Tairy Greene
Premiership Player
- Aug 12, 2010
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lmao there's always something to nitpick isn't there??
2016 Pre-Season (All news, press conferences, training reports, Photos)
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The Lions are just being fastidious about accuracy. It's 2015 for another few weeks.
You should be using capitals for acronyms.
POBT
Brownlow Medallist
It is actually an initialism.
Ironmonger
Brownlow Medallist
- Aug 13, 2001
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Damn really? I've been saying lehmow for years. No wonder I get all those strange looks.
Darcy161113
Cancelled
- Nov 23, 2015
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With all the positive observations and reports thus far, I was wondering if there has been any players in particular that have returned in poor condition or struggled in training. I'm not purposely trying to be negative or critical. I am just wondering 
This is well worth a read, especially the part about Sam Mayes. Hopefully Lambo builds a good relationship with him and he signs on soon!
It was the trade period of 1993 and Craig Lambert – a best-and-fairest winning rover at Richmond – was hoping to get to North Melbourne. The Kangaroos were at the beginning of a steep ascent up the ladder, on the back of a young superstar named Wayne Carey.
Instead he ended up at the "bad news" Brisbane Bears, which had finished the season with just four wins. He had no intention of staying. "I remember saying to my fiancée, who's now my wife [Melisssa], that we'll be here two years and be back in Melbourne," Lambert says.
But Brisbane exerted a pull on the Lamberts, who stayed 17 years, raising four children now aged from 13 to 20. And while Lambert just missed out on the club's golden era as a player – he retired at the end of 2000 – he enjoyed its success as an assistant to then-coach Leigh Matthews.
And now, after five years at the Greater Western Sydney Giants, he and Melissa are back in the role where they were both most dearly missed. While Craig wears the label of welfare manager, this husband-and-wife team are effectively player whisperers and nurturers.
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Their job is simple: get players to stay, something that the Lions have failed dismally at since Lambert took up the challenge at the Giants. Five players infamously walked out at the end of 2013; top-10 pick James Aish has just left for Collingwood.
Most disturbing of all for a club that finished 17th on the ladder, the club had just two first round picks – Daniel Rich and Sam Mayes – remaining on its list ahead of this year's draft. It selected tall forward Josh Schache at number two.
Lambert's job, in an era of increased player power and easier freedom of movement, is harder than ever. But he is an incurable optimist, and he has the runs on the board to back it up.
While the Giants have lost the likes of Taylor Adams to Collingwood and Dom Tyson to Melbourne, and former number one pick Tom Boyd to an amount of money some might regard as speculative, they have been largely successful in retaining most of their elite talent.
"I kept on hearing the experts down in Melbourne saying: 'Give every draft pick in the world to GWS because within two or three years we'll get them back to their home state,'" he says.
"I thought that was quite arrogant, to tell you the truth, because I'd played at the Brisbane Bears/Lions, and I'd seen guys like [Simon] Black and [Jonathan] Brown and [Justin] Leppitsch and [Nigel] Lappin and all these wonderful players stay the course."
The Lamberts are all about building networks of families and friends, something the Lions acknowledge has been a deficiency in recent years. An example occurred in training earlier this year, when coach Leppitsch sprayed a listless Sam Mayes, without being aware that his grandmother had just passed away.
The incident was quickly smoothed over, with Leppitsch apologising, but it highlighted shortfalls in communication which the Lamberts have been brought back to fix. "We say we don't draft the player, we draft the family," Craig says. "For that to work, you need the whole club to have a holistic approach with welfare."
The Lambert's approach is the opposite of tough love. It's just love, and lots of it. "The whole emphasis at the Giants for the first two or three years was you knew that because they were so young, that they were going to lose, and they were probably going to lose by a lot. So we just tried to create an incredible family environment."
So, last weekend, the club had an induction period, not just for its new players: "We have been able to recruit six magnificent families to our club," Lambert wrote on Instagram. He likens it to a "big buddy system", and 18-year-olds living away from home for the first time need all the friends they can get.
