Review Round 5, 2025 - Western Bulldogs vs. Brisbane Lions

[WheildonTheAxe]

Gee whiz we're a good team at the moment

 

[thedaz]

What an awesome victory.

The thing I loved most about this performance is the versatility of the team. Last week we had Neale, Ashcroft, McCluggage and Dunkley contirbuting the most in the victory over the tigers, but this week we see Hipwood, Bailey, Ah Chee and Morris provide the offensive spark to turn around the huge deficit to a potential finals contender.

We're a truly multi-dimensional team that must be hard for opposition to work out.

I've got my own long-form analysis of the match here if anyone wants to read a fan's take.

 

[Section 5]

One impressive part of the win.
Often teams come from a long way back get to the front only to stumble the last bit and lose the game.

We were down 39 points and somehow got to a 14-point lead.
Then the Dogs kicked 2 to get back to just 1 point with 10 minutes remaining.
We got a lead of 7 points with about 6 minutes left on the clock and the game still could have gone either way
Found a way to score 2 more goals from Eric and ended up winning by 21 points.

Running out that last 6 minutes of the game was impressive seeing our last game we conceded a lot of goals in red time.

 

[RandomPest]

Morris and Fletcher have stepped up a gear. Both just look like future 200+ gamers. Morris's footy smarts is super impressive for his age and experience.

I was fully prepared for Logan to have a serious case of second year blues this season, and wouldn't have blamed him in the slightest. Instead he's added to those footy smarts by bulking up over the off season, and now he can crash packs and really provide a presence up forward. He had a great game today, and soon those marks are going to stick and he's going to kick a bag. Seems to be a pretty reliable shot on goal too (touch wood).

 

[braddsey]

That makes 7 of the last 8 games we’ve come back from a big margin now. I repeat my comments from last week, as good as that is, could you do us all a favour and just play a complete game every now and then please?

Is there a chance that other teams play out of their skins early, burn their petrol tickets and we carry on? We certainly stepped up in the 2nd half, but we won the first quarter.

 

[SeaOfFire]

As regards our slow starts, I suspect it is more a case of being reactive, not proactive.

We appear to wait to see what the challenger throws at us, before actually doing something.....that would appear to sit with the idea of "being" the premier.

The bottom line is.....however it gets done is totally fine. But letting sides run up a score before chasing them down is not going to yield a win every time....the Dogs missed plenty of shots today, which would have significantly altered the game by half time.

It's April....thus, we are a work in progress. Hard to complain too loudly, all things considered.

 

[bungalow_bill]

I meant they are pacing themselves in the first half of games.

That's how it looks. Ordinary pressure rating, and a lot of trailing opposition players if the other team has the ball in the first half. Second halves and our pressure goes right up, we chase down the score and run out games far better than the opposition.

Rope-a-dope

 

[jpmelb7]

I saw in media report is best start to a season for Brisbane Lions/Bears/Fitzroy since 1948. Interesting thing about that season was Fitzroy were 8 wins, 1 loss from first 9 games. Then 1 win, 9 losses from next 10! Fitzroy's best start to a season was 8 straight wins in 1924. Bears could only manage 2 in a row in their first & last seasons.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Caught in the wrong cheer squad

 

[lionsrules]

 

[Ceebee]

Gee whiz we're a good team at the moment

I feel blessed to have seen our Triple premiership team in action and now watching this team strut their stuff is very special .

 

[blueiris]

Caught in the wrong cheer squad

View attachment 2281293

Lol Beastmode standing with him too I’m guessing they still hangout

 

[baz77]

They need to work on Bruce Reville’s pivots. Seems to miss tackling and overshooting opponents that do a quick dodge. Opponent team supporters are going to turn that Bruuuuce chant to boo’s at some stage. It will get ugly.

 

[Nuggo]

View attachment 2281297

Wonder who the brave person was that stood up - any guesses?

 

[Cockliff38]

That was a powerful win. Not to sound arrogant but we do have a prime Hawthorn/Geelong vibe in the way we can find another gear when needed.

