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The positives thread

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Ashcroft's qualities have been obvious from the start but delighted with how much Fletcher has show so far. He's not in an acculumating role and being a winger for us can be a thankless task but he's wno some massive 1 on 1 contests and has show he has the skills and athleticism to be a great player.
 
I am confident Will Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher and Darcy Wilmot are going to keep our club in the finals mix beyond the Rich/Zorko/Neale/Charlie/Daniher era.

I can see Wilmot moving into the midfield with a similar growth arc as Elliot Yeo early in his career. You add Levi Ashcroft next year as well and that group of four - Will & Levi, Fletcher and Wilmot could be an incredibly dynamic mix for the next decade.
 
For me it's plain and simple: our ball movement. It has been absolutely transformed 180⁰ in the last month or so. There were signs of life in the Sydney game but now there is a whole ecosystem of options as we move forward, outside of our traditional "long down the line" strategy.

The challenge will be to keep it going as teams work us out and try to combat us, but there are only so many holes on a footy field you can plug. If you want to block the switch for example, you have to either bring your zone forward, which leaves space out the back if you are able to get a handball release going. Or you have to pull men out of your zone to block the switch, which opens up gaps where they were, forward of the ball.

Obviously all this can be used against us also when we are defending, which is why it's often a question of who has

(a) the bigger balls to take the necessary risks and
(b) the skills to pull it off

vs

(a) the ability to see the play unfolding before it happens and
(b) have the reaction time to be able to intercept and rebound.

I think this will be THE game within the game tomorrow night. Who dares, and executes, for longer, wins.
 
lionshine said:
I am confident Will Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher and Darcy Wilmot are going to keep our club in the finals mix beyond the Rich/Zorko/Neale/Charlie/Daniher era.

I can see Wilmot moving into the midfield with a similar growth arc as Elliot Yeo early in his career. You add Levi Ashcroft next year as well and that group of four - Will & Levi, Fletcher and Wilmot could be an incredibly dynamic mix for the next decade.
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We are 3rd, only our own fault we are not top 2. And we got 3 Rising star nominations, including the favourite.
 

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I'd much rather be the team that has to work on close games due to winning comfortably compared to being a team who has become known for them. Constantly giving up leads and having to claw back is not a recipe for success in finals.

Screenshot_20230725_131518_AFL.jpg
 
Nunez said:
I'd much rather be the team that has to work on close games due to winning comfortably compared to being a team who has become known for them. Constantly giving up leads and having to claw back is not a recipe for success in finals.

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emotionally must be draining for some of the younger players, having to keep coming from behind so deep into the game. I hope Pies keep winning and they just might be a bit flat and due for a loss when we meet them in about a month at Marvel.
 
On the quiet said:
emotionally must be draining for some of the younger players, having to keep coming from behind so deep into the game. I hope Pies keep winning and they just might be a bit flat and due for a loss when we meet them in about a month at Marvel.
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I hope we beat the Pies by 30 again in a few weeks. Remind them close to finals that there is no coming back against us with their poxy handball style. 😎
 
Ashcroft going down has put a pretty big (temporary) damper on my flag hopes, but overall I'm confident we can cover him. I still think our best footy is the best in the competition and our depth is fairly impressive. Each section of our team (def/mids/fwds) is elite. Someone just needs to tape a big sign to the wall of the coaching box that says "We're the best offensive side in the league" to remind Fagan and stop him from trying to shut games down when there's plenty of time on the clock. Just back our boys to score consistently through the last quarter and they will.

As an aside, I don't rate the Pies anywhere near as highly as the media does. Obviously they're a top 2/3 side and playing great footy, but I just don't buy the whole "20% better than the next team" stuff or the general vibe from the media that a Pies flag is a near certainty. Their record against fellow top four sides is 2-2 so nothing special there and it was 2-4 last year. For all the talk of them winning every close game, they're 2-4 in close games against top 4 sides across the last two years, so really they're just winning close games against lesser sides they should be beating by more...not entirely sure why that's so impressive? Certainly good resolve by their group but I think we have the talent to just blow them off the park (as we've already done once this year H2H). We're 5-0 against them recently so all things considered I'd probably rather play them in a Prelim/Grand Final than Port.

2023: Lions beat Pies in the Grand Final
2024: Lions beat Pies in the Grand Final
2025: Lions beat Essendon in the Grand Final

F*** it, we'll do it in reverse this time!
 
Daniel_Rich said:
2023: Lions beat Pies in the Grand Final
2024: Lions beat Pies in the Grand Final
2025: Lions beat Essendon in the Grand Final

F*** it, we'll do it in reverse this time!
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Not quite sure about the Dons being at the pointy end in just 2 years time but I think a Norm Smith for Joe in that 2025 GF would be just perfect :)
 

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Pretty awesome to think as well as the 2 losses were when we were lackadaisical in Round 1 about five months ago and the game against Melbourne where we put the cue in the rack too early, a lesson I feel we've learnt since. Big September looming!
 

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You can make a case that this is our year and put up all the data and comparisons and whatever else you need to make yourself think you can predict what will happen but the facts are that this is a fairly even year between the top teams , it's a finals series and the unexpected can sometimes happen , we're well placed to be in with a good chance but honestly who on earth would know.

We hope we play well enough to win at least 3 games against good opposition. Most times that's really hard ,sometimes it falls into your lap ,or someone elses.
 
Darcy Wilmot, Will Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher, Levi Ashcroft coming through.

With a little luck we are managing to rejuvenate the list and rebuild our youth stocks with elite talent whilst finishing top 4 and competing for flags. Bodes well for a sustained run of finals footy similar to Swans and Cats for the past 15-20 years. I remember Fagan mentioned when he first started it was his goal to build this club into a finals regular akin to the aforementioned clubs. He is succeeding so far.
 
BUMP!
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The positives thread

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