dlanod
Moderator
- Sep 14, 2006
- 52,399
- 81,189
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
- Other Teams
- GWS; CCMariners; NQCowboys; Ravens
- Moderator
- #1
Recap (don't worry, I'll keep it brief):
Well that was a bummer of a conclusion.
After a fantastic first quarter a lack of reward for effort saw us drop off and lose the next three quarters, despite having more scoring shots overall. While some of our troubles came from a relative difficulty level (see below), it was blatantly obvious that our goalkicking woes had finally come back to bite us.
I won't mention the umpiring.
Personally I'm even more upset about the loss than most because I had already checked that these two teams would only meet in the GF if they both kept winning and had been hoping...
The matchup:
On to our next opponent - one week at a time. GWS smashed all over the fairytale of the Dogs, proving that glass slippers don't stand up well to ogres. After being rough and tumbled out of finals in previous years by the Dogs and Richmond, this year they turned the tables and the Dogs clearly didn't handle the pressure. A lot was made of the Dogs beating GWS a few weeks earlier but smarter commentators noted that GWS had about a third of their best 22 out in that game, and being able to drop a bunch of rookies and backup players like Caldwell, Hill, Keeffe, Simpson, Sproule and Stein funnily greatly improved matters.
We also beat GWS relatively recently, but unlike the Dogs we did it while they were a lot closer to full strength - of the above list, only Simpson was in the team, and Hately was the only rookie. Coniglio was also present, and yet we turned in a fairly comfortable 20 point win. It was close enough to keep punters nervous but they never actually got closer than three goals from just into the second quarter. Add to the venue on top of that (GWS has only lost one final in NSW, but is yet to win outside of NSW) we go in fairly comfortable favourites.
This week:
We have one big advantage - our speed. Plenty of our guys have impressive speed for their position, starting at Cameron and progressing through guys like McCluggage (deceptively) and Martin and Hipwood for their position. GWS is very one-paced outside of Whitfield and Williams and our breakaways were key to the last match. Daniels has been playing more off a wing with Williams moving back, so it's not like this has changed significantly.
GWS has a lot more bigger bodies and attempts to dominate over the ball will be on a hiding to nothing and play into their hands. While Mumford had one of his best games last week, harking back to Crackers Keating with his punches of the ball forward while English attempted careful taps I think that will play to our advantage with our better structured midfield - GWS has had to chop and change their mids all year due to injury, so no combination has been able to form the gelling we see with Neale, Zorko, Lyons and McCluggage. This doubly hurts them with their single best all round mid (Coniglio) out for at least another game. de Boer will undoubtedly shut down someone but we've already shown we can lose a Neale or a Zorko and continue on our merry way with Lyons tending to stand up as "next man up".
GWS's defenders play similar to Richmond, with two great intercept marks, but with less speed and spread. If we've learned anything from last week it has to be avoid the bomb in without thinking about what's ahead. McStay and McInerney are going to be key in marking sure Haynes and Davis always face a contest, otherwise the ball will be coming straight back out. Once the ball comes out, however, both teams play quite similar up the boundaries so it will be interesting to see who thinks they have the advantage there and keep it up.
Our defenders should line up well on GWS's forwards, three talls for three talls and Answerth for Greene, with Hodge residing that kick behind the ball that he can do so well.
Unfortunately we've lost Robbo for the game but we have a like-for-like replacement in the team already in Berry, so I'm expecting to see him move up into the middle with someone like Cox coming into the forward line.
The result:
Overall it's hard to look past GWS's terrible finals record outside of NSW and our history at the Gabba. Layer on top of that the matchup earlier in the year and I'll tip a close fought victory to the Lions, who go on to beat the Pies the following week.
Well that was a bummer of a conclusion.
After a fantastic first quarter a lack of reward for effort saw us drop off and lose the next three quarters, despite having more scoring shots overall. While some of our troubles came from a relative difficulty level (see below), it was blatantly obvious that our goalkicking woes had finally come back to bite us.
I won't mention the umpiring.
Personally I'm even more upset about the loss than most because I had already checked that these two teams would only meet in the GF if they both kept winning and had been hoping...
The matchup:
On to our next opponent - one week at a time. GWS smashed all over the fairytale of the Dogs, proving that glass slippers don't stand up well to ogres. After being rough and tumbled out of finals in previous years by the Dogs and Richmond, this year they turned the tables and the Dogs clearly didn't handle the pressure. A lot was made of the Dogs beating GWS a few weeks earlier but smarter commentators noted that GWS had about a third of their best 22 out in that game, and being able to drop a bunch of rookies and backup players like Caldwell, Hill, Keeffe, Simpson, Sproule and Stein funnily greatly improved matters.
We also beat GWS relatively recently, but unlike the Dogs we did it while they were a lot closer to full strength - of the above list, only Simpson was in the team, and Hately was the only rookie. Coniglio was also present, and yet we turned in a fairly comfortable 20 point win. It was close enough to keep punters nervous but they never actually got closer than three goals from just into the second quarter. Add to the venue on top of that (GWS has only lost one final in NSW, but is yet to win outside of NSW) we go in fairly comfortable favourites.
This week:
We have one big advantage - our speed. Plenty of our guys have impressive speed for their position, starting at Cameron and progressing through guys like McCluggage (deceptively) and Martin and Hipwood for their position. GWS is very one-paced outside of Whitfield and Williams and our breakaways were key to the last match. Daniels has been playing more off a wing with Williams moving back, so it's not like this has changed significantly.
GWS has a lot more bigger bodies and attempts to dominate over the ball will be on a hiding to nothing and play into their hands. While Mumford had one of his best games last week, harking back to Crackers Keating with his punches of the ball forward while English attempted careful taps I think that will play to our advantage with our better structured midfield - GWS has had to chop and change their mids all year due to injury, so no combination has been able to form the gelling we see with Neale, Zorko, Lyons and McCluggage. This doubly hurts them with their single best all round mid (Coniglio) out for at least another game. de Boer will undoubtedly shut down someone but we've already shown we can lose a Neale or a Zorko and continue on our merry way with Lyons tending to stand up as "next man up".
GWS's defenders play similar to Richmond, with two great intercept marks, but with less speed and spread. If we've learned anything from last week it has to be avoid the bomb in without thinking about what's ahead. McStay and McInerney are going to be key in marking sure Haynes and Davis always face a contest, otherwise the ball will be coming straight back out. Once the ball comes out, however, both teams play quite similar up the boundaries so it will be interesting to see who thinks they have the advantage there and keep it up.
Our defenders should line up well on GWS's forwards, three talls for three talls and Answerth for Greene, with Hodge residing that kick behind the ball that he can do so well.
Unfortunately we've lost Robbo for the game but we have a like-for-like replacement in the team already in Berry, so I'm expecting to see him move up into the middle with someone like Cox coming into the forward line.
The result:
Overall it's hard to look past GWS's terrible finals record outside of NSW and our history at the Gabba. Layer on top of that the matchup earlier in the year and I'll tip a close fought victory to the Lions, who go on to beat the Pies the following week.
I hate the way they run this game. The fact that who you are and who you play for effects tribunal and umpiring decisions goes against everything sport should be.
