Review Round 2, 2015 - North Melbourne vs Brisbane Lions

[EurekaKid]

Some really dumb football and lack of imagination out there tonight. Consistently second to the ball to a side that read it better, tackled harder and wanted it more.

Watched the game from ground level, the most concerning thing was a complete lack of talk when the ball was up for grabs and complete predictability with everything we did.

Todd Goldstein absolutely killed us but we made him look good by consistently kicking on top of him and being scared to go for the ball anytime he was near it.

As much as we are hurting for talls, Luey isn't the style of ruckman we need in 2015. Zero confidence or ability to take a contested or even semi contest mark above his head. Lacks the core strength and follow up for the tap work.

Have been a fan of Lester, but tonight showed he isn't up to it. Didnt seem interested when his spot was on the line and didn't go when it was his turn.

On the other hand J McGrath showed why the coaches love him. Clark and Taylor were solid, O'Brien showed promise. McStay was never a hope the way we were moving the ball, but tried all night.

Plenty of upside to come out of D Beams you'd hope. Rich and Redden getting into their work. Hopefully an improved performance against Richmond...

 

[scattman3]

You can't go into matches with 5 players 180cm or less. It's no wonder we get smashed at contested possession, also means far too many broken tackles, they lose the majority of 1 on 1 contests, and they don't provide a contest in the air. Whilst Mcgrath shows promise you really can't afford to have 25% of your team that short. It also doesn't help when two of our taller players in Paparone and Lester have little to no aerial ability.

 

[Sanchez365]

Sigh.

That is all.

 

[Mooch]

I'm looking for positives here. McGrath is one. He didn't get a lot of the ball but he got stuck in with a few spoils, tackles, etc - 1%ers. I definitely want to see him retain his spot for a few more games. He looks a gem.

We won the tackle count! Of course that just means we had less of the ball - much less as it turns out. They had almost 100 more disposals than us, largely because they won the Lion's share of the ruck contest (capitalisation intended). Even the hitouts that Leuey and Martin got invariable ended up in Roo hands.

It was different bad to last week. Last week we got harassed out of the game. This week we just couldn't be ****ed to get into the game. Seeing Green as our lone player forward of the square was both laughable and incredibly sad. Leuenberger anywhere on the pitch was just goddam awful to see. And I never thought I would say that.

While it's easy to say ring the changes for next week, in the main there is just nobody to come in. Aish, sure. Merrett? I presