Preview Elimination Final vs Richmond Tigers @ the Gabba, Thu Sep 1 7:20 PM

[troppo]

The coach faces the biggest challenge he has faced in his time at the Lions.
How does he convince the players they can be competitive against Richmond?
I am certainly not convinced they can do it. I suspect the players will have grave doubts.
Before last Friday I believed they had the talent to beat anyone anywhere.
Have I over rated their ability? Have they over rated their own ability?
Their fate rests in their own hands.

 

[BangyBangy]

The coach faces the biggest challenge he has faced in his time at the Lions.
How does he convince the players they can be competitive against Richmond?
I am certainly not convinced they can do it. I suspect the players will have grave doubts.
Before last Friday I believed they had the talent to beat anyone anywhere.
Have I over rated their ability? Have they over rated their own ability?
Their fate rests in their own hands.

Bring it on.

I was getting tired anyways of watching repeats of our finals games from 2001 - 2003 where we just beat everyone easy and we all knew the outcome before the game started.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Sat Night going by twitter

Thursday night going by AFL

 

[Sproj]

All set for a disappointing end to a disappointing season. Prove me wrong please Lions.

 

[Thomasno]

The coach faces the biggest challenge he has faced in his time at the Lions.
How does he convince the players they can be competitive against Richmond?
I am certainly not convinced they can do it. I suspect the players will have grave doubts.
Before last Friday I believed they had the talent to beat anyone anywhere.
Have I over rated their ability? Have they over rated their own ability?
Their fate rests in their own hands.

The talent and ability is there. It’s all mental at this point.

We utterly tore apart Richmond in the first half a few weeks ago, then they fought back, we got scared and rolled over.

 

[vic_LION]

The talent and ability is there. It’s all mental at this point.

We utterly tore apart Richmond in the first half a few weeks ago, then they fought back, we got scared and rolled over.

Looked so good in that first half. Maybe this finals run is a blessing in disguise - get a win over the tigers and then who knows

 

[CarterS]

Go with a new forward line set up instead of the three talls. We looked pretty good before hipwood come back early in the year.

 

[Rioli2Rioli]

18 goals in his first 8 AFL games, that is better than ordinary for a small forward.

1 of his 8 games was as an unused sub , The kid has had a good start
also from the lions academy

 

[JasRulz63]

1 of his 8 games was as an unused sub , The kid has had a good start
also from the lions academy

Good to see the academy is working as intended - to increase the amount of talent from Queensland around the league.

 

[Milpool]

That's going to make for a rough Friday at work. Not keen.

 

[fugitive]

I actually have zero expectation this year unlike previous years where you expected the team to finally come of age only to be bitterly disappointed.

That's going to make for a rough Friday at work. Not keen.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

That's going to make for a rough Friday at work. Not keen.

I never sleep well after any Thursday game regardless of the result. Hate them

 

[Quested]

I reckon we are the most damaging team in the comp... For a quarter and a half. All season I've been waiting for it to 'click' and I thought it had happened against the Tigers. Then we just lost our nerve and went to pieces. So frustrating to see us basically not get beyond 3rd gear.
And the draw we had this year was probably the best we could have asked for, and I know every team has a shoulda woulda coulda, but if we didn't lose our nerve to the Tigers, and best Hawthorn like we should have, and actually list managed better against Essendon, we would have been top 2 finishers.

There's still time, I'll maintain some hope that beating Richmond gives us some confidence and then we can do Sydney at the SCG and all of a sudden we're buzzing again.

 

[Sproj]

I reckon we are the most damaging team in the comp... For a quarter and a half. All season I've been waiting for it to 'click' and I thought it had happened against the Tigers. Then we just lost our nerve and went to pieces. So frustrating to see us basically not get beyond 3rd gear.
And the draw we had this year was probably the best we could have asked for, and I know every team has a shoulda woulda coulda, but if we didn't lose our nerve to the Tigers, and best Hawthorn like we should have, and actually list managed better against Essendon, we would have been top 2 finishers.

There's still time, I'll maintain some hope that beating Richmond gives us some confidence and then we can do Sydney at the SCG and all of a sudden we're buzzing again.

