Review Round 4, 2020 - Brisbane Lions vs. Adelaide

[lioninthesand]

Agreed. I thought he was actually pretty good? Certainly an upgrade on the past few and a reason to keep him in the team


Lester was superb

Neale and McCluggage our two best along with Berry

Lyons was just super solid all day long, did the little things inside and the clearing kicks he always does. He loves playing in wet conditions I feel

Gardiner was poor in the 3rd but no reason to worry

McStay maybe needs to be dropped, just to see what we've got with younger talls. He has good moments here and there but it's consistently JUST enough to keep his spot if not a poor game. I never really come away feeling he truly played well

McStay was really solid around the ground? lots of clean pick ups, little handballs etc. Presented well. I am not against him being dropped if need be - but of all the weeks to do it - there is Zero chance it's after that game.

 

[SizeMatters]

Can we kick a goal or take a contested Mark inside 50 yet... two things holding us back big time imo

 

[Dylan12]

Really? are you sure it's not personal Bro? Rayner was good. Very solid afternoon all round and clearly getting better each week.

Its not personal; bro.

Rayner simply does enough. He doesn't want to kick goals or take the bulls by the horn and for a HFH and a return of one goal in four games is poor. I don't need to say anymore other than to say it disappoints me that our no.1 pick is nowhere in the same class as fellow no.1 picks, McGrath, Walsh and Rowell and other first round picks in recent drafts (take your pick of any of the three first round picks at Port from last year) and he doesn't look like he will be anywhere near as good and we're still waiting, whilst all of these guys are elite now.

Hey, if the odd 1%er is good enough for you whilst four gamer Matt Rowell easily has 9 Brownlow votes, then fine, but please don't trot out the argument that Rayner plays in a harder position when he also goes into the guts as well as HF as Rowell does then I don't know what to say.

 

[CarterS]

Lester, Rich, Birchall, Gardiner and Andrews all great tactically. Gee Rich is calm under pressure. Part of reason why our back line doing well. No 1 replacement for Hodge. Others ready to come in who would walk into most other teams in comp.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Rowell is actually on the Suns roster Dylan.

I’d be all for naming him in our squad on Thursday night but I’m not sure we’ll get away with it.

 

[davemc_lions]

Keays is getting a game in the mid/tagger.
Here we used him as a small forwarded the limited goes in seniors.
Walker was behind Andrews and did a sim role and Andrews is better at it with those go go gadget arms.
Happy for Keays and Walker.

 

[Nunez]

Can we kick a goal or take a contested Mark inside 50 yet... two things holding us back big time imo

19 marks inside 50 to 5 - why does it matter if they're all contested or not?

In fact, isn't getting uncontested marks inside 50 better given that means we're hitting blokes on the lead?

Fwiw - that is around 1 mark inside 50 per 3 entries. We also scored in over 50% of our entries - very good figures IF we were accurate.

 

[Nunez]

Watching the replay, it really was an awesome team performance (minus the third). Our pressure was awesome - our system is fantastic and our ability to generate scoring shots is the best in the league. If our radar was on, we'd have won by 80+ with ease and that third quarter wouldn't have happened.

We aren't near our best yet, but jeeze we look good even at 50% of our best. Talk about a high ceiling.

 

[Dalions]

Lincoln McCarthy on RSN Breakfast after the win over Adelaide

‎Breakfast with Harf on Apple Podcasts

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[Mighty Lions]

Seriously the most selfish display of footy from our team i have seen in 3 seasons. We play like that next week and will be convincingly beaten

 

[X AE A12]

Lincoln McCarthy on RSN Breakfast after the win over Adelaide

‎Breakfast with Harf on Apple Podcasts

‎News · 2023

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Interesting he says he wouldn't mind the midfield lowering the eyes with our fwd 50 entries, it's just not possible that our predictable system going fwd is the functional ideal, and putting Ballenden in at FF/2nd ruck for Archie, with Skinner in for McStay will net a better result than bombing it to Oscar and McStay.

If we have genuine marking targets between Oscar Ballenden and Skinner, with Hipwood too but pushing up the flank as he does, then combined with our fwd pressure we can do better

 

[lioninthesand]

Its not personal; bro.

