Review Round 5, 2021 - Brisbane Lions vs. Essendon

Who were your five best players against Essendon?


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Apr 4, 2015
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I don't see it as that equivocal against a side like Essendon. With our midfield on top and tall forwards creating problems, I think we could have really troubled them on a dry deck.
I reckon we would have completely torpedoed them on the dry.

We were a different side to previous weeks from the first bounce.

I'm hoping we've taken it slower this year due to our recent deep campaigns and the longer season.
 

davemc_lions

Premiership Player
Aug 21, 2013
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A say most of those frees the bombers got where there.. A few like Hipwoods kick up the line 50-50.
Bailey moved before play on was called. Honestly should of been 50 instead of play on.
Problem I have like last week against the Dogs it is the calls we do not get hurt. The throws that turn into goals for opposition etc
 
How was Cockatoo?


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Will need some games to find form, but reckon he will best 22 in the second half of the season and play an important role.
 
Oct 13, 2001
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I actually think Tom Berry has a higher ceiling than his older brother now

His kick to the goal square that resulted in Charlie's only goal was a beautifully weighted work of art.

He's got some smarts around goal and a bit of mongrel that I really like.

He's raw but well worth persevering with
 
Understanding last night is pretty simple. They were pissed off for four weeks in a row, and last night they were in their home and they weren't taking crap from anyone.

They were focused and in the zone. Wet, dry didn't matter.

Someone needs to keep them narky. It's so much fun to watch.
 
Best all-round team performance & effort from the club, this season against any opposition we have faced.

Hopefully now this performance & effort can last for the whole season against the rest of teams in the league.

 
Last edited:
Apr 4, 2015
11,072
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I actually think Tom Berry has a higher ceiling than his older brother now

His kick to the goal square that resulted in Charlie's only goal was a beautifully weighted work of art.

He's got some smarts around goal and a bit of mongrel that I really like.

He's raw but well worth persevering with
Jarrod really seems to struggle skill wise and awareness wise.

Probably ever since he first did his shoulder.

The intensity is still there . Hoping it's just a lull and he gets back to what he first promised.

Tommy is a terrier and will get there one way or another. A keeper.
 
Sep 16, 2001
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I half-heartedly want there to be an objective analysis to see if we're all just whinging and we're supporters of a bunch of flogs, its a conspiracy/surrounded by incompetent umps, or a slightly more realistic middle ground somewhere there.

Read elsewhere and we get arm-chair rides by the umps most weeks. I have given up trying to be objective about it, I just call 'THAT WAS A THROW' and stay happy, knowing I would be better than any of those blind umps out there ;)

good to be watching from a couch

It is interesting to me (as a educator of cricket umpires) that the AFL umpires always give the benefit of the doubt to the handballer/thrower.

Under the Laws of Cricket the Law that covers a foot no balls, both back and front foot, defines what a legal delivery is and then states:
If the bowler’s end umpire is not satisfied that all of these three conditions have been met, he/she shall call and signal No ball.

Under the Laws of Cricket it is obvious that the benefit of doubt should go against the bowler but this rarely happens in practice.

I think that incorrect unpenalized disposal of the ball has increased markedly in the last few years. During the first quarter of Richmond's game Dusty several times made what could only be described as a 'handball like disposal of the ball' which is the issue that FLVanLandingham brings up.

So should a directive be given to umpires to change the way doubt is viewed in these situations?
 

lioninthesand

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 22, 2016
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I half-heartedly want there to be an objective analysis to see if we're all just whinging and we're supporters of a bunch of flogs, its a conspiracy/surrounded by incompetent umps, or a slightly more realistic middle ground somewhere there.

Read elsewhere and we get arm-chair rides by the umps most weeks. I have given up trying to be objective about it, I just call 'THAT WAS A THROW' and stay happy, knowing I would be better than any of those blind umps out there ;)

good to be watching from a couch


The notion umps would 'have it in for a side' or 'favour' a side, which is essentially match fixing, is ludicrous IMO.

The most likely scenario is - our pressure is down, but we are under strict instruction to up it - so players are impacting the oppo more thus giving away frees. Tigers are the worst free kick team in the comp, but embrace that stat and they know it comes with being a physical, high pressure side.

Put simply we gave away a bunch of silly frees and.. got unlucky on a few. Plus, bombers were dancing around the edges like school kids, hardly going to give away many frees when you arn't in the contest.

I think if we play good footy, get our pressure right without over doing it and stop giving away stupid frees all over the ground then we will be back on the good side of the ledger in no time.
 
