Unofficial Preview Changes v Geelong (Preliminary Final)

[TreyHK]

I have one spare ticket to the game available now that my friend can’t travel from Brisbane to Melbourne for the game.

It’s in section SP11, row B. Seated next to 5 lions fans. They’re great seats. Ticket price was $209 but happy to discount. Message me if you're interested.

Edit: Let me know if this isn’t the right place to post.

 

[Sproj]

I think I have figured out why some are getting nervous, if you watch all the preview shows, basically, Geelong should walk it in. According to the commentators, Brisbane might be able to put up a challenge but the speed of Geelong means they should run away with it.

I suspect our boys will come out with a point to prove. If we are in it at three quarter time, I back us to take it.

 

[Perrip]

Jon Ralph

Lachie Neale

9

Lachie Neale

Age

31

Ht

178cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.0

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

15.5

5star

M

4.0

4star

T

3.7

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

28.3

5star

K

13.9

5star

HB

14.4

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

4.0

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

12.0

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

7.4

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.0

3star

CL

0.4

3star

is in full ground match simulation drills at Brisbane training as we speak. He will play with the help of pain killing injections again but the Lions think he will be at close to 100 per cent on the day

Michael Whiting

Chris Fagan on Eric Hipwood

30

Eric Hipwood

Age

27

Ht

203cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.0

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.6

2star

M

3.9

4star

T

1.3

3star

G

1.5

5star

D

11.1

3star

K

8.4

3star

HB

2.7

2star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.1

2star

G

1.1

5star

D

10.6

3star

K

8.4

4star

HB

2.2

2star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.4

5star

: "He's carrying a bit of an injury, as are quite a few players at this time of year. Is he at his best? No, but he still plays an important role. He halved a lot of contests. Those things don't come up on the stat sheets, but we recognise them."

 

[Thomasno]

Jon Ralph



Michael Whiting

The way the media have latched on to the Neale stuff is hilarious - he’s been carrying this for months, meaning he’s had quite a few 3 vote games while under this “injury cloud”. Nobody knew about it until Fagan mentioned it in the post game press conference the other day, and now all anybody talks about with regards to us is “Will Neale play???”

 

[braddsey]

Michael Whiting Chris Fagan on Eric Hipwood: "He's carrying a bit of an injury, as are quite a few players at this time of year. Is he at his best? No, but he still plays an important role. He halved a lot of contests. Those things don't come up on the stat sheets, but we recognise them."

This is exactly what pisses me off with the commentary around Hipwood. Clearly he’s not playing at his best, he probably knows it, the club knows it. All the talking heads say he’s not up to it, should be dropped… but there is no better alternative at this stage of the season.
He still took 5 marks against GWS and should have kicked 2 goals. He can’t be ignored by the opposition.

Watching the replay, Hodge was suggesting to sub Hipwood (after he marked and missed the easy shot at goal), though Morris had hardly touched the ball. Hipwood is purely more visible so an easier target.

 

[Tom14]

This is exactly what pisses me off with the commentary around Hipwood. Clearly he’s not playing at his best, he probably knows it, the club knows it. All the talking heads say he’s not up to it, should be dropped… but there is no better alternative at this stage of the season.
He still took 5 marks against GWS and should have kicked 2 goals. He can’t be ignored by the opposition.

Watching the replay, Hodge was suggesting to sub Hipwood (after he marked and missed the easy shot at goal), though Morris had hardly touched the ball. Hipwood is purely more visible so an easier target.

 

[Nathan Barley]

This is exactly what pisses me off with the commentary around Hipwood. Clearly he’s not playing at his best, he probably knows it, the club knows it. All the talking heads say he’s not up to it, should be dropped… but there is no better alternative at this stage of the season.
He still took 5 marks against GWS and should have kicked 2 goals. He can’t be ignored by the opposition.

Watching the replay, Hodge was suggesting to sub Hipwood (after he marked and missed the easy shot at goal), though Morris had hardly touched the ball. Hipwood is purely more visible so an easier target.

It wasn't Hodges best call last weekend

 

[Perrip]

The way the media have latched on to the Neale stuff is hilarious - he’s been carrying this for months, meaning he’s had quite a few 3 vote games while under this “injury cloud”. Nobody knew about it until Fagan mentioned it in the post game press conference the other day, and now all anybody talks about with regards to us is “Will Neale play???”

