Review Round 5, 2020 - Brisbane Lions vs. Port Adelaide

[BrizzyBandit]

Loved Birchal kicking in after a point.
Freed up Rich.... and he almost always selected the right choice

 

[Mighty Lions]

Mighty Lions you must be stoked with hipwood and McStay's games today.

Was awesome to see my boy hippy run around and slot one from outside 50.

BRAB, I was more stoked with the way our coach's changed the game plan all over the ground and were rewarded for it with a good all round performance.
The backline were superb. The way they double teamed Dixon was the reason he remained scoreless. Andrews gets the kudos for keeping him scoreless but, Gardner was instrumental in allowing Andrews to get a run in to spoil in a lot of situations where he would normally take marks. On a negative note, Ah Chee must be running out of credit real soon should he not dovetail in with the team instead of looking out of place.
The midfield were mean & hungry lead by Neale & Lyons. Loved the way they moved the ball into the forward line this game. It made all the difference with our key forwards and gave them a chance to show our coaching panel what they are capable of. Also credit to our mids with the unrelenting pressure applied to the Port mids when they had the ball. Very rarely did Port mids have the luxury of delivering the ball into their forward line abliet pressure from our boys.
Finally, very pleased to see that our forwards have shown that it doesnt have to be the Cameron show week in / week out. Our game plan allowed our keys to move much more freely without the normal congestion that stops our lads running into some space and then attempt to mark rather than just bring the ball to the ground. I know it's only 1 game but it has exciting signs that we can play a versatile game depending on the opposition match ups. So happy for Dan to show what he can actually do and also be given the chance to do exactly that. All line coach's deserve a big pat on the back and deservedly were all grinning like Cheshine Cats after the game. Go Lions.

 

[M Malice]

I loved it when the Big O channelled his inner Clark Keating (AKA Mr September ) and bashed the ball forward from a ball up a couple of times, must be a deliberate tactic as he tried it a few other times and didn't quite work out.

 

[CarterS]

“He played like Wayne Carey": Lyon and Watson's player of the round

Garry Lyon and Tim Watson have named their players of the round.

www.sen.com.au

Lyon had some great praise for McStay on the radio this morning

“He played like Wayne Carey, Daniel McStay,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.

“This bloke has got, I said this last year after he played a similar game, he is so much better than he thinks he is.

“If he only realised how much talent he’s got Daniel McStay, he could be something very, very special. He was my player of the round.

“These blokes, McStay, Esava Ratugolea, have ability that make you go ‘wow’, then you don’t see them do it again for a long time.”

...


“McStay has got to become McGo. He looks like he should be so much better than he us – almost like he’s embarrassed to be better than what he is. Hopefully that unlocked him on the weekend,” he said.

Love the Watson quote... McGo

 

[kenberger]

Saturday's game has almost convinced me that Charlie should play further up the field.
8 inside 50's, brings our other forwards into the game, less predictable.
At least when he's being blanketed, by the likes of Grimes for example, moving him into the centre could be a game changer.

Yes. I thought that was a great move on Saturday - he had a cracker. Forces the opposition into a new tactic if they went in planning to target him.

 

[Fagenslions36]

If Mcstay can keep presenting like that every week would be great . Thought ah chee was better the week before but he looks pretty lost in backline . Might be time for a change there. Rayner glimpses are starting to become longer reckon he has looked a lot cleaner with hands last few weeks .

 

[Dylan12]

I've got to rewatch and count how many times it was Harris who fisted away the long down the center kick-out... It just kept happening again and again. Would have been infuriating for a Port supporter.
Also to a degree, Ports defense heightened our forward...prowess. Goddamn McStay got basically an uncontested mark just outside the box...

Re: Dixon, the out of the ruck behind he got, if you were trusting of the commentators; it was one of the best goals of all time. Added to the shoddy camera work more focused on showing Dixon as close as possible.. I was certainly shocked when Rich collected the ball to kick-out.

What I want to know is at whose directive do Fox / Channel 7 turn a player into a poster boy that they think all viewers want continual focus on them?

