Review Round 4, 2021 - Western Bulldogs vs. Brisbane Lions

Who were your five best players against the Bulldogs?


  • Total voters
    88
  • Poll closed .

Ralphy2017

Cancelled
Jul 16, 2017
731
775
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
After a few rounds what are everyone’s thoughts regarding the slow intercept defender with the new rules? Players such as Harris, McGovern have relied on smarts, anticipation and slower ball movement to get their positioning right to impact contests.

Its appears so far the new rule changes have increased the speed the ball enters the defensive area and severely limited players of that ilk to control the area.
Fair point even though it is only 4 rounds, but there seems to be a trend with lead up forwards getting faster and cleaner ball. For an All Aust (last two years) Harris has been well below his usual standard, and concerning is he has also given away a few frees in the last 3 games, perhaps because he is slightly out of position with the faster delivery.
 

Ralphy2017

Cancelled
Jul 16, 2017
731
775
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
He was primary ruck for most of last year. While it would be nice for him to be up forward a bit more it is more of a minor issue.

Adams was ok in patches, well beaten in others. Harris just looked lost in the first half positioning wise and the dogs did a great job blocking him out of the contest.

Generally the biggest issue the last 3 weeks has been our inability to pressure, win the footy and then spread. We’ve been badly out worked every week.
Adams was OK in patches but agree well beaten on a few occasions, and was moved around a few times. Last week against Collingwood Adams had a good last Q, but the first 3 were very ordinary, especially the 2nd Q, perhaps a few more games might get better but overall form since arriving at club has been very inconsistent.
I think our lack of speed in the midfield and in the backline is impeding our ability to run and carry and we have been relying on Rich and to a much lesser extend Birchall to try and kick us out of trouble. Essendon showed enough against Swans that if they come to the GABBA with the right attitude they have too much speed for us.
 
Slow has been how we've described the midfield but might as well describe the rest of the field as stagnant. Having quick defenders is useless is the opposition has set up and your own players up the field are just standing still or jogging. Really disappointing effort. Aside from a a five minute stretch in the third we just had no intensity. Were sloppy, lacked cohesion, stagnant movement from kick, no spread from stoppages, low pressure at the contest. Just no energy.

Positives were Dizzy coming back and looking like he hadn't missed a game, Adams building on last week's game; decent defensively and really utilising his marking to build attack. Very positive. I thought Hippy was solid and Andrews, despite copping a lot of s**t on here, is still playing very well, albeit not quite at the standard we've come to expect though there's not a lot of upfield support. Berry Jr completely shut out Daniel and was offering a lot outside that. Very good game. Clugg was good. seemed I can understand why we were interested in Hunter, we have no outside midfield runners to complement the sort of effort Hugh gives us. Rich continuing to be Rich.

Fair few negatives so won't bother naming specifics. We're missing McStay pretty glaringly imo. Fullarton has done as well as he can these last few weeks, including big asks in the ruck, but he's just not an aerial target and we're missing him presenting and creating contests on the wing and forward pretty ******* badly imo. Also not a lot of synergy with the forwards, lot of nothing entries, spilled or missed marks and Charlie has been woeful whereas I expected him to love life with another tall target. Wondering if Rayner's impact is also lost. We expected him to be a new big body and explosive presence in the midfield but maybe it was underestimated just how much impact and creativity he could have at at forward. Would've killed for him to be one of the players putting the ball forward in the first and third quarters.

Game plan might need some re-syncing. Or maybe just some players need a rest and refreshing but we don't look like a finals team atm. Startling amount of players down on form atm. I felt like we would make the finals, even if it's the tail end but that sort of stuff isn't going to win you many games, let alone make finals. Guess the Tigers had three years in finals without winning one and then missed them altogether before coming back as a force. This year might be the down year we need. Bit of a reality check for some players. Happens to virtually all eventual premiership sides so maybe that's what this is. Not great to be watching though.
 
May 20, 2015
1,657
3,976
Maleny, Queensland
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
It's only a small sample yet 4 games but we are struggling against teams that have high intensity. It was said the Swans jumped us and we were competitive against the Dogs. these high intensity teams seems to be running away from the ruck carrying the ball, we are being beat on the outside badly but doing ok in contested ball. With the Swans we would see 2 or 3 of them streaming away and our guys just slow to chase, the Dogs have always had that good in close handball working unit it gets out and we got burned. I feel like we are missing an outside mid fielder, someone just off the pack with the speed off the mark. Bailey is there, so to McCluggage, Cocaktoo is coming it's either our set up is wrong or we are not quite working as a unit yet. We are rushing when we have the ball and bombing away where these high intensity teams have that extra second to lower the eyes and hit the targets. Yes Neale is playing sore, Lyons was never a great 2way runner but we are being found out around the ball.

Just some structure issues there, Charlie is so out of form up forward maybe get him coming up the ground roaming the packs more.
 

Thedeftouch

Club Legend
May 5, 2011
1,995
1,891
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Andrews is an interesting one. He doesn’t quite look right, I feel like he’s carrying a back injury or something. He’s obviously a bit frustrated and you can really tell when he’s complaining to the umpires.

And despite that he is consistently one of our top performers according to the AFL Player Ratings.
 

Thedeftouch

Club Legend
May 5, 2011
1,995
1,891
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Also I’m sure someone else has mentioned it but we are missing Raynor’s dash. Can’t wait to see him back next year
 

Strato

Team Captain
Jul 7, 2017
302
345
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
We at times talk about Game Plan. What is it? - and what is Plan B. IMO we are playing as though we don't have a plan. We are 16th on the ladder. We were lucky to beat Collingwood and last night were beaten by GW S The ladder reflects our performances.
 
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marooned

Club Legend
Aug 19, 2016
1,060
1,596
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Lack of intensity, effort and way too many broken tackles. Very poor. Fagan saying we've played good teams, aren't we a good team?
 
Oct 29, 2008
10,764
9,549
Melbourne
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Other Teams
Blazers/Heat, ORST beavers
Didn’t see the game yesterday but the way I look at it we’ve played two probable top 4 sides (both away at suburban grounds) and gone 0-2 for a combined loss of 20 points. I don’t think we’re too far off but players individual form is a concern.

I’m hoping our fitness team are easing us into the longer season and longer games so we come home strong like we have been the last two seasons. This early part of the year is for banking wins though which we obviously haven’t been doing.
 

Scubaveg

Norm Smith Medallist
Dec 6, 2009
6,059
4,800
Carina
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Can’t see anyone in the 2s making much difference

Hopefully dropping Lester for someone who’s quicker, skillful or better equipped to play on small forwards will help the backline.

McStay if fit comes in for Fullarton.

Linc a bit lucky but I don’t think we have anyone else to come in

This is what concerns me. There is no Calvary we have no body we are ‘’missing” that comes back and makes a big difference. We seem either too slow or too lazy, I can’t work out which. Midfield desperately needs another top liner.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
Apr 4, 2015
11,068
19,521
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
This is what concerns me. There is no Calvary we have no body we are ‘’missing” that comes back and makes a big difference. We seem either too slow or too lazy, I can’t work out which. Midfield desperately needs another top liner.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Apart from a fit Cockatoo and potentially McStay we have no one waiting who's going to make much difference.

We've been up ,winning most of our games for 2 years and have been unable to sustain that level of intensity that we had right across a full game so far this year. We're not as good as some players perhaps thought they were. Everyone has to put in and that's NOT happening often enough.

We're still competitive and not far away but other teams have worked us out and capitalising on our slowish ball movement and lack of two way runners in the M/F.

We can regroup and come back this year but I'm not sure we'll come back all the way without improving our list in the M/F.
 
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