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- Sep 19, 2015
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And then after everything, the AFL in its wisdom throws this fixture at us. If this fixture had been assigned to Hawthorn the Victorian media would be jumping at them for going too far, but, hey, let's throw this at the Lions, noone will complain about that, even if they'd only avoided the wooden spoon on percentage the year before. First six rounds, five against this year's finalists. Three of the hardest road trips in the competition (West Coast at Subiaco, Geelong at Kardinia, Bullies at Etihad). Absolute coach-killer, a fact 100% obvious to anyone not clinically brain-dead who considered that fixture for a moment. Apparently none of them work for the league.
Still, we win that one game against a non-finalist and put in some surprisingly competitive (or at least high-scoring) efforts in a few of the others. Follow that up with another tough road trip to Adelaide Oval - still the closest match of our undistinguished history at that ground - and heads start to drop. Injuries start to accumulate. And it all just starts to fall apart.
It's not always acknowledged, but there's certainly been progression under Leppitsch. Andrews and Hipwood have come on amazingly rapidly given their body shapes. McStay's far from accountable yet but he's transitioned from the forward line to a defender who produces a some staggering 1%ers. He's got a long way to go yet but that's the rule with 21-year-old KPPs, not the exception. Cutlet has been a revelation. Robbo has gone from a Carlton cast-off to a star. Bewick has finally started putting decent games together in a row. Zorko has been getting better year-on-year. Bundy's discovered his potential to rebound from defense. Players like McGrath, Beams Jr and Clarke all showed development before being crueled by injuries.
There've been regressions, too, certainly, especially in this trainwreck of a year. And our playstyle has some pretty big deficiencies - but we've improved it too, even as our number of fit players - and our spirits - have fallen away. We leak scores, sure, massive amounts thereof, but not so much over the top, for example. Players have transitioned into new roles to fill the gaps and succeeded there.
Leppitsch may not survive this year. The numbers may well get him. Indeed the numbers are pretty much unbackable favourites at this point. But still, I think our list now is a fair bit closer to a flag than the list Leppa started with, and he does deserve a decent portion of the credit for that. Even if he's not the one to finish it off.
Still, we win that one game against a non-finalist and put in some surprisingly competitive (or at least high-scoring) efforts in a few of the others. Follow that up with another tough road trip to Adelaide Oval - still the closest match of our undistinguished history at that ground - and heads start to drop. Injuries start to accumulate. And it all just starts to fall apart.
It's not always acknowledged, but there's certainly been progression under Leppitsch. Andrews and Hipwood have come on amazingly rapidly given their body shapes. McStay's far from accountable yet but he's transitioned from the forward line to a defender who produces a some staggering 1%ers. He's got a long way to go yet but that's the rule with 21-year-old KPPs, not the exception. Cutlet has been a revelation. Robbo has gone from a Carlton cast-off to a star. Bewick has finally started putting decent games together in a row. Zorko has been getting better year-on-year. Bundy's discovered his potential to rebound from defense. Players like McGrath, Beams Jr and Clarke all showed development before being crueled by injuries.
There've been regressions, too, certainly, especially in this trainwreck of a year. And our playstyle has some pretty big deficiencies - but we've improved it too, even as our number of fit players - and our spirits - have fallen away. We leak scores, sure, massive amounts thereof, but not so much over the top, for example. Players have transitioned into new roles to fill the gaps and succeeded there.
Leppitsch may not survive this year. The numbers may well get him. Indeed the numbers are pretty much unbackable favourites at this point. But still, I think our list now is a fair bit closer to a flag than the list Leppa started with, and he does deserve a decent portion of the credit for that. Even if he's not the one to finish it off.