Coach Lions - Has the Fagan era already peaked?

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Never seen a better example of a mentally weak side. Every single football action they produced with 5 minutes remaining was in panic.
I didn't watch them today but I find it hard to believe that their last 5 minutes was mentally weaker than North's last 5 minutes against the Eagles a week ago.
 
Yep in 2020 it was laid out for them on a platter like King Henry VIII about to have a monumental feast. Again, Brisbane mucked it up....why....because they weren't good enough...

Pretty much. We were clearly not a top 2 side in 2020.

Saying Brisbane should've won it in 2020, is like saying a WA side should've won it in 2021, or that Collingwood or Richmond (or any other MCG tenant) not winning the flag every year is mucking it up because the GF is held at their home ground, and that = laid out on a platter.
 
Pretty much. We were clearly not a top 2 side in 2020.

Saying Brisbane should've won it in 2020, is like saying a WA side should've won it in 2021, or that Collingwood or Richmond (or any other MCG tenant) not winning the flag every year is mucking it up because the GF is held at their home ground, and that = laid out on a platter.

Why clearly not? You finished 2nd and beat us in the qualifying final. It was also your 2nd straight season finishing top 2. You just didnt show any physicality at all in the prelim.
 
Bulldogs 2016?
Played in Perth in the Elimination Final
Back to Melbourne for the Semi
To Sydney for the Prelim
Back to Melbourne for the Grand Final
where is 3 Road games in a row there?
 
Really hard to get a read on Brisbane right now. Their best is good enough to get them to a prelim and possibly even another GF, but their worst could see them getting eliminated in the first week of the finals. These are very small margins though - if Bailey had kick a goal when he was streaming through the midfield or Daniher had kicked straight late in the fourth quarter then they would've be sitting pretty inside the top 4. It should be pointed out that Brisbane do have an advantage of lots of recent finals experience when compared to most of the other top 8 teams.

As for whether they've already peaked under Fagan, it probably depends on how they recruit in the off season. We already know they are getting the best/second best junior in the country in the draft with Levi Ashcroft committing to them as well as another first round pick in Sam Marshall. They did the same two years ago with two other F/S picks Will Ashcroft & Jasper Fletcher. That's the kinda high end draft talent that's going to keep you up there even when your list starts to age.

Hard to see Brisbane not remaining a top 8 team over the next few years with the talented youngsters on their list, but if they want to genuinely continue contending for flags in the short term then they need to recruit more players in their prime while these younger talents develop.
 

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100% peaked .
They’re what in about their 5th/6th year of contending?, outside the anomalies that are Geelong and Sydney that’s about as long as you get before your A graders start becoming too old and not enough young talent to replace them*

* obviously the lions will be a little different here with their AFL assisted academy and f/s gifts so rather than a stark drop they should still be semi competitive in next few years before bouncing back with more elite academy gifts
 
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Never seen a better example of a mentally weak side. Every single football action they produced with 5 minutes remaining was in panic.
How much of that is on the coach, and how much on the players? I don't know whether the issue is Fagan not saying the right things to make the players have the champion mentality, or whether the players are simply incapable of having it.
 
100% peaked .
They’re what in about their 5th/6th year of contending?, outside the anomalies that are Geelong and Sydney that’s about as long as you get before your A graders start becoming too old and not enough young talent to replace them*

* obviously the lions will be a little different here with their AFL assisted academy and f/s gifts so rather than a stark drop they should still be semi competitive in next few years before bouncing back with more elite academy gifts
The father-son access (which is entirely luck) has probably flipped the script for Brisbane in a lot of ways. You'd typically see a team genuinely competing for a flag for about five years before they start to drop off (Brisbane first made the finals in 2019 in this window) but having access to pick 2 F/S draftee Will Ashcroft and pick 12 F/S draftee Jaspa Fletcher two years ago as well as a top 3 pick in F/S draftee Levi Ashcroft this year probably means they are going to fight off the natural dip that other clubs would face in this scenario. For this reason it wouldn't be surprising to see the Lions make finals for 10 years in a row. Get ready for the Ashcroft brothers era in the next five years - it's coming. It'll probably be like the Daicos brothers, but potentially more successful.

That's the F/S rule for you. It's kept the Bulldogs competitive for the last decade and now we see it benefitting the Lions.
 

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Coach Lions - Has the Fagan era already peaked?

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