference several times in marking contests that the umps chose to ignore. There was one instance in the last quarter where Hipwood was in the process of attempting to control a juggling mark but got a blatant shove in the back so had no opportunity to do so. Play on?

I thought the umpiring sucked overall.

From 14-all free kicks at half time, the Pies got 16-6 in the second half. How many HTB frees did they pluck to Collingwood in that second half?.....it just seemed like one way traffic. Stacks on the mill and a Lions player on the bottom of the pack......free kick Collingwood.

That said, we were our own worst enemies and probably got what we deserved in the end.

One last thing....can the Rayner haters please give it a break? I thought he was bloody good tonight, as was Lester who never seems to get flustered in tight situations, has great anticipation and spatial awareness AND gets a bad wrap for being "slow" when he actually shows decent pace when he has too.

I'm depressed as anyone else here but the constant carping and negativity just makes it worse.

And for Chrissakes, can we give the "Sack Fagan" thing a rest too. That man has taken us from a total rabble to a serious football team. It seems ro me that we need to look at the bigger picture instead of looking for scapegoats every time we have a loss.

0-3 is a terrible start but it's a long season and I'm not prepared to write us of at this early point.

Get a win on the board next week and things can turn around pretty quickly.

Who was that guy that said "Things are never as good or bad as they seem"?

Hang in there and keep the faith mate.
The Pies were in the same spot a week ago.
The Lions are too good a team not to turn your season around.
A couple of questions?
When is young Ashcroft coming back? He’s a star and has as much impact for the Lions as Nick Daicos does for the Pies imo.
And how much do you think you’re missing Coleman? I think he’s the most damaging half back in the game. He’s just a weapon with his kicking skills.
Good luck for the rest of the season. Don’t worry. You’ll contend again this season.

 

[buttermuffs]

Eh. Missed it. Auto type has been awful on my phone. Fat fingers. Had to edit literally every post I made yesterday due to this issue. Wouldn’t sweat it I’ll wait in names.

Fair enough. Apologies I might have been a bit aggressive.

 

[3KZ is Football]

The game was pretty terrible all around, but my big issue really sits with our midfield. Besides Neale putting on an absolute master class in that second quarter, I'm just not sure what is going on. What's frustrating is we just don't seem to have a plan of what to do in there.

The only player we have that tries to move at at a stoppages is Neale, which must be by design. The rucks only play is to try and bring the ball to their feet for Neale to dig out, we must be the easiest team to prepare against week in week out.

Dunkley had a shocker, seemed to have little influence on the game. McCluggage was clearly our second best after Neale and the only one that could deliver inside 50. Oscar and Fort are both 1 half of a ruckman each, so we have to waste two spots to get them both in and they were still bested by Cox.

Then we come to Bailey, Rayner and Robertson, who were used in that order as relief midfielders. Bails had a shocker, the pressure was too hot for him and he couldn't tackle and was caught trying to do too much time after time.

I have been a big proponent of Rayner going in the middle and he had a decent game overall last night. But he has zero midfield craft. He seemed to have no idea where to position himself, wasn't on the move at any stoppage and just didn't seem to read the game well at all. He also had butter hands all night, made to look even worse by Neale, but Rayner wasn't alone in that regard (cough Robertson).

I seriously question our midfield coaching, how can we not have a system yet after 7 years of Fagan that isn't "tap it to your feet for Neale". It's clear noone else has a license to play freely in there, and we have such a small unit that basically noone can break through the congestion the pies put around the ball.

The problem is who do we change in there? Bringing back Lyons who seems to be our only other midfielder with a brain is suicide on the turnover. Maybe moving Lester into the middle when Gardiner comes back? He seems to have high footy IQ and will run defensively. Maybe McCarthy? There really doesn't seem to be much in the reserves besides a handful of very young options. May need to hit the MSD at this rate.

Lester would be great in the middle. Super smart and his solo run down tackle in the third quarter, which was a certain goal saver, shows exactly why he is so valuable to our team. If he were given that assignment, you know he would bust his gut to make it work. If only some of the show ponies who are automatic selections under Fagan played with a fraction of the heart, courage and consistency Lester shows. I wouldn’t play him there though, because he is our backline general and he and Harris are becoming a super valuable defensive combination.

As for Dunkley, you are 100% correct. He needs to face much closer scrutiny. Too many missed tackles, too much cruise control. Dunkley had 26 disposals last night. Lyons had 25 against Fremantle, including a 10 disposal last quarter and was dropped. Dunkley seems to specialise in soft touches and he leaves far too much to Neale. We need to clear the project players out of the middle and play Lyons, who is a genuine pure mid.
#Lester200
#FrogMarch
#LesterArmy

 

[Nathan Barley]

4 games after a grand final - sack Fagan. On brand for this board.

But what have we achieved....

 

[Nathan Barley]

Thought JBerry and Fletcher were much better last night. Berry was finding the footy and tackling. Still a few errors but at least he was getting involved more. Fletcher kicked a great goal and seemed to find more confidence in his ball use

Wilmot is also getting super consistent

Though Ah Chee had a good first half but his ball use was very poor

 

[McIvor]

But what have we achieved....

You’re telling the story; what have we achieved exactly?

 

[Sanchez365]

Lester would be great in the middle. Super smart and his solo run down tackle in the third quarter, which was a certain goal saver, shows exactly why he is so valuable to our team. If he were given that assignment, you know he would bust his gut to make it work. If only some of the show ponies who are automatic selections under Fagan played with a fraction of the heart, courage and consistency Lester shows. I wouldn’t play him there though, because he is our backline general and he and Harris are becoming a super valuable defensive combination.

As for Dunkley, you are 100% correct. He needs to face much closer scrutiny. Too many missed tackles, too much cruise control. Dunkley had 26 disposals last night. Lyons had 25 against Fremantle, including a 10 disposal last quarter and was dropped. Dunkley seems to specialise in soft touches and he leaves far too much to Neale. We need to clear the project players out of the middle and play Lyons, who is a genuine pure mid.
#Lester200
#FrogMarch
#LesterArmy

I understand the sentiment of playing Lyons more now after watching last night, however we have to move past him. He just gets torched too hard after the contest and we need to give the midfield a refresh, not drag it back.