Preview Lions v Suns Sunday 5th May @ 7.10 pm The Gabba

[braddsey]

Daniel Hoyne (champion data) still backing us. Gave us a mulligan for 2nd half against GWS, on the basis of the 5-day turnaround after the Geelong game. Kick straight, we can turn it around.

...and Gerard Healy just called the match the Pineapple-Grapple!

Maybe the pies can donate this to the cause:

 

[Berrygood]

Hipwood really should be dropped. Goes missing for 3 quarters of the game every week. The when he gets a chance directly in front he’s a 50/50 proposition. That’s not AFL standard. Time to give others a crack. It’s like we are playing 2 short in the forward line atm with him and Gardiner up there.

Even Fort looks more dangerous up forward than Hipwood. And in all honesty whenever he has been stationed forward Fort has actually done alright. I thought he provided a really good contest throughout the game against Collingwood.

Morris, Fort and Daniher rotating up forward would be my way to go this week. Have two rucks go up against Witts.

If Morris is cooked in the third qtr then bring some fresh legs on.

Ryan doing ok at reserves level but needs a couple more weeks to build fitness.

If they are going to keep bombing into a pack or kicking to a 2 on 1, it won't matter what fwds you pick the result will be the same.

 

[McIvor]

Very concerning that Harris said in his PC today that he believes the effort and intensity has been there the past few weeks.

Knock me down with a feather; if the captain genuinely thinks that, we’re in more trouble that I thought.

 

[Viceregal]

Very concerning that Harris said in his PC today that he believes the effort and intensity has been there the past few weeks.

Knock me down with a feather; if the captain genuinely thinks that, we’re in more trouble that I thought.

Did he say what thought the problem was or was it just bad luck or something?

 

[Berrygood]

Hipwood in the last two or maybe three games in the first quarter misses goals that are dead set directly in front and is the epitome of momentum killer. Look at the set shots the GWS boys were nailing and poor old Eric is missing sitters regularly in front that junior park players are easily converting. Was the same against Carlton missing one from 25m on a slight angle. That then doesn’t include everything else you rightly spoke of.

He's not the only one doing that. Joe, Charlie, etc all missing easy goals.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Very concerning that Harris said in his PC today that he believes the effort and intensity has been there the past few weeks.

Knock me down with a feather; if the captain genuinely thinks that, we’re in more trouble that I thought.

Just ignoring all his other comments?

 

[Nunez]

Just ignoring all his other comments?

Of course he is.

 

[Kickback Flip]

Of course he is.

At least he's not making things up

 

[McIvor]

Just ignoring all his other comments?

Harris spoke really well as he always does. In fact he’d be up there with the best person to listen to at the club. Love his honesty and frankness and in my view, should be sole captain, but that’s a different conversation.

 

[McIvor]

Of course he is.

Am I?

 

[BRAB]

I do wonder if hippy having a game in the twos might be useful just for him to have a game to reset himself at a lower level and for the fans to realise what VFL level forwards look like at AFL level

 

[FFB1]

I do wonder if hippy having a game in the twos might be useful just for him to have a game to reset himself at a lower level and for the fans to realise what VFL level forwards look like at AFL level

I'm sure it would have happened recently, but I can't recall the last key forward to be dropped by any club on form?

Edit: Ben Brown would be one of late, but he's hardly a 'best 22' every week. I remember Travis Cloke being dropped for the ANZAC game in 2015 or 2016 but that's a quite a while ago. Ugle-Hagan has been dropped for sure but I wouldn't count him being 19yo.

 

[M Malice]

I'm sure it would have happened recently, but I can't recall the last key forward to be dropped by any club on form?

Josh Schache.

 

[FFB1]

Josh Schache.

I mean regular players, not the occasional

 

[McIvor]

Harris spoke really well as he always does. In fact he’d be up there with the best person to listen to at the club. Love his honesty and frankness and in my view, should be sole captain, but that’s a different conversation.

Harris also said that if you’re looking in the past you’re going nowhere. Couldn’t be more true which everyone including myself needs to realise.

 

[Section 5]

Believe it or not it is 10/11 years since the Suns were the biggest crowd drawing team to The Gabba.
Admittingly both teams were struggling, so both hoping for a win in those encounters.
End of season ladder position: 2013 - Lions 12th the Suns 14th. In 2014 - Lions 15th the Suns 12th.

The Q clash crowd record is 27,170 set in 2013, and that was the biggest crowd for the year beating the Pies attendance of 26,626.
The following year recorded just 3 people short of that attendance being 27,167.
The next best Gabba attendance that year was against the Bombers being 26,432.

Will we get a bigger crowd on Sunday evening with some possible showers forecast.
I think it will depend on a few things one being will the corporates and The Gabba Cricket members turn up.
How many people are not available because of the long weekend.

Before writing this post i thought around the 25K plus would be a good crowd number.
I had a check of available tickets and there really are not that many available.

 

[BangyBangy]

Very concerning that Harris said in his PC today that he believes the effort and intensity has been there the past few weeks.

Knock me down with a feather; if the captain genuinely thinks that, we’re in more trouble that I thought.

It's a press conference not a royal commission.

 

[Clarkythelion]

Huh? He’s kicked 3 twice this year

Again the irrational criticism of Hipwood continues….

I don't think Hippy is down on form, someone posted his numbers across seasons and he seems similar to previous years. i think the thing with Hippy is that he has stagnated at that level, not going worse but not getting better. Will he go down in Lions history as one of our good forwards, no he wont at this stage. Mind you Rayner is similar, they flash in and out, promise more but stay the same.