It's so funny. Fagan used Choc as an example as to some players carrying minor injuries at this time of the season, and now everyone thinks Neale is seriously injured.

 

[Elixuh]

This is exactly what pisses me off with the commentary around Hipwood. Clearly he’s not playing at his best, he probably knows it, the club knows it. All the talking heads say he’s not up to it, should be dropped… but there is no better alternative at this stage of the season.
He still took 5 marks against GWS and should have kicked 2 goals. He can’t be ignored by the opposition.

Watching the replay, Hodge was suggesting to sub Hipwood (after he marked and missed the easy shot at goal), though Morris had hardly touched the ball. Hipwood is purely more visible so an easier target.

I’d be showing the group on replay the vision of the ball bouncing around in the middle of the ground with no player able to take clean possession until Eric, who takes the ball cleanly and feeds it out which directly leads to Fletchers important goal.

Eric is doing the best he can under the circumstances.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Neale is such a warrior anyway, that Marvel game he played a few years back where he was hobbling between contests but still made a big contribution. From memory he picked up two separate injuries in that one. Wish I could remember which game it was.

 

[Dalions]

It's so funny. Fagan used Choc as an example as to some players carrying minor injuries at this time of the season, and now everyone thinks Neale is seriously injured.

Although I am pretty sure that Neale himself mentioned in an interview that he had been carrying quite a serious Heal injury for a while.
So the media isn’t exactly pulling it out of their asses.
No doubt that he will get up because as Fages said, he is tough.
Hard to imagine he will be 100%.

 

[Tom14]

Neale is such a warrior anyway, that Marvel game he played a few years back where he was hobbling between contests but still made a big contribution. From memory he picked up two separate injuries in that one. Wish I could remember which game it was.

Carlton game in 2021? He missed about 6 weeks afterwards with syndesmosis and wasn't quite the same again that season.

How the team coped without him (Clug was leading the coaches votes playing as an inside mid for a couple of weeks that year) led to some idiots (definitely not me) thinking we might as well cash in on him when the freo situation popped up at the end of the year.

 

[martinson]

Carlton game in 2021? He missed about 6 weeks afterwards with syndesmosis and wasn't quite the same again that season.

How the team coped without him (Clug was leading the coaches votes playing as an inside mid for a couple of weeks that year) led to some idiots (definitely not me) thinking we might as well cash in on him when the freo situation popped up at the end of the year.

I could be wrong but just in the way he was moving it looked to me that his current injury issue is reasonably debilitating. Which is why I was really surprised that Fagan offered it up in the Post match.

Obviously he keeps playing but others are going to have to step up . Which Ashcroft did.

 

[Gadzorks]

I could be wrong but just in the way he was moving it looked to me that his current injury issue is reasonably debilitating. Which is why I was really surprised that Fagan offered it up in the Post match.

Obviously he keeps playing but others are going to have to step up . Which Ashcroft did.

Did Fagan had a reason for talking about it????

At best - it's fake and he is luring Geelong into planning on Lachie being down and not needing their best lock down player. And Lachie gets off the crash..

At worst - they plan on being down and not needing their best lock down player, so they shut down ashcroft and it works for them.

Surely fagan didn't just chat for the sake of chatting without thinking of the implications.

 

[M Malice]

Apparently Lachie has been wearing a moon boot post game for a while so the media could of latched onto it a while ago... need to hype up some drama for some clicks.

 

[Mayestro]

I could be wrong but just in the way he was moving it looked to me that his current injury issue is reasonably debilitating. Which is why I was really surprised that Fagan offered it up in the Post match.

Obviously he keeps playing but others are going to have to step up . Which Ashcroft did.

He didn’t volunteer the information- in the presser a reporter specifically asked if Lachie was ok after the telecast showed him grabbing at his ankle in the 4th quarter and looking in discomfort. It was then Fagan just said that he’d been carrying that for some time and was able to play through it so it wasn’t an issue. So his comment was more to settle any concern that this was a new injury that would keep him from playing the next week.

 

[paulige]

Eric is doing the best he can under the circumstances.

