Preview Round 8, Melbourne versus the Brisbane Lions

[Section 5]

Final Teams
Brisbane
In Archie Out Martin

Melbourne
In Jones Out vandenBerg

 

[Mighty Lions]

With Archie a few years back he seemed a lot more confident. kicked a 2 goals against GWS in 2017.
You do wonder years in the NEAFL does not help with confidence. Or can make you go cruise control

It wasn't all that long ago we were being smashed by the other NEAFL teams in a competition where our list was in real trouble. Everything works in peaks & troughs but in saying that, the nEaFL Competition had been very poor now for the last 2 years.

 

[Mighty Lions]

To say that Oscar is not near AFL standard...are you serious?

Absolutely. Big O is great with his tap work but his around the ground stuff needs a lot of improvement and not AFL standard.

 

[Milux]

Jones is a big in for us. Old and slow. Our boys in the middle should run rings around him.

 

[Mighty Lions]

Jones is a big in for us. Old and slow. Our boys in the middle should run rings around him.

Not gonna be a fast game on Sunday because of the weather. I dont think the Jones inclusion is such a good thing for us. He is an old head and in a slog, he can work smarter.

 

[iBeng]

Jones is a big in for us. Old and slow. Our boys in the middle should run rings around him.

Great, now hes going to 30+3 us. Good work.

 

[Ralphy2017]

Jones is a big in for us. Old and slow. Our boys in the middle should run rings around him.

To use a racing term depends on how heavy the track is. His experience in the wet weather could be a negative for us. You would think he would be very keen to impress after being dropped. Still think Lions win but not by a huge margin

 

[irish]

Well what worries me is Archie is as useful as a cold pie and we are not exposing anyone on the fringes to game time , late season injuries are going to expose our under belly to unseasoned back up. Yes I know it’s great to have a settled line up but I can see it going **** up

 

[StevoJenkins]

Absolutely. Big O is great with his tap work but his around the ground stuff needs a lot of improvement and not AFL standard.

Have you seen Omac play a game? I think this is a very bad take considering what he does for us. He's not another mid like Martin due to the lack of tank, but he makes up for it in his contested marking around the ground.

 

[Chezz]

To say that Oscar is not near AFL standard...are you serious?

No he's not. While I agree he creates a contest up forward, he is useless when the ball hits the ground. His kicking at goal is very shaky and he can't ruck because he doesn't have the fitness, so we're stuck playing 2 rucks.

He's part of the reason why our forward line is so ordinary.

 

[jackess]

No he's not. While I agree he creates a contest up forward, he is useless when the ball hits the ground. His kicking at goal is very shaky and he can't ruck because he doesn't have the fitness, so we're stuck playing 2 rucks.

He's part of the reason why our forward line is so ordinary.

This is an amazing effort to put as much rubbish as you possibly can in a post.

 

[Tassie4ever]

Archie was shown up very badly in the NEAFL GF last season. By Eagles who was a street head in delivery.

That was it for me. I had had serious doubts about Archies' around the ground performance since forever but this effort did it. You hear of blokes playing above their indicated size. Archie plays well below.

In effect, the ruck stocks are bare.

We get by due to superior centre personnel.

 

[martinson]

Oscar's been very good imo all things considered. He contests hard up forward and makes opportunities for the smaller guys.

Pointless even talking about it , he's actually quite skillful inside when he gets his hands near the ball .

I don't know what people want from a 26 yo giant who's only played 44 games and btw kicked 27 goals ,but obviously a lot more than the club could realistically expect.

 

[Shaka7]

Smith was a no-brainer in my opinion. What happens if something happens to the big O in the first quarter? Moreover, the Dee's strength is in the ruck so why weaken ours even by bringing in someone untried?

 

[Section 5]

We just need to win this battle and we should get a win. Need 4 quarter effort from all our players though
Possible match ups covers most of both midfield

McInerney & Smith v Gawn & Jackson
Lyons v Petracca
Berry v Viney
Neale v Oliver
Zorko v Harmes
McCluggage v Jones
Robinson v Langdon
Bailey v Brayshaw

Then i believe we bat a bit deeper with stints from
Rayner & McCarthy v Bennell

 

[jonnobackpocket]

Well what worries me is Archie is as useful as a cold pie and we are not exposing anyone on the fringes to game time , late season injuries are going to expose our under belly to unseasoned back up. Yes I know it’s great to have a settled line up but I can see it going **** up

Do you want us to play a weaker side just so others get experience? I think we should play the best 22 players, which gives you the best chance of winning, which is the aim of the game.

 

[Dez!]

Jones is a big in for us. Old and slow. Our boys in the middle should run rings around him.

That'd be great for us given that means your boys in the middle are running around the wings and our forward line given that Jones won't be in the middle.

 

[Nunez]

That'd be great for us given that means your boys in the middle are running around the wings and our forward line given that Jones won't be in the middle.

Do you genuinely think he won't spend time in the middle on Sunday?

 

[briztoon]

I‘m another who is not a fan of Oscar as our long term ruck solution.

Personally, I believe we need to replace all three of our current rucks.

Martin due to age and body breaking down.

Archie and Oscar because I believe neither are short or long term solutions.

Oscar is a very good mark down the line and up forward. Apart from that, I don’t believe he has the athleticism of many of the modern rucks.

And with Oscar, it goes beyond his athleticism to his biomechanics.

He’s not a natural athlete. I’ve watched him a lot at practice. His running is ponderous, and very mechanical. Not fluid at all. He really thumps the ground with each step.

I also doubt he’ll have the fitness to play much more game time than he is now.

He’s also a witch’s hat when the ball hits the ground and is picked up by the opposition. should have been very obvious to anyone at Power game a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Scubaveg]

The coaches clearly see something in Archie that us supporters do not

Evidenced by them telling him they were happy for him to seek opportunities elsewhere last trade period. Notably nobody else was interested.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Ironmonger]

I reckon Goodwin is bringing in Jones to play some sort of specific role. Maybe to run with Neale, maybe McCluggage.

 

[Dez!]

Do you genuinely think he won't spend time in the middle on Sunday?

If he does it would be very minimal I would think, between Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Brayshaw, Harmes there aren't a lot of minutes for him to get in there. Even last season he spent a majority of the games on the wing and he trained with the forwards over the pre-season, with shorter games and Petracca playing heavy midfield minutes I just don't see it happening. The only thing I could see him doing is maybe a run-with role, he's had some success doing that in the past but Harmes has more recent success doing those roles (I actually think it's his best role).

I wouldn't be shocked if Goodwin just goes head to head against Neale with Oliver rather than a straight up tag, he did it against Cripps and Carlton and Oliver torched him. Granted Neale is more damaging than Cripps given that he's actually able to hit the scoreboard from the midfield, will be interesting to see which way we go.

 

[Slitherin9]

I was probably more worried about the ruck situation in this game before Stef got injured. Gawn normally smashes us, at least Archie can compete/jump in the ruck contests to try and hold even in that one aspect.
Stef is an advantage for us against rucks where he can compete at bounces then kill them around the ground.

 

[a mayes ing]

I was probably more worried about the ruck situation in this game before Stef got injured. Gawn normally smashes us, at least Archie can compete/jump in the ruck contests to try and hold even in that one aspect.
Stef is an advantage for us against rucks where he can compete at bounces then kill them around the ground.

Not this year he hasn't Averages l think 7 disposals or something. Smith will jump a lot higher than Martin but Martin is a lot smarter, able to win frees against other ruckman. Our midfielders just need to rove Gawn's taps l think.

 

[CarterS]

Smith going up against Gawn for most of a game is a real concern, he has ability to dominate