Review Round 16, 2024 - Brisbane Lions vs. Melbourne

[martinson]

Dunno what people expected Joyce to do.

He's a below average player who had an unexpected callup.

He saw the game out ok and played about as well as you could hope. The coughups were very costly. He was a strong body that lacked any adeptness.

 

[NotQuiteJezza]

Who's next?

Hopefully PAYNE is back. If not then I’m happy to try Beecken or Michael. I just don’t think Joyce is AFL standard.

 

[MSB ROYS]

Dunno what people expected Joyce to do.

He's a below average player who had an unexpected callup.

He saw the game out ok and played about as well as you could hope. The coughups were very costly. He was a strong body that lacked any adeptness.

Agree. Some people expect our players to all be guns who never make a mistake and that the opposite team should never play well.

 

[briztoon]

Hopefully Paine is back. If not then I’m happy to try Beecken or Michael. I just don’t think Joyce is AFL standard.

Someone call Dom Fay.

 

[martinson]

Hopefully Paine is back. If not then I’m happy to try Beecken or Michael. I just don’t think Joyce is AFL standard.

Joyce can go better but not a whole lot better.

 

[M Malice]

Hopefully Paine is back. If not then I’m happy to try Beecken or Michael. I just don’t think Joyce is AFL standard.

Yep Jackson Paine and Mac Andrew are an elite key defensive duo.

 

[Pacman82]

Joyce can go better but not a whole lot better.

Maybe Hippy can take him out for a few rounds of golf & try sort him out, have a good chat to the lad.

 

[Section 5]

van Rooyen kicked 2 goals
One was when he got behind Andrews who could not get back in time.
Andrews clearly on him in that contest as no one else was in the area.
The other goal Joyce was following van Rooyen lead. Andrews and his opponent sort of got in the way a bit.
Good contested mark and goal by van Rooyen.

Joyce stopped a juggling attempted mark well I50 of van Rooyen without giving away a free.

He filled a spot and made some turnover (4) mistakes we all remember those in a close game.
He still contributed with 15 disposals, 5 marks, 3 contested possessions 4 turnovers 3 intercepts 87% TOG.

We don't have anyone else with the bulk in the VFL so would have to go small which is a big gamble.
Rucks are used to getting back in defense so maybe Smith could fill a role but that is also a big gamble.
Joyce stays if Payne is not available and i think he will do better.

 

[Surly Boy]

I am hoping that Hugh’s match winning goal will be the turning point for his goal kicking. He is one of, if not the best field kick in our team so obviously his poor shots on goal are from a lack of confidence. To kick that goal at that time should make him believe he can do it anytime. I am looking forward to the next 7 seasons

Without analysing the stats, it feels like he has been much more reliable in front of goal this season.

 

[werdna78]

Without analysing the stats, it feels like he has been much more reliable in front of goal this season.

From AFL tables

Edit: doesn't include last nights game.

 

[DreadBat5701894]

Without analysing the stats, it feels like he has been much more reliable in front of goal this season.

11.8 so far this year

 

[The Flying Belgian]

Hopefully Paine is back. If not then I’m happy to try Beecken or Michael. I just don’t think Joyce is AFL standard.

Either do I, but he's a handy enough backup when you have Payne, Gardiner and Doedee injured. But so to say Paine will never play another game for the club.

 

[Elixuh]

Agree. Some people expect our players to all be guns who never make a mistake and that the opposite team should never play well.

Our goal should be to have 44 A graders on the list and we are a long way off that.

 

[Pride of lions]

I thought it was McKennas best game for the season so thought I must have been way off the mark based on commentary here.

McKennas season is a switchboard and every light was blinking red after successive injuries. Every week another light switches to green.

I thought this week McKenna got his positioning and attacking read on the play right and seem to have another foot of two or speed.

His kicking was a major improvement last night as well. Some of his kicks really opened up the play similar to Zorko.

 

[Elixuh]

His kicking was a major improvement last night as well. Some of his kicks really opened up the play similar to Zorko.

Agree, I thought we got some signs of life from his kicking last week and this week improved again.

Some people are waging a campaign to drop McKenna, I won’t name names but it’s Nunez

 

[Donald Trump]

I liked Hipwood's game TBH. He was aggressive. Didn't always work out, but he did inflict some pain along the way. I like Starcevich, he's definitely best 22.... but he has been opened up like this before. He's seems a bit slow... Mind you, his opponents are extremely fast. There needs to be a plan to address this... Preferably before the damage is done.

 

[luthor]

Someone call Dom Fay.

I swear that on "Crunch Time" on SEN this morning, Derm dropped a "Jackson Paine".

Dom will need to re-launch the campagn

 

[Nunez]

Agree, I thought we got some signs of life from his kicking last week and this week improved again.

Some people are waging a campaign to drop McKenna, I won’t name names but it’s Nunez

I still maintain dropping McKenna for a clone of Lester would work out a lot better than our current set-up.