Fages nailed it in the presser - something along the lines of “it’s hardest to trust the players when they’re down, but it’s when it’s most important to”.

Some of the crap I’ve heard at the game (or seen posted on here) directed at our players from “supporters”, is disturbing. We start losing and emotional regulation goes out the window.

Time to back our boys in!

 

[buttermuffs]

The way the media have latched on to the Neale stuff is hilarious - he’s been carrying this for months, meaning he’s had quite a few 3 vote games while under this “injury cloud”. Nobody knew about it until Fagan mentioned it in the post game press conference the other day, and now all anybody talks about with regards to us is “Will Neale play???”

The wonders of having the tv show Neale clutching his ankle after the ball went out of bounds with thirty seconds to go. Not enough time to prove he was fine and close enough to the end where everyone remembers it.

 

[martinson]

Did Fagan had a reason for talking about it????

At best - it's fake and he is luring Geelong into planning on Lachie being down and not needing their best lock down player. And Lachie gets off the crash..

At worst - they plan on being down and not needing their best lock down player, so they shut down ashcroft and it works for them.

Surely fagan didn't just chat for the sake of chatting without thinking of the implications.

Fagan's human.

He was really excited after the win.

But my first thought was he was overstating a problem for tactical reasons.

 

[Dalions]

I could be wrong but just in the way he was moving it looked to me that his current injury issue is reasonably debilitating. Which is why I was really surprised that Fagan offered it up in the Post match.

Obviously he keeps playing but others are going to have to step up . Which Ashcroft did.

If it is so obvious, which I agree, it was.
Why try and hide it, or evade questions about it with what would be clear bullshit?

 

[martinson]

If it is so obvious, which I agree, it was.
Why try and hide it, or evade questions about it with what would be clear bullshit?

Yeah I was probably reading too much into it. Just seemed out of character for Fagan but he was really excited after the season looked done it was self evident Lachie wasn't right.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

If it is so obvious, which I agree, it was.
Why try and hide it, or evade questions about it with what would be clear bullshit?

Yep, no point.
And won't make one iota of difference anyhow as to how Scott plans for the game.
In any case, as long as the pain is controlled (which I'm sure it will be) I don't think it's the type of injury that will restrict Lachie. Certainly not in the way that Eric's is hampering him.

 

[Elixuh]

Akers back baby, good support being shown

 

[twhowler]

Watching back the highlights of the 2022 Prelim and casting my mind back to what happened on the night.

It was a BELTING so the lions need things to have changed for us to be any chance

I think some factors that will help us are:

NO HAWKINS - he taught Harris Andrews

31

Harris Andrews

Age

27

Ht

202cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.6

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

151.7

2star

D

17.0

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

8.0

4star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.0

3star

D

9.8

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

4.8

4star

M

3.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

MG

94.0

2star

a lesson AND Harris was tied up with him all night. Neale looks a good young player but he is no peak Hawkins, Payne might get him and free up Andrews to intercept mark?

NEALE gets a team tag to superb affect. Can't get near it. He had 2 awesome finals before the prelim and once he was a non-factor we really struggled. We now have Ashcroft and Dunkley, plus McCluggage seems more of an inside player. So it's not Neale or bust for us.

WE LOOK STUFFED - worth remembering we had come off 2 absolutely red hot finals last time. This time we have had one, but the Carlton final was very low pressure and we clearly took the foot off the gas. So the GWS final could be telling - i saw our KMs were the 7th most ever in a game and we don't usually run as much as other teams! But at least it's not back to back tough finals.

Obviously there are lots of factors that can go either way - no Coleman for us this time. Hippy was in good form last time and is clearly limited atm. No Linc to actually convert a set shot consistently! But i think the above 3 show why we are at least a chance of winning this time - whereas realistically we were no chance last time and got blown off the park.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I have one spare ticket to the game available now that my friend can’t travel from Brisbane to Melbourne for the game.

It’s in section SP11, row B. Seated next to 5 lions fans. They’re great seats. Ticket price was $209 but happy to discount. Message me if you're interested.

Edit: Let me know if this isn’t the right place to post.

TreyHK - keen
long time reader; just registered but not given Private Message privilege as yet.
Could you PM me please?