Be it Dangerfield, "Sonny" Walters, Cripps etc and now Dixon, which I'm baffled how he has become a central figure in the industry or am I missing something. The constant Dixon commentary, video close up's over the actual play was absurd. Do producers actually think anyone outside of say Port's fans give one s**t about Dixon?

 

[Dalions]

What I want to know is at whose directive do Fox / Channel 7 turn a player into a poster boy that they think all viewers want continual focus on them?

Be it Dangerfield, "Sonny" Walters, Cripps etc and now Dixon, which I'm baffled how he has become a central figure in the industry or am I missing something. The constant Dixon commentary, video close up's over the actual play was absurd. Do producers actually think anyone outside of say Port's fans give one sh*t about Dixon?

He kicked 6 the week before, so he is the obvious poster boy for the round.
Our Man Harris pulled his pants down and in turn theirs too.

 

[Dalions]

I think it’s great if Matho gets his go.
I wonder if this means Zorko remains rested for another week?
Or if we have 2 changes?
Matho for CEY and
Zorko for T Berry

 

[Dylan12]

 

[Dylan12]

I loved it when the Big O channelled his inner Clark Keating (AKA Mr September ) and bashed the ball forward from a ball up a couple of times, must be a deliberate tactic as he tried it a few other times and didn't quite work out.

When it works, it is a great sight, however, on one of the footy shows over the weekend, they highlighted Grundy doing the same thing on many occasions to Collingwood's detriment as the majority of times the big knocks went to an Essendon player that wasn't in the congestion around the ball up / throw in and had space to easily clear the ball. I'm not sure if this is something Grundy regularly does and the Essendon players were schooled on it, but the highlights of Grundy doing this, whilst he was clearly winning the hitout, it wasn't to his team's advantage.

In saying that though, as you pointed out, Oscar did manage to knock it to our advantage, so perhaps he has better skills than Grundy.

In terms of ruckmen, there wasn't a better sight in footy than Keating smashing the ball 20-30m out of the centre to our half forward line.

 

[KissKiss]

When it works, it is a great sight, however, on one of the footy shows over the weekend, they highlighted Grundy doing the same thing on many occasions to Collingwood's detriment as the majority of times the big knocks went to an Essendon player that wasn't in the congestion around the ball up / throw in and had space to easily clear the ball. I'm not sure if this is something Grundy regularly does and the Essendon players were schooled on it, but the highlights of Grundy doing this, whilst he was clearly winning the hitout, it wasn't to his team's advantage.

In saying that though, as you pointed out, Oscar did manage to knock it to our advantage, so perhaps he has better skills than Grundy.

In terms of ruckmen, there wasn't a better sight in footy than Keating smashing the ball 20-30m out of the centre to our half forward line.

As good as Grundy is, his tap/ruck work isnt the best. I saw Gawn to it a bit yesterday (and there was an abc article recently showing him doing it) where was smashing it forward to great effect. Unfortunately for Gawn the rest of his team sucks but there is definitely a good option to changing it up from just tapping it down to nobody.

 

[Fatcat08]

When it works, it is a great sight, however, on one of the footy shows over the weekend, they highlighted Grundy doing the same thing on many occasions to Collingwood's detriment as the majority of times the big knocks went to an Essendon player that wasn't in the congestion around the ball up / throw in and had space to easily clear the ball. I'm not sure if this is something Grundy regularly does and the Essendon players were schooled on it, but the highlights of Grundy doing this, whilst he was clearly winning the hitout, it wasn't to his team's advantage.

In saying that though, as you pointed out, Oscar did manage to knock it to our advantage, so perhaps he has better skills than Grundy.

In terms of ruckmen, there wasn't a better sight in footy than Keating smashing the ball 20-30m out of the centre to our half forward line.

I thought it may have been a port specific tactic due to them playing one more around the ball and not having someone out the back. Will keep an eye out for it next week and if it continues.

 

[Dalions]

I thought it may have been a port specific tactic due to them playing one more around the ball and not having someone out the back. Will keep an eye out for it next week and if it continues.