 

[Nathan Barley]

I still maintain dropping McKenna for a clone of Lester would work out a lot better than our current set-up.

What if the AFL let us play with an extra person on the field but only if we played with 6 Joyce clones in the backline?

 

[Thomasno]

Bailey? Not sure if the right thread.

Couple of years ago I would have said going to be one of the most valuable players in the league. Now? Game seems to be passing him by.

Hopefully becomes relevant again real soon.

I periodically have thought the same, but he DID have a great grand final. I think he’s still absolutely got the skills to be elite, his decision making is what needs to be work at the moment.

He thinks he’s 2017 Dusty; he is not in fact 2017 Dusty

 

[Tom14]

I still maintain dropping McKenna for a clone of Lester would work out a lot better than our current set-up.

I understand this idea with Zorko playing back - him and McKenna are too suspect defensively to want to play both.

But we don’t have any other real options imo - have liked what I’ve seen from brain in his sub cameos but in concerned about putting out too young a side.

 

[NotQuiteJezza]

Someone call Dom Fay.

Guilty as charged.

 

[Nunez]

What if the AFL let us play with an extra person on the field but only if we played with 6 Joyce clones in the backline?

You son of a bitch I'm in.

 

[Grasshopper17]

scoman We got it in the end.

Bruce great last quarter.

Funny the easy chances we butchered and yet Lohmann and Clug kicked the hard ones.

Take the 4 points and never speak of that game again. Probably good in a way for the team to get a win despite being off. Whole team were shaky with the fumbles, dropped marks and skill errors.

While we as supporters may never want to speak of this game again, I really think it can be a really powerful learning tool for the team going into the rest of the season. Melbourne clearly reverted to their 2021-3 game plan of kicking long down the line to contests, and winning them just by being harder and tougher than their opposition. They dragged us into the trenches and mentally we were not ready for it, hence the 2nd quarter performance. It got really ugly, the number of times Melbourne players visibly went harder at the ball than our guys. Reminded me of our Round 23 game against them in 2022 and quite frankly if we weren't able to turn it around the final margin may have ended up similar to that game.

But credit to our lads, we dug in from I thought about the 25 minute mark of the 2nd quarter, when our attitude around the contest changed. We weren't really able to get any scoreboard reward for that mindset change, but importantly we hung in there and levelled things up in general play.

Then the longer the game went, the more Melbourne looked out on their feet, as they did last week against North. (By the way, the way we ran Melbourne off their legs was far more graphic live at the ground than on TV. It was a really one-sided last quarter in general play.)

We certainly could have and should have made more of our chances in the last quarter, but I really think most of our skill and decision making errors were a result of Melbourne's fanatical pressure for the first 2.5-3 quarters. We looked like cats on a hot tin roof - it's amazing how powerful it is to set the tone early in a game, such that even when we had time and space late in the game, we still played like we had absolutely none.

So to win a game like that, played almost completely on Melbourne's terms, I think has a lot of merit, despite it being very frustrating to watch! There's a fair chance we could be dragged into a similar trench in a final; they are often played this way (2002 Grand Final a great example) and so last night's game has the potential to be a great education piece.



And also of course winning a close game after losing to Carlton and drawing with Adelaide. I'm sure even then there are things we could have done better in that final 1:11. Pretty easy centre clearance, gave Fritsch a tough but kickable shot, then they also got a repeat entry which went right to the teeth of goal and could have easily been marked by one of their guys, like McKay did against us in Opening Round.

But Charlie's handball in the last 20 seconds was brilliant. Won the hard ball, a kick would have gone straight back to their wall outside 50, or worse, out on the full. But he also knew better than to simply wrap it up and bank on the umpire calling for a ball up. It was a really smart piece of play and to have the wherewithal under that pressure to think through the situation so quickly, and THEN to bolt after it to help force the final ball up outside 50... I really thought it was Charlie's best passage of play for the season, and may end up being his most important.



I think the other positives were that we were able to limit their intercept marking capability so effectively. To give Melbourne only 5 intercept marks is an outstanding effort. Equally we were able to get shots at goal pretty regularly - on 57% of our inside 50s, which is a big improvement on the 38% we managed against them in Round 5. So our ball movement looks to be in good order from a strategy perspective.

We still gave Melbourne too many looks the other way, but we did improve in this facet after half time, when we rolled the sleeves up and made everything a bit more of a scrap. Melbourne took 11 contested marks to half time but only 3 more after that, so a decent response defensively.



So yes, it was ugly, but it was a strong win from a mental perspective, which we haven't always been renowned for. Hopefully we are able to heed the lessons of needing to respect our opponent, and needing to lay that foundation of being hard at the ball and the contest, and really earn the right to play that spectacular and thrilling style of game we know our guys are capable of.

 

[Dalions]

We had a terrible 2nd quarter last night.
But in quarters 1,3 and 4 they scored a total of 28 points