All good in theory and the side is capable of it physically but they are soft mentally. They couldn’t even get up for the biggest non-finals game they’ve ever played at home in front of a sell out crowd. Nothing there suggests they will magically sort out their mental demons (and opposition demons) in the space of two weeks when they haven’t been able to do it in 4 years until now.

 

[Bucking Beads]

A team first mentality would be my first change for this match. I think we'll see just how committed these blokes are to each other and the cause in this one. The players know who performs and who doesn't they need to hold the coaching staff accountable also. Coaches need to hold the players accountable.

 

[lioninthesand]

I think the Zorko situation is going to have an impact on an already fragile group.

The boos will be loud and just having your skipper being loathed in such a way will filter down through the group.

I don’t want him leading us out, I think a change between now and then takes a bit of that heat out of it.

Can’t have him as the lightning rod and captain.

I don’t subscribe to this ‘things get said on the footy field’ either - no one says what he said, ever - on any field or anywhere.

 

[Squizz89]

Anyone hoping for a change re Zorko whether that be to his captaincy, and/or his spot in the team for this game probably wouldn’t have wanted to hear Daly’s interview on radio just now. In summary, it won’t happen.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Anyone hoping for a change re Zorko whether that be to his captaincy, and/or his spot in the team for this game probably wouldn’t have wanted to hear Daly’s interview on radio just now. In summary, it won’t happen.

which would indicate that the rot comes from the top.

 

[On the quiet]

1 of his 8 games was as an unused sub , The kid has had a good start
also from the lions academy

yeah that could come back to bite us

 

[lioninthesand]

I don’t think we will win, I’ve been prettty consistent that we don’t execute in big games and it being the Tigers, a Thursday, us carrying the Zorko embarrassment and the fact it’s a knockout final - I just don’t think there’s any argument we will win.

If it was just footy we are evaluating, us at home, we should win.

Unfortunately it’s the mental aspects.

What’s different for me though, is expectations. I think we all got our slap across the face and our reality check last week. That was really the ‘yep, it’s not our year moment’.

So now, having hit rock bottom, I think, let’s just have a swing at the Tigers, who knows? Maybe the boys will feel less pressure and play with freedom too.

Going in not being a ‘top 4 torch bearer’ might be a welcome relief.

Also would prefer to play the Tigers, let’s just face it head on. I couldn’t have handled the Blues game that was looking likely yesterday, being expected to win, Vossy, the love Fest and story that would have come if the Blues beat us at the Gabba.

Tigers go in favourites, no one expects us to win, it’s a different look. Let’s just have a swing and see how we go.

If not, we have Ashy on the way, hopefully it also is the trigger point for a proper shake up club wide - though with how cozy it is up there, I doubt it will trigger much change.

 

[lioninthesand]

Anyone hoping for a change re Zorko whether that be to his captaincy, and/or his spot in the team for this game probably wouldn’t have wanted to hear Daly’s interview on radio just now. In summary, it won’t happen.

Yeah wouldn’t want to upset Dayne or uphold standards. It might stress people out, they won’t have as much fun at training or at dress up day

 

[Cooties]

we're more of a glass half empty cohort here

You have a glass?

 

[Fagenslions36]

Uncle fagan and Daly should hang their heads in shame if they think that pi%s ant Zorko should be in charge of our team .

 

[Fagenslions36]

The whole set up is a shambles up there . When Daly has effectively gone from working under fagan to being his boss . Guarantee you almost he ain’t gonna be telling fagan anything . We should of done a proper search for and wide . This isn’t a once off on Zorko Carry’s on like a goose all the time . Literally worst captain in AFL and people
Wonder why we crumble and have no mental toughness cause we have him leading and setting the standards . If we are gonna except that he is the best option to lead our club we won’t be going anywhere .

 

[mebevan]

I don't think the problem with our team is talent. I didn't want to believe it until the Melbourne game because for the last three years the team has been growth based and young. But by gee we need to get some serious sports shrinks into the joint and work out the mentality for these big contests. The whole thing is between the ears. We would have played that first half better to just give every player half a benzodiazepine. Actually I wonder is that even illegal? That's where id be looking.