I have seen him do it a few times, but I have only ever noticed it if he gets a clean hit at the ball.
(Ie: the other ruckman hasn’t got to the drop of the ball).

 

[Quigley]

Overall a very good game from us. I liked the balance we showed about when to go slow and when to go quick. When we went quickly we did it very well and were extremely hard to stop. That ability makes us so much more dangerous than last year if we can keep doing it that well.

I am one who has been calling for McStay to be dropped for a long time. Credit to him though on the weekend he had an excellent game and was a big factor. I hope he continues to play like that. If so again we are so much more dangerous.

This game also showed why J Berry should be a full time mid. We just do so much better when he is in there. He gets the ball and is dangerous with it and does a lot of things off the ball to free up his teammates. Stuff his flexibility, play him on ball for 75% of his TOG and we are better for it. Younger brother Tom also had his best game. He went hard at it, won enough of it and when he didn't put a lot of pressure on the opposition. He was a very decent part of the team defensive pressure that caused a lot of opportunities for us.

Bailey had a very good game. He might be close to the best in the competition at moving through traffic at speed. He accelerates quickly and is extremely evasive and usually takes good options with the ball in hand when in tight. He is developing quickly and extremely well.

Gardner had a good game overall but those couple of boneheaded things he does each game make me want to tear my hair out. Similarly with Birchall he was fairly good moving the ball forward and usually positioned himself well but there were a couple of times when his severe lack of pace was found out,

Andrews and Rich were both excellent and on form should both be in AA contention.

One improvement with Hipwood this game I thought was that he lead harder at the ball than he has this season. He got some very good looks as a result. Rayner got a couple of early goals and mixed it up throughout the match but other than those couple of early highlights didn't do much. I still want more from him if he is going to keep his spot.

The only one who really deserves to be dropped after that match was Ah Chee. He had a lot of busted tackles, was out of position regularly and turned the ball over too much. He has been given a fair chance to show what he can do and now someone else needs to be given that chance.

 

[Dylan12]

Further to this game, an ongoing negative I must say, is that our goalkicking is pretty amateurish at times, particulalry a lot of Hipwood's misses, Tom Berry's (on the back of previous games misses where he should just be kicking simple close to or dead in front shots), McStay's 15m miss and Rayner's easy snap when he should've handballed to Cameron which was similar to his own and Neale and McCluggage's misses last week.

Fortunately our misses aren't resulting in dropping games, but geez, these guys are AFL players and just should not missing such shots.

No doubt like everyone, I just hope it doesn't cost us any time and we just improve.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Sounds like Zorko is going to be 100 percent able to play Thursday.

Bit of a miracle diagnosis - he had been playing with a partial tear and inflamation in his plantaris tendon which was causing a lot of pain including increased strain on his achilles. It has now fully torn which is great news as it is basically a useless vestigial tendon that does very little. Looks like he won't just be able to play, but will be in better shape than he has been for some time.

Plantaris tendon: the nuisance bystander?

The plantaris muscle and tendon are considered unnecessary for the biomechanical function of the lower limb. Yet this benign muscle can cause problems if ruptured or involved in a medial Achilles tendon injury. Chris Mallac explains why, and how to manage an injury to either.

www.sportsinjurybulletin.com

 

[dmac_55]

That play in the second quarter when Rayner grabbed it from the clearance, dodged a guy and fed an attacking forward handball to Neale was amazing.

That was our play of the year. Starting at 2:36 in the highlight video. Neale then gets the 1 2 with Bailey and hits a bullet to Charlie who wheels and hits a dart to Hipwood.

This play almost reminded me of the Miracle on Grass goal! Such quick ball movement, absolutely sublime!

 

[jackess]

That play in the second quarter when Rayner grabbed it from the clearance, dodged a guy and fed an attacking forward handball to Neale was amazing.

That was our play of the year. Starting at 2:36 in the highlight video. Neale then gets the 1 2 with Bailey and hits a bullet to Charlie who wheels and hits a dart to Hipwood.

This play almost reminded me of the Miracle on Grass goal! Such quick ball movement, absolutely sublime!

