Preview Richmond v Brisbane Round 20 (Sunday 31 July 3:20 @ MCG)

[Section 5]

More realistically:-

OUT: Rich , Robbo

IN: Coleman, Prior

There has been a heap of team upheaval over the last few weeks forced by illness and injury

I know you won't agree but another 4 changes is not in the interests of team stability so even though Fagan will almost certainly be accused of being stodgy and playing favorites, I think he'll try to keep a steady as she goes approach.

Personally, I think this is the right way to go.

McStay is no chance of being dropped. He was in our best against GWS and despite the accusations of him playing "bruise free" footy and having "checked out", he wasn't nearly as bad last night as is being portrayed. He WAS required as the relief ruck to give Oscar a chop out for three and a half quarters and did an OK job of that.

Once Fort subbed on for Rich, his role changed.

The stats show that he had 11 possessions, 5 marks and 6 hit-outs for the game. Not as substantial as his game against GWS but not a complete fail either.

He kicked 2 goals against GWS and none last night, that being the only substantive difference between the two performances

Agree those two are the likely changes assuming Coleman is 100%. Also agree McStay won't be dropped

We won't and should not play Oscar & Fort together while McStay, Hippy & Daniher are playing.
And those three should be playing as they are hard matchups for any defense
3 KPF for 85% of the game and 2 KPF for 10/15% is a good spread in my opinion. The % quoted are most likely even lower that.
Throw in our smalls of Charlie, McCarthy, Rayner & Bailey + an occasional resting mid and that is why we are the highest scoring team in the competition

Whichever ruck the club chooses to play is fine with me. I have Oscar in front of Fort.
I actually thought they would take the opportunity to play Fort against the Suns and give Oscar another week to recover from Covid

As a team we still have a few things to work on but the forwards are going fine in my opinion

 

[martinson]

I hope we embrace the tag negating role. I understand there are coaching philosophies that abhor a tag and feel your best midfield should beat their midfield (ala Hinkley/Buckley logic). However, I have always admired Cameron at the Giants for using negating roles well. I was so sick of seeing Touk (and to a lesser extent Ellis) loose behind a stoppage only for Rowell/Anderson to spill the ball towards him for a damaging clearance. It was great to see Berry clamping Touk in the 4th quarter to stop all that metres gained. I hope we play Berry on Bolton at stoppages and handover to Starcevich in the defensive end (or have Starcevich play a full run-with role with him. We cannot let him loose for that special Trent Cotchin not-incorrect-disposal trademark drop.

Balta killed us before playing in defence as an interceptor. Hope Balta plays forward instead. The way to beat Lynch/Reiwoldt is to simply starve them of opportunities. Win contested ball and take territory. We simply cannot let them stroll through the front side of stoppages like we did with Gold Coast. Lukoscious/Miller/Anderson delivering bullets to Casboult/Chol was horrific for 3 quarters. I dont want to imaging what Lynch would do to us if he gets that level of service

It's becoming more obvious that the more we get exposed around the contest for pace and consequent overlap the more we need to clamp down on opposition playmakers.

 

[lioninthesand]

Just can’t see it on the G.

Watched Richmond againts Freo, they still have a decent system and move it quickly. Freo stood up defensively all day, they just couldn’t score.

Just can’t see us defending the ground, Tigers will be hungry and their system is better than ours.

Hoping I’m wrong but go with expecting a loss.

If it were at the Gabba, different story.

 

[Viceregal]

Current Squiggle - Richmond 86 - 87 Brisbane Lions (with a +10.6 to the Tigers for home ground advantage).

Will be interesting to see if it changes after team selection.

Conversely I wonder how many of our posters would be taking a holiday after a trip to the Richmond Board after they lose at home by 1 point for yet another anti-Collingwood snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory?

 

[bungalow_bill]

The Tigers are a laughing stock right now and will come out all spuds blazing. And on the MCG I have little hope of a win.

 

[mpal6]

Just can’t see it on the G.

Watched Richmond againts Freo, they still have a decent system and move it quickly. Freo stood up defensively all day, they just couldn’t score.

Just can’t see us defending the ground, Tigers will be hungry and their system is better than ours.

Hoping I’m wrong but go with expecting a loss.

If it were at the Gabba, different story.

Need one of our talls to stand up and kick a bag. I hope its Daniher, he'd be the most experienced at MCG.

 

[Warwick]

Zero confidence leading into this game.

If we want to show we are better than a 4-6th placed team it would be a good time to show it. That MCG monkey will turn into a gorilla. If we somehow manage to get on a run, we will most likely have to play at the G twice in the finals even before the GF.

We look perfectly primed for a lose QF, win SF, lose PF finish to the year. And that’s being pretty optimistic.

 

[Nunez]

Just can’t see it on the G.

Watched Richmond againts Freo, they still have a decent system and move it quickly. Freo stood up defensively all day, they just couldn’t score.

Just can’t see us defending the ground, Tigers will be hungry and their system is better than ours.