Rayner simply does enough. He doesn't want to kick goals or take the bulls by the horn and for a HFH and a return of one goal in four games is poor. I don't need to say anymore other than to say it disappoints me that our no.1 pick is nowhere in the same class as fellow no.1 picks, McGrath, Walsh and Rowell and other first round picks in recent drafts (take your pick of any of the three first round picks at Port from last year) and he doesn't look like he will be anywhere near as good and we're still waiting, whilst all of these guys are elite now.

Hey, if the odd 1%er is good enough for you whilst four gamer Matt Rowell easily has 9 Brownlow votes, then fine, but please don't trot out the argument that Rayner plays in a harder position when he also goes into the guts as well as HF as Rowell does then I don't know what to say.

Yep that explains it. You hold him squarely to his number 1 pick rating rather than looking at his development as a young footballer. I can understand being a bit underwhelmed to this point. I have excepted he wasn't exactly what we thought he was when he arrived and I am just looking at him as a young player who needs more time than others. He is developing slowly, but I will put my absolute house on it, he will be a great player by the time he is 26-27 years old.

Also - I wouldn't say it's personal in the sense you have an issue with his character. But more, you have had an axe to grind with him the very moment he walked in the door (because he was a number 1 pick you obviously held him to incredibly high standards) and it seems like you are absolutely determined to hold onto your narrative about him, rather than looking at each week for what it is.

He was solid on the weekend, I'd go as far as to say he was 'good' and the fact you didn;t see that, tells me you see zero value in him unless he tears a game apart.

He needs to learn to kick the ball through the goals though, that's one thing we can agree on.

 

[3KZ is Football]

The Lester Redemption.

For years he has been maligned as too...slow, staid, small or any number of other things.

To see the respect by more fans that he is finally getting is heart-warming. I think he always had that respect internally in the club but now maybe the wider football world is seeing that he is the right player that every club needs -professional, loyal and developing himself to the limit of his abilities. He won’t be one of our stars and we don’t need him to be. We just need someone like him to do the team things and play his role reliably.

Superstars give you a chance to challenge for flags. A premiership team needs some out-and-out stars to seize the big moments. Ultimately though, premierships are won not because of the superstars but because of the support the superstars get from the guys like Lester who just do their job well.

Lester’s aerobic capacity and willingness to run is often underestimated. He has a huge tank and willingness to use it. I pointed this out in the Review Thread after our win against GWS last year. In the third quarter (from memory) Lester read the play and sprinted from the Half Forward Flank to deep in defence chasing Toby Greene who was trying to get free in the forward line for the overlap. In the end Lester succeeded and closed him down.

Lester played the following week against Port Adelaide and then was dropped, in a move that some of us were dumbfounded by, for the game against North Melbourne. Now if anyone wants to check, go back and have a look at the preview thread for the North Melbourne game and you will see some of those who are now “on the Lester Bandwagon” were virtually celebrating Lester being dropped. I ended up blocking a couple of them because they don’t know very much about football and consequently are not worth hearing from. Go back and check and you will see what I am talking about.

So well done Ryan Lester, you have silenced your critics and set yourself up for a brilliant next few years in what has been a valued career at the Lions.

 

[lioninthesand]

Seriously the most selfish display of footy from our team i have seen in 3 seasons. We play like that next week and will be convincingly beaten

Agree. This was my biggest beef. Over hand balling, spin moves, snaps around the body, not looking for the best option inside 50. Played like rockstars and nearly had our pants pulled down int he third. Fages didn't look happy about it at times.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Agree with this, I'd take Walker over Adams if both fully fit, just my opinion though. Walker has guts, he has even acted as our #1 ruck a couple times when needed. He is perfectly suited to North though.

Yep. In retrospect drafting Adams will be seen as a failed gamble. I would rather have Walker in our list, but wish him luck at North Melbourne, where he is playing in the seniors at CHB.

 

[3KZ is Football]

McStay was really solid around the ground? lots of clean pick ups, little handballs etc. Presented well. I am not against him being dropped if need be - but of all the weeks to do it - there is Zero chance it's after that game.

Have a look at the Match Highlights in the AFL website and go to the third quarter. It is like a show reel of his errors and deficiencies.