Rayner stole that ball off Wines too. Battle between a couple of bulls and the younger guy won

 

[Tom14]

Overall a very good game from us. I liked the balance we showed about when to go slow and when to go quick. When we went quickly we did it very well and were extremely hard to stop. That ability makes us so much more dangerous than last year if we can keep doing it that well.

I am one who has been calling for McStay to be dropped for a long time. Credit to him though on the weekend he had an excellent game and was a big factor. I hope he continues to play like that. If so again we are so much more dangerous.

This game also showed why J Berry should be a full time mid. We just do so much better when he is in there. He gets the ball and is dangerous with it and does a lot of things off the ball to free up his teammates. Stuff his flexibility, play him on ball for 75% of his TOG and we are better for it. Younger brother Tom also had his best game. He went hard at it, won enough of it and when he didn't put a lot of pressure on the opposition. He was a very decent part of the team defensive pressure that caused a lot of opportunities for us.

Bailey had a very good game. He might be close to the best in the competition at moving through traffic at speed. He accelerates quickly and is extremely evasive and usually takes good options with the ball in hand when in tight. He is developing quickly and extremely well.

Gardner had a good game overall but those couple of boneheaded things he does each game make me want to tear my hair out. Similarly with Birchall he was fairly good moving the ball forward and usually positioned himself well but there were a couple of times when his severe lack of pace was found out,

Andrews and Rich were both excellent and on form should both be in AA contention.

One improvement with Hipwood this game I thought was that he lead harder at the ball than he has this season. He got some very good looks as a result. Rayner got a couple of early goals and mixed it up throughout the match but other than those couple of early highlights didn't do much. I still want more from him if he is going to keep his spot.

The only one who really deserves to be dropped after that match was Ah Chee. He had a lot of busted tackles, was out of position regularly and turned the ball over too much. He has been given a fair chance to show what he can do and now someone else needs to be given that chance.

Interestingly looking up the stats Rayner had 15 touches and 8 score involvements (highest for the team and one more than J Berry and Charlie who had 7 each). I agree that he is still a bit hot and cold in matches but I think this week was a positive step forward.

 

[bungalow_bill]

McStay > Carey

 

[iBeng]

Sounds like Zorko is going to be 100 percent able to play Thursday.

Bit of a miracle diagnosis - he had been playing with a partial tear and inflamation in his plantaris tendon which was causing a lot of pain including increased strain on his achilles. It has now fully torn which is great news as it is basically a useless vestigial tendon that does very little. Looks like he won't just be able to play, but will be in better shape than he has been for some time.

Plantaris tendon: the nuisance bystander?

The plantaris muscle and tendon are considered unnecessary for the biomechanical function of the lower limb. Yet this benign muscle can cause problems if ruptured or involved in a medial Achilles tendon injury. Chris Mallac explains why, and how to manage an injury to either.

www.sportsinjurybulletin.com

Damn, we are in some luck right now...

 

[Monkey Daniel]

Geez, that 2nd quarter was electric !! When you’re hot, you’re hot !!

 

[Leuy LongerCombo]

Sounds like Zorko is going to be 100 percent able to play Thursday.

Bit of a miracle diagnosis - he had been playing with a partial tear and inflamation in his plantaris tendon which was causing a lot of pain including increased strain on his achilles. It has now fully torn which is great news as it is basically a useless vestigial tendon that does very little. Looks like he won't just be able to play, but will be in better shape than he has been for some time.

Plantaris tendon: the nuisance bystander?

The plantaris muscle and tendon are considered unnecessary for the biomechanical function of the lower limb. Yet this benign muscle can cause problems if ruptured or involved in a medial Achilles tendon injury. Chris Mallac explains why, and how to manage an injury to either.

www.sportsinjurybulletin.com

Presuming it’s the same type of injury Robert Harvey had, where he jumped off the kitchen bench to snap it so he could continue playing the season out.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Presuming it’s the same type of injury Robert Harvey had, where he jumped off the kitchen bench to snap it so he could continue playing the season out.

That was plantar fascia IIRC. The plantaris is even more unnecessary.