 

[Kernel Kurtz]

If they are going to keep bombing into a pack or kicking to a 2 on 1, it won't matter what fwds you pick the result will be the same.

You'd think we would of learned , doesn't help our forwards. It's not just that though.
Hippy is getting lace out delivery , but dropping chest marks, or if he marks has had the yips.
Monumental momentum killers.
He had it a couple of years ago and seemed to of changed his run up , made it straighter and improved, starting being pretty reliable.
For some reason he's struggling again.
His drop chest marks , add that off with a shit return on goal and it just undos all the good work further down field.
I unfortunately , unfairly maybe , still haven't got over him dropping a chest mark in the grand final , and it's still a problem. Switch on ffs.
I think he'll get back to some good form , but it's getting to the stage where I have lowered the bar for what he delivers .

 

[M Malice]

You'd think we would of learned , doesn't help our forwards. It's not just that though.
Hippy is getting lace out delivery , but dropping chest marks, or if he marks has had the yips.
Monumental momentum killers.
He had it a couple of years ago and seemed to of changed his run up , made it straighter and improved, starting being pretty reliable.
For some reason he's struggling again.
His drop chest marks , add that off with a s**t return on goal and it just undos all the good work further down field.
I unfortunately , unfairly maybe , still haven't got over him dropping a chest mark in the grand final , and it's still a problem. Switch on ffs.
I think he'll get back to some good form , but it's getting to the stage where I have lowered the bar for what he delivers .

Our ability to stop momentum this season has been horrendous, which points to an inability to sustain effort, part physical but IMO it is mostly a mindset issue.

For some reason we are lacking motivation to sustain a 4 quarter effort, very perplexing and an extremely difficult thing to turn around. In hindsight jumping to a 46 point lead against the Blues so easily in our first game was probably the worst possible way to start our season, subconsciously we may have thought we just had to turn up and cruise to finals in 2024.

 

[martinson]

I do wonder if hippy having a game in the twos might be useful just for him to have a game to reset himself at a lower level and for the fans to realise what VFL level forwards look like at AFL level

I'm not in the drop Hipwood camp as yet but that's a really good point. If the gulf is as wide as everyone here seems to think let's find out with a seasoned player who's only really played at the top level and is trying to find some form.

 

[Kernel Kurtz]

Our ability to stop momentum this season has been horrendous, which points to an inability to sustain effort, part physical but IMO it is mostly a mindset issue.

For some reason we are lacking motivation to sustain a 4 quarter effort, very perplexing and an extremely difficult thing to turn around. In hindsight jumping to a 46 point lead against the Blues so easily in our first game was probably the worst possible way to start our season, subconsciously we may have thought we just had to turn up and cruise to finals in 2024.

Joe , Charlie and Hippy missing easy shots way too often so far this year is gonna have some effect on positivity within the group.
No nourishment for all the hard work.
I felt that's what happened last week, too many things went wrong, missed goals , bad umpiring, Lockie getting scragged then the sulks, players stopped trying, demoralisd they had no heart left in the game.
To me it comes down to not having a couple of leaders that just keep going no matter what.

For mind it has to come from within the midfield.
We need Lockie to just be that player , ignore the pain and just keep going , but only harder.
Get angry not play dumb , but harder. Hey pinch the shit out of your opponent when you got his jumper , get even .
Maybe unleash Dev in there , go crazy mate , do your best.
Also want Jaxson as well back in the side, the old Jaxson , the one that never gave up , busted his gut every time he played.
Or is he just leaving anyway , and that kid has already skipped town.

 

[Grasshopper17]

I’m happy if he kicks 3. I’ll consider that a good day out for him. So far hasn’t done it once. And he’s been kept goalless twice amongst barely getting a kick in a few games.

Make him earn his spot and money. He’s not alone either, we could be talking about most of the forwards. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot banging down the door in the vfl. But Morris can’t do much more for his age. I don’t care so much about Fort forward, even just throw a small up there to help our ground balls.

The other thing is there is no point in us playing 3 talls anyway if our delivery is poor. Might as well drop one and go smaller since the ball is being kicked to grass a lot.

The ball gets kicked to grass a lot? What team have you been watching this year? Balls getting kicked to grass would be a massive improvement. Right now it's getting kicked on top of people's heads ad nauseum

 

[Jim Stynes11]

I really don't understand the Hipwood thing. Some people seem to always be calling for him to be dropped.
From what I see, there were 17 players ahead of him for the coleman last year, 2 of which were Charlie and Joe.

He plays a role that sees him do a lot of work up the ground for the team. We play to get Charlie space out the back, which has to affect the goals per game for Eric. He puts effort in to spoil the ball even when the delivery isn't to his favour (which is most of the time currently). Rarely see him lack effort.

Nobody would say he's in flying form right now, but a bit of context. He has scored 9 goals 7 at an average of 1.3 goals a game (career average is 1.59). Small sample size, but that was 10 goals 6, he's more accurate than Curnow.

 

[Nathan Barley]

I really don't understand the Hipwood thing. Some people seem to always be calling for him to be dropped.
From what I see, there were 17 players ahead of him for the coleman last year, 2 of which were Charlie and Joe.

He plays a role that sees him do a lot of work up the ground for the team. We play to get Charlie space out the back, which has to affect the goals per game for Eric. He puts effort in to spoil the ball even when the delivery isn't to his favour (which is most of the time currently). Rarely see him lack effort.

Nobody would say he's in flying form right now, but a bit of context. He has scored 9 goals 7 at an average of 1.3 goals a game (career average is 1.59). Small sample size, but that was 10 goals 6, he's more accurate than Curnow.

Top 10 for goal assists last year as well but as soon as he hits a rough patch he's a dud that needs to be dropped