Hoping I’m wrong but go with expecting a loss.

If it were at the Gabba, different story.

The Gabba and the G aren't all that different. I think you're buying into a hoodoo that is pretty lackluster as far as hoodoos go. I think we need to win for multiple reasons, but putting the MCG 'hoodoo' away is one I am excited to see them do. It's so tiresome.

 

[lioninthesand]

The Gabba and the G aren't all that different. I think you're buying into a hoodoo that is pretty lackluster as far as hoodoos go. I think we need to win for multiple reasons, but putting the MCG 'hoodoo' away is one I am excited to see them do. It's so tiresome.

I didn’t specially mention the hoo doo, the dimensions of the ground aren’t the only issue I forsee. Nor do I think the ground ‘hoo doo’ is necessarily the primary issue. There’s plenty of teams I think we would beat on the G. The G issue is primarily through lack of playing there since we’ve been good you’d think.

My issue is, the Tigers system is still very good. They defend well and move it quickly. If Lynch is back, him and Riewoldt and a floating bolta will trouble our back mix.

On top of that, I struggle to see us overcoming a big assignment, in front of a big Melbourne crowd, on the G, againts a team who will quickly feed off any sense of ‘gettability’ with us. They will be playing pissed off after a few humiliating weeks and trying to keep a spot in the finals alive. Plus they play the G well.

The ‘we would win at the Gabba’ notion is more about overall comfort and a home crowd as opposed to ground dimensions.

I just don’t think our overall form this year, dictates we will win this fixture at the G.

Totally agree we need to win, I’m going to the game and I’m really looking forward to it.

Would absolutely love to be wrong and if we can overcome this well timed hurdle, it will serve as a brilliant little spring board into finals.

 

[Nunez]

I didn’t specially mention the hoo doo, the dimensions of the ground aren’t the only issue I forsee. Nor do I think the ground ‘hoo doo’ is necessarily the primary issue. There’s plenty of teams I think we would beat on the G. The G issue is primarily through lack of playing there since we’ve been good you’d think.

My issue is, the Tigers system is still very good. They defend well and move it quickly. If Lynch is back, him and Riewoldt and a floating bolta will trouble our back mix.

On top of that, I struggle to see us overcoming a big assignment, in front of a big Melbourne crowd, on the G, againts a team who will quickly feed off any sense of ‘gettability’ with us. They will be playing pissed off after a few humiliating weeks and trying to keep a spot in the finals alive. Plus they play the G well.

The ‘we would win at the Gabba’ notion is more about overall comfort and a home crowd as opposed to ground dimensions.

I just don’t think our overall form this year, dictates we will win this fixture at the G.

Would absolutely love to be wrong and if we can overcome this well timed hurdle, it will serve as a brilliant little spring board into finals.

The way you describe Richmond makes me think they must be in the top four and we're struggling to make the 8.

 

[lioninthesand]

The way you describe Richmond makes me think they must be in the top four and we're struggling to make the 8.

On the G on current form, they probably go in as favourite don’t they?

So not sure about top 4 vs top 8, but favourites, yep.

That’s my personal opinion on the game.

 

[LIONS08]

On the G on current form, they probably go in as favourite don’t they?

So not sure about top 4 vs top 8, but favourites, yep.

That’s my personal opinion on the game.

Mind you they were close losses but they have lost 3 of the past 4 with a draw in there also. They are not the team they used to be. Come game time I reckon it will be even money

 

[Nunez]

On the G on current form, they probably go in as favourite don’t they?

So not sure about top 4 vs top 8, but favourites, yep.

That’s my personal opinion on the game.

Lost to North
Lost to the Suns
Drew with Freo

Wouldn't say that's convincing form. Maybe I'm under rating Richmond, but they look anything but a flag threat and even at the G I don't see them beating us with our best 22 in. Even without Rich, Coleman back will more than cover him.

 

[Strato]

I didn’t specially mention the hoo doo, the dimensions of the ground aren’t the only issue I forsee. Nor do I think the ground ‘hoo doo’ is necessarily the primary issue. There’s plenty of teams I think we would beat on the G. The G issue is primarily through lack of playing there since we’ve been good you’d think.

My issue is, the Tigers system is still very good. They defend well and move it quickly. If Lynch is back, him and Riewoldt and a floating bolta will trouble our back mix.

On top of that, I struggle to see us overcoming a big assignment, in front of a big Melbourne crowd, on the G, againts a team who will quickly feed off any sense of ‘gettability’ with us. They will be playing pissed off after a few humiliating weeks and trying to keep a spot in the finals alive. Plus they play the G well.

The ‘we would win at the Gabba’ notion is more about overall comfort and a home crowd as opposed to ground dimensions.

I just don’t think our overall form this year, dictates we will win this fixture at the G.

Totally agree we need to win, I’m going to the game and I’m really looking forward to it.

Would absolutely love to be wrong and if we can overcome this well timed hurdle, it will serve as a brilliant little spring board into finals.