Lots of positives and great individual performances but I'm worried about the D50. We're missing Starce, and I'm not sure Kiddy will be the answer (when he's ready). West and Sanders destroyed us in the first half, purely based on their ability to win contests and ground balls in our D50. The Dogs' conversion for turning I50s into scores was off the charts. If Starce isn't going to be available for some time yet I think Dev might be worth a shot in defence.

 

[Nathan Barley]

That was a powerful win. Not to sound arrogant but we do have a prime Hawthorn/Geelong vibe in the way we can find another gear when needed.

Lots of positives and great individual performances but I'm worried about the D50. We're missing Starce, and I'm not sure Kiddy will be the answer (when he's ready). West and Sanders destroyed us in the first half, purely based on their ability to win contests and ground balls in our D50. The Dogs' conversion for turning I50s into scores was off the charts. If Starce isn't going to be available for some time yet I think Dev might be worth a shot in defence.

Who would Dev replace?

 

[uzabuz]

Wonder who the brave person was that stood up - any guesses?

Logan Morris mistook it as stand up if you want maccas after the game

 

[troppo]

I’m not sure that it was the same Eric that played both halves of that game. The Eric in the first half seemed disinterested, not willing to chase, lacking in energy. I thought maybe he was injured or not well. Possibly he was given the electric shock treatment during the half time break. After halftime he was like a man possessed, the best I have seen him play.

 

[Cockliff38]

Who would Dev replace?

I don't think you'd drop any of Wilmot/Zorko/Fletcher but perhaps move the magnets around to try Dev back. Bruce had a great cameo as sub v Geelong but he hasn't exactly made the wing his own since.

We get great rebound and run from those three, and Noah is doing his job, but I don't think the D50 mix is quite right atm.

 

[cotter101]

I thought Hipwood had been carrying an injury and called for him to be dropped approaching half time.

He made me look like a fool!

Eric has a lot of potential and needs to apply himself like that week in, week out. Huge second half and exciting to watch when he is like that.

 

[Elixuh]

Surprised there aren't more votes for the Zork. Thought he set up a lot of our ball movement and scoring.

 

[Darren Downunder]

What an awesome victory.

The thing I loved most about this performance is the versatility of the team. Last week we had Neale, Ashcroft, McCluggage and Dunkley contirbuting the most in the victory over the tigers, but this week we see Hipwood, Bailey, Ah Chee and Morris provide the offensive spark to turn around the huge deficit to a potential finals contender.

We're a truly multi-dimensional team that must be hard for opposition to work out.

I've got my own long-form analysis of the match here if anyone wants to read a fan's take.

Hey, Daragh, that was a great article. Thanks so much for writing it.
I’ve subscribed to your blog and I’m looking forward to more of your stuff.
Cheers

 

[BrainOfMorbius]

I thought Hipwood had been carrying an injury and called for him to be dropped approaching half time.

He made me look like a fool!

Eric has a lot of potential and needs to apply himself like that week in, week out. Huge second half and exciting to watch when he is like that.

We'd all love Eric to be able to play that way all the time, I think we just have to accept that that's an unrealistic expectation. He's not that sort of player. That's not to say he doesn't make a valuable contribution the rest of the time; personally I think he plays an underappreciated role in many of our goal scoring opportunities even if he's not the one finishing them himself. But he's not a monster forward and he never will be. Sometimes the circumstances are just right for him and he gets off the chain. Enjoy those moments when you get them! The coaching panel clearly rates him much higher than the general footy public, and that's good enough for me.

Besides, what would the Brisbane Lions be without an enigmatic key forward? Name me a more iconic couple, I'll wait

 

[GenericUsername202]

imagine how much better we will be with kiddy back as well.

 

[BrainOfMorbius]

imagine how much better we will be with kiddy back as well.

Kiddy, Starce, Kai, Doedee... Maybe even Linc. It's only R5, plenty of time for those guys to come back and make us even better