 

[Dylan12]

Some nice personal highlights in this package, particularly McCarthy's mark in the second and Charlie's in the fourth.

My top 3 were two involving Ryan Lester (0:19 and 4:56) and the team play goal started by Charlie and ending in Dan Rich banging in a long range goal at 5:25 of the clip.

 

[DERRINALPHIL]

The Lester Redemption.

I love it.

We have our high priest of the Church of Ryan Lester (3KZ) and I admit I strayed from the true path of Lesterism and now freely amit that 35 is the answer to life, the universe and footy. I shall atone for my sins by naming Lester, the Most Courageous, in my best players every week. I shall vigorously hunt down, troll and block all blasphemers.

 

[SizeMatters]

19 marks inside 50 to 5 - why does it matter if they're all contested or not?

In fact, isn't getting uncontested marks inside 50 better given that means we're hitting blokes on the lead?

Fwiw - that is around 1 mark inside 50 per 3 entries. We also scored in over 50% of our entries - very good figures IF we were accurate.

If we play against a proper AFL team in a final where pressure is 10 fold on what the pathetic crows dished up I highly doubt we'd be able to have the time to pin point passes inside 50 all day long. Im thinking finals footy here not beating up on bottom of the ladder teams. We need a consitent contested mark inside 50.look at tigers last year in the final we played. Lynch and reiwoldt out performed hipwood and Mcstay comfortably evennthoigh we dominated the stats all over the ground.

 

[M Malice]

Can we kick a goal or take a contested Mark inside 50 yet... two things holding us back big time imo

What we are doing though is not allowing many marks by opposition defenders, we are bringing the ball to ground in contested mark situations.

 

[Dalions]

What we are doing though is not allowing many marks by opposition defenders, we are bringing the ball to ground in contested mark situations.

Both Richmond and GWS found us out in this area in the finals last year as well.
But what we did become as the year progressed last year was far too predictable which made us easy to defend.
This year we have added a fair bit more to our game and going through the middle a lot more. Which is harder to defend.

 

[Milux]

On reflection do we think the boys will be happy with this result? As much as I'm glad we have had a win I found it hard to watch. Sometimes it felt like we were being very pritty with the ball. Dan rich almost being caught holding the ball bugged me even though the kick he got out miraculously hit the target.

Im probs being too harsh but we should be able to finish better. Let's just hope it's a one off as the next 2 week's won't be easy. We won't be afforded the same leniency we were against the crows in terms of not capitalising.

 

[briztoon]

Its not personal; bro.

Rayner simply does enough. He doesn't want to kick goals or take the bulls by the horn and for a HFH and a return of one goal in four games is poor. I don't need to say anymore other than to say it disappoints me that our no.1 pick is nowhere in the same class as fellow no.1 picks, McGrath, Walsh and Rowell and other first round picks in recent drafts (take your pick of any of the three first round picks at Port from last year) and he doesn't look like he will be anywhere near as good and we're still waiting, whilst all of these guys are elite now.

Hey, if the odd 1%er is good enough for you whilst four gamer Matt Rowell easily has 9 Brownlow votes, then fine, but please don't trot out the argument that Rayner plays in a harder position when he also goes into the guts as well as HF as Rowell does then I don't know what to say.

Thing is Dylan12, at the draft you can only pick from the players available.

McGrath, Walsh or Rowell weren’t available in the 2017 draft.

I mentioned it at the time, it was a weak draft for top end talent.

Rayner was widely regarded as the number one pick. He was also considered a long term prospect due his lack of endurance.

Stephenson is possibly the best performed, yet still an inconsistent player from the top group from 2017.

Unfortunately Stephenson also has a rare genetic heart arrhythmia condition that caused our medical staff to rule him out of selection. It was widely reported at the time, that a hot climate such as Brisbane, would increase the health risk to Stephenson.

Our head recruiter, Stephen Conole has hinted enough times that had Stephenson not had such a heart condition, we would have seriously considered him at our pick.

 

[SL16]

Will Stef be right for this week? Haven't heard anything about where he's at.

 

[M Malice]

The more I see of Cam Rayner this season the more bullish I am on him being a very good player for us, probably another couple of seasons till he really hits his straps which will still leave 7-8 seasons of top quality output.