Jan 13, 2016
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Completely agree with those you mentioned. Ballenden was hardly bruise free. In fact, I was surprised to see at least 3 don't argues from him to his opponents. It was the best I can remember seeing him play at any level.
Best game I have seen Ballenden play. Disposal was elite. Read the flight of the ball well. I think we need to accept for the time being that his development is going top be a slow burn but at the moment he is worth persevering with. Still young.
 
Jan 13, 2016
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A say most of those frees the bombers got where there.. A few like Hipwoods kick up the line 50-50.
Bailey moved before play on was called. Honestly should of been 50 instead of play on.
Problem I have like last week against the Dogs it is the calls we do not get hurt. The throws that turn into goals for opposition etc
Agreed. Most frees are there and this was generally the case with both us and the Bombers. Unfortunately it was the 50/50 frees we did not receive that was the comparison point with how many Essendon received.
 

morsie

All Australian
Aug 19, 2009
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A few observations on the umpiring bearing in mind I have only seen the first quarter at this stage.Our game is extremely difficult to umpire and each contested ball situation could lead to a dozen free kicks if the rules were interpreted literally. It has got better. I can recall games many years ago with well over 100 free kicks from a single umpire. The skilll in umpiring is to pay the necessary decisions and not be overly technical.
The way the game is umpired obviously changes. A few year's ago , McStay's mark in the first would have been reversed for hands in the back.
I am not a believer in conspiracy theories but do believe that a couple of our players have had their cards marked. Zorko got whacked in the chops almost in the goal square , play on.I think there is a view that he overacts so no free kick. Later Mitch burst between two Essendon players , eyes on the ball. One got knocked over. "Push in the back ".A highly novel decision considering I couldn't see any push.
The rest I put down to rub of the green or as another poster said, intensity at the contest.
 
May 5, 2013
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I reckon we would have completely torpedoed them on the dry.

We were a different side to previous weeks from the first bounce.

I'm hoping we've taken it slower this year due to our recent deep campaigns and the longer season.
Not sure if it was out of design or as you say we played a longer season, therefore shorter pre season, and result you could see a few players blowing up the first two games, a lot of hands on hips.
Cluggas first 2 games , he was struggling with the pace .
Last week he was better for the previous run.
Saturday night he was back full of beans, great game .

The team were lowering their eyes respecting more leads, much better.
I also thought Birch had a great settling game for us, he looked like he was kicking longer than I've ever seen him, perfect on a wet night.
Zorks and McCarthy were like kids happily playing in the rain, they were right in their elements.
couldn't wipe the smile off Zorko in the first.
 
I half-heartedly want there to be an objective analysis to see if we're all just whinging and we're supporters of a bunch of flogs, its a conspiracy/surrounded by incompetent umps, or a slightly more realistic middle ground somewhere there.

Read elsewhere and we get arm-chair rides by the umps most weeks. I have given up trying to be objective about it, I just call 'THAT WAS A THROW' and stay happy, knowing I would be better than any of those blind umps out there ;)

good to be watching from a couch
I've considered this for a few weeks now... would be an interesting concept. Don't do it live - do it on the replay, and have 1 or 2 of your more reasonable fans of each side sit down together with a TV and a couple of beers and analyse things together.

You'd end up looking at the calls, and judging each as Reasonable, Marginal (where it's sorta there, or where there isn't agreement between the opposing fans), or Poor.
Then you've had non-calls, judging as obvious or questionable.

Wouldn't take too much to organise, aside from trying to make sure you actually found fans who wanted to analyse, and didn't mind if their team came out ahead, as opposed to one-eyed "I want to show that my team were hard done-by" fans. Could either be done as a live stream or highlights package, or just release the notes after the analysis. Could be run by BigFooty pretty easily.
 
A few observations on the umpiring bearing in mind I have only seen the first quarter at this stage.Our game is extremely difficult to umpire and each contested ball situation could lead to a dozen free kicks if the rules were interpreted literally. It has got better. I can recall games many years ago with well over 100 free kicks from a single umpire. The skilll in umpiring is to pay the necessary decisions and not be overly technical.
The way the game is umpired obviously changes. A few year's ago , McStay's mark in the first would have been reversed for hands in the back.
I am not a believer in conspiracy theories but do believe that a couple of our players have had their cards marked. Zorko got whacked in the chops almost in the goal square , play on.I think there is a view that he overacts so no free kick. Later Mitch burst between two Essendon players , eyes on the ball. One got knocked over. "Push in the back ".A highly novel decision considering I couldn't see any push.
The rest I put down to rub of the green or as another poster said, intensity at the contest.
The Mitch one was a poor call. That should've been play on.