I agree. Our form throughout the overall season at best is average. Our first 3 quarters on Saturday Night was very poor and our execution going forward was pathetic. We need to lower our eyes instead of bombing it into the forward line. We are getting the same old, same old week after week. Nothing has changed all season and some players are out of form but continue to hold their spot in the side. I hope I am wrong but looking at the 8 at present we are the worst performing side. We need to extract the digit right now otherwise this season is gone for us. Then again, we may not have the cattle to be better - I have not been convinced that we have yet.

 

[martinson]

I've been waiting for us to play as consistently well as we all think we can and this week is the week to do it.

Our form has been average , their's has been worse. If Coleman comes in and can slice a couple through the corridor and we get a feel as to how you can play the G if you're good enough I think we should win easily.

A few ifs there. If we go with our usual gamplan it'll be a slog but I'd still rather be on us than them. If we lose this it's a big dent to our confidence to play well in Melbourne and I'm expecting a win. Any margin will do.

 

[Sanchez365]

I don't think it's been same old same old all season. Infact I have felt we have been alot more ferocious at the contest the past two weeks and are slowly getting back to our best contested game.

We still have some deficiencies on defending rebounds from our forward line, and sitting a McCarthy on Rioli will go a decent way to shitting down their D50 bounce.

Let's face it, if we can't beat Richmond with no Dusty we might as well pack it in now.

 

[LIONS08]

I agree. Our form throughout the overall season at best is average. Our first 3 quarters on Saturday Night was very poor and our execution going forward was pathetic. We need to lower our eyes instead of bombing it into the forward line. We are getting the same old, same old week after week. Nothing has changed all season and some players are out of form but continue to hold their spot in the side. I hope I am wrong but looking at the 8 at present we are the worst performing side. We need to extract the digit right now otherwise this season is gone for us. Then again, we may not have the cattle to be better - I have not been convinced that we have yet.

Curious as to how you have come to this conclusion… we have beaten Collingwood and while it wasn’t overly convincing on the score board it was a professional display and never in doubt… comfortably beat the swans and dogs… we are 3-3 with the top 8 teams. Didn’t play our best footy against the cats and we were right in it until the end and same goes to a degree with the dockers game. Melbourne played a game equal to the granny they played last year according to the data that was recorded… which we just weren’t ready for.
I feel we are in a decent spot with plenty of upside. It’s not as if we have peaked and played our best footy and still getting done by the top few teams. This year is closer than any I can recently remember

 

[Section 5]

Richmond MCG 2022
Loss:- Blues - Demons - Cats
Wins:- Giants - Dogs - Pies - Hawks - Bombers - Power - Blues - Eagles

Their losses at the G were to good teams
If we are a good team we should get the job done

Lions need a win at the G for lots of reasons so this is an important game

 

[Dalions]

I am not confident that we can win the game but, I believe we can, if we play our best footy.
The confidence that will bring heading into finals is more important than anything out of this game.
Hopefully they have a fairly low key week in the build up to the game so the pressure remains constant rather than building it up as a blockbuster which we tend not to handle well.

I just want to see some desperation and some aggression around the ball and under the high ball.
Do that we win.

 

[RoyBoy17]

We should drop a tall for a smaller pressure type player (maybe Lohmann for Hipwood?). We get smashed in transition every time at the G.

Robbo has to be taken off the wing. Was a complete liability against Melbourne. Need elite endurance runners on this ground and whilst he tries hard he can't keep up with the play anymore. Ah Chee on the wing and Coleman half back if fit.

 

[martinson]

We should drop a tall for a smaller pressure type player (maybe Lohmann for Hipwood?). We get smashed in transition every time at the G.

Robbo has to be taken off the wing. Was a complete liability against Melbourne. Need elite endurance runners on this ground and whilst he tries hard he can't keep up with the play anymore. Ah Chee on the wing and Coleman half back if fit.

I agree totally.

Robbo will get found out on the G with where he's at now and the 3 talls are too cumbersome with where they're at now. I'd keep McStay because he's more mobile . Hipwood I would replace with someone who can run a bit.

Snowflake's chance in hell of it happening.

 

[martinson]

I'm not as pessimistic as some others. The Tigers aren't in the form they were a few weeks ago . They'll come out breathing fire but we just have to withstand the heat and we should gradually get on top of them.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Fagan: Ready to Prove the Doubters Wrong

Don’t forget, we have reset our goals. Pay attention all “doubters” Fagan and the team are about to dispel all doubt. There will be no doomsaying after this round proves we can beat an out of form opponent on the MCG. We are third on the ladder and we are about to play the the tenth placed team. Also, we almost have a full list to choose our team from. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Nathan Barley]

I think this is a very high stakes game. A win would be massive. Even a close one. A loss would make it very difficult to have any sort of confidence come finals.

Expecting a narrow, unconvincing win but hopefully it gives us a bit of confidence and kick starts a strong run to finish the season

 

[Squizz89]

Is Lynch due back for them? Would certainly make it more difficult given Harris' & Adams' collective form.