Now, everyone in the club is responsible. "There's a lot of people at this football club that do an amazing job, and they might have different titles, but they all have a welfare component, which is critical for those non-football states when you're trying to connect those players and families, and retain them for a long period of time."
It was family that drew Lambert back to Brisbane, too. When they moved to Sydney, their homesick eldest daughter Brylee, then 15, told her parents she would be back in Brisbane the moment she turned 18 – a promise that she kept.
"We've always seen Brisbane as being where we want to live, and we always wanted to have our family together," Lambert says. "We had an absolute ball building the Giants, but you've got to work out where you want to live.
"So we made the choice to come back to Queensland and obviously we had the opportunity to come back to the Brisbane Lions and help out a club that we love."
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/afl...into-lions-20151205-glg9zd.html#ixzz3tRUoJGuu
Follow us: @brisbanetimes on Twitter | brisbanetimes on Facebook
It was the trade period of 1993 and Craig Lambert – a best-and-fairest winning rover at Richmond – was hoping to get to North Melbourne. The Kangaroos were at the beginning of a steep ascent up the ladder, on the back of a young superstar named Wayne Carey.
Instead he ended up at the "bad news" Brisbane Bears, which had finished the season with just four wins. He had no intention of staying. "I remember saying to my fiancée, who's now my wife [Melisssa], that we'll be here two years and be back in Melbourne," Lambert says.
But Brisbane exerted a pull on the Lamberts, who stayed 17 years, raising four children now aged from 13 to 20. And while Lambert just missed out on the club's golden era as a player – he retired at the end of 2000 – he enjoyed its success as an assistant to then-coach Leigh Matthews.
And now, after five years at the Greater Western Sydney Giants, he and Melissa are back in the role where they were both most dearly missed. While Craig wears the label of welfare manager, this husband-and-wife team are effectively player whisperers and nurturers.
Advertisement
Their job is simple: get players to stay, something that the Lions have failed dismally at since Lambert took up the challenge at the Giants. Five players infamously walked out at the end of 2013; top-10 pick James Aish has just left for Collingwood.
Most disturbing of all for a club that finished 17th on the ladder, the club had just two first round picks – Daniel Rich and Sam Mayes – remaining on its list ahead of this year's draft. It selected tall forward Josh Schache at number two.
Lambert's job, in an era of increased player power and easier freedom of movement, is harder than ever. But he is an incurable optimist, and he has the runs on the board to back it up.
While the Giants have lost the likes of Taylor Adams to Collingwood and Dom Tyson to Melbourne, and former number one pick Tom Boyd to an amount of money some might regard as speculative, they have been largely successful in retaining most of their elite talent.
"I kept on hearing the experts down in Melbourne saying: 'Give every draft pick in the world to GWS because within two or three years we'll get them back to their home state,'" he says.
"I thought that was quite arrogant, to tell you the truth, because I'd played at the Brisbane Bears/Lions, and I'd seen guys like [Simon] Black and [Jonathan] Brown and [Justin] Leppitsch and [Nigel] Lappin and all these wonderful players stay the course."
The Lamberts are all about building networks of families and friends, something the Lions acknowledge has been a deficiency in recent years. An example occurred in training earlier this year, when coach Leppitsch sprayed a listless Sam Mayes, without being aware that his grandmother had just passed away.
The incident was quickly smoothed over, with Leppitsch apologising, but it highlighted shortfalls in communication which the Lamberts have been brought back to fix. "We say we don't draft the player, we draft the family," Craig says. "For that to work, you need the whole club to have a holistic approach with welfare."
The Lambert's approach is the opposite of tough love. It's just love, and lots of it. "The whole emphasis at the Giants for the first two or three years was you knew that because they were so young, that they were going to lose, and they were probably going to lose by a lot. So we just tried to create an incredible family environment."
So, last weekend, the club had an induction period, not just for its new players: "We have been able to recruit six magnificent families to our club," Lambert wrote on Instagram. He likens it to a "big buddy system", and 18-year-olds living away from home for the first time need all the friends they can get.
Now, everyone in the club is responsible. "There's a lot of people at this football club that do an amazing job, and they might have different titles, but they all have a welfare component, which is critical for those non-football states when you're trying to connect those players and families, and retain them for a long period of time."