The Zorko one - it looked like he could've copped something, but he hammed it up so much, I wouldn't have called it either. He really does cry wolf far too often.
 

T Rick

Premium Platinum
Sep 20, 2007
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A few observations on the umpiring bearing in mind I have only seen the first quarter at this stage.Our game is extremely difficult to umpire and each contested ball situation could lead to a dozen free kicks if the rules were interpreted literally. It has got better. I can recall games many years ago with well over 100 free kicks from a single umpire. The skilll in umpiring is to pay the necessary decisions and not be overly technical.
The way the game is umpired obviously changes. A few year's ago , McStay's mark in the first would have been reversed for hands in the back.
I am not a believer in conspiracy theories but do believe that a couple of our players have had their cards marked. Zorko got whacked in the chops almost in the goal square , play on.I think there is a view that he overacts so no free kick. Later Mitch burst between two Essendon players , eyes on the ball. One got knocked over. "Push in the back ".A highly novel decision considering I couldn't see any push.
The rest I put down to rub of the green or as another poster said, intensity at the contest.
Agreed - Zorks and Mitch really get what appears a less than balanced deal from the umps...must be very frustrating for them.
 

Quigley

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Sep 23, 2006
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Zorks exaggerates contact. If you get the reputation for that, then you sometimes won't get decisions you should, but there is no one to blame for that but him.

No if the contact is there (which in virtually all cases it actually is) the umpire is to blame for not calling it. If he exaggerates the contact that does not mean the contact is not there. If it is there it should paid and the umpires are entirely in the wrong by not doing so.

The umpires look for every excuse to pay a free against Robinson and Zorko and for every excuse to not pay a free to either of them. It is blatant bias whether conscious or not. It happens entirely too frequently for it to not be the case.

More generally the umpires are unlikely to go into games with the plan of not paying frees to the Lions but at some stage the AFL has to acknowledge the fact that calls that are being made against the Lions are not being made against the other team and the AFL has to step in to address. It quite simply should not be happening at this level of the sport and the blatant inconsistency should raise integrity questions. If it was a Victorian club it would not happen but it seems acceptable for it to be happen to the Lions. It is also crap that the media do not call them on it quite frankly.
 

Quigley

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 23, 2006
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FWIW I am also a believer that the umpires often square up lopsided free counts in the last quarter of games. Again happens too much to be a pure co-incidence.

The last two weeks the free counts at 3/4 time have been:

23-10
28-10

Those counts in no way accurately reflect the level of infringing going on in those games to that stage in each.
 

davemc_lions

Premiership Player
Aug 21, 2013
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FWIW I am also a believer that the umpires often square up lopsided free counts in the last quarter of games. Again happens too much to be a pure co-incidence.
Not sure on purpose. Well hopefully not. Although I assume they look at the stats and think maybe I been more one sided.
Then lean the other way.

It also when you get the frees and where and outcome. Pretty sure the Cats free would of been paid in first qtr not 1 min to go.
They do seem to hold the whistle in close games 5-10 mins to go
Example if you got 3 out of your 5-6 goal lead from frees even if there. The square up for a goal or two the other way are now too late
98%+ of free's paid are there or at least 50-50.. be less then 2% paid that are wrong
Frees not paid well there are a lot.. Throws away from umps. Marks like Linc's in the first qtr not paid.
 
May 20, 2015
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Ballenden seems to be finally realising how big he is.

If we can just quicken him up a little and he can learn to mark consistently over his head we might have something. He didn't shirk it in his Seniors game and I think he's toughening up.
I kinda agree with Ballenden, he played well, I watched the match and I've not been a supporter of his. BUT we should remember he was the top accuracy kicker in his draft year and for a lanky kid that was good. I do think he is a bit 'bruise free' for want of a better term and I think the club has been determined with his size to turn him into a key position player or second ruck type. BUT - again in open play he does really well, generally clean with his hands and his disposal is outstanding. He is probably a 'really tall' back flank, or even wing. where he can get out and use his height against opponents in those positions he has a good height advantage on. I still don't think he will be on our list next year but with a licence to roam more and play as an intercepting backman he could reinvent himself or get a shot at another club.
 
May 20, 2015
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How was Cockatoo?


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Hmmmmm yeah - he played, that's about all. He did play a bit in each Qtr and got through uninjured. Maybe I was expecting something like an old gun slinger, every now and then you would see a glimpse of brilliance, but no. There would have been 16 others that stood out more in the reserves including the academy kids. But We/I have to remember he has played very little football in the last few years. If Lync McCarthy is the example, then he just needs regular games to find his way back. I kinda see his as the Zorko replacement over time so for me, I can wait but he ain't burning up the track on that performance.
 
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