It was family that drew Lambert back to Brisbane, too. When they moved to Sydney, their homesick eldest daughter Brylee, then 15, told her parents she would be back in Brisbane the moment she turned 18 – a promise that she kept.
"We've always seen Brisbane as being where we want to live, and we always wanted to have our family together," Lambert says. "We had an absolute ball building the Giants, but you've got to work out where you want to live.
"So we made the choice to come back to Queensland and obviously we had the opportunity to come back to the Brisbane Lions and help out a club that we love."
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/afl...into-lions-20151205-glg9zd.html#ixzz3tRUoJGuu
Follow us: @brisbanetimes on Twitter | brisbanetimes on Facebook
the only players i thought looked a bit unfit, nothing to do with how they physically looked body shape wise, but when they were running laps they just looked f....d and really short of breath were liam dawson and josh walker, don't know if they had had an injury or not. might have been feeling off that day.With all the positive observations and reports thus far, I was wondering if there has been any players in particular that have returned in poor condition or struggled in training. I'm not purposely trying to be negative or critical. I am just wondering
Flickr slideshows don't seem to work on BigFooty no more.
Ne'er mind, piccies from Friday here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger-the-sheep/albums/72157661988650516
Ne'er mind, piccies from Friday here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger-the-sheep/albums/72157661988650516
Last edited:
- Banned
- #437
M.robbo looks like he doesn't have any fat on him at all. Absolutely ripped. Hammelman looks like he's added some considerate bulk.Flickr slideshows don't seem to work on BigFooty no more.
Ne'er mind, piccies from Friday here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger-the-sheep/albums/72157661988650516
Squizzy has been right at the back in all the running. To be fair to him though, this is the first preseason that he's been able to do any of the running before Xmas, so he probably doesn't quite have the base some of the others do.With all the positive observations and reports thus far, I was wondering if there has been any players in particular that have returned in poor condition or struggled in training. I'm not purposely trying to be negative or critical. I am just wondering
And it doesn't seem to hold him back during games anyway.
Flickr slideshows don't seem to work on BigFooty no more.
Ne'er mind, piccies from Friday here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger-the-sheep/albums/72157661988650516
LOVE all the pics, and the all the reports. Thank you all for posting and sharing them with us all. It takes me there, when there's no way I can be, and it's the stuff that keeps me coming back here.
Makes the off season not so OFF.
He was with Rocky in Melbourne at the AFLPA shindig, MM.
Was kicking very well on Monday.
That's a relief. Thanks Mr Rip
..oh, did you know Rocky is belligerent? According to HUN story on "next captains at your club" he is. They pick Andrews or Ben Keays as our next one..
Flickr slideshows don't seem to work on BigFooty no more.
Ne'er mind, piccies from Friday here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger-the-sheep/albums/72157661988650516
great pics, thanks. you also have one hell of a lense haha beautifully sharp sports shots..
The 2 pics of Harris Andrews and Dan Mcstay in full stride, side by side are amazing. Shows how unique AFL is when arguably our 2 best young players look so completely different. On that, Dan Mcstay is really a freak of nature, I dont think we really grasp how physically powerful he is.. Once he learns to run to the right spots he will be smashing fools..
also Jaden Mcgrath is one I often overlook but has a great body shape for a small forward and showed alot til injured.. unless we only play 1 small forward (Green) and rotate a couple of midfielders, I think he will play and often. sneaky rising star chance i reckon.
Voss the boss
3x Premiership Captain
That's a relief. Thanks Mr Rip
..oh, did you know Rocky is belligerent? .
I certainly wouldn't disagree with that.
Bucking Beads
Brownlow Medallist
I don't know if this belongs in here. Get a look at Tommy Bell. He must be the biggest dag in the team haha. All needs it to be wearing socks with those sandals.
iBeng
Intentionally left blank
- Apr 3, 2012
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Flickr slideshows don't seem to work on BigFooty no more.
Ne'er mind, piccies from Friday here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger-the-sheep/albums/72157661988650516
Said it on Facebook already but I LOVE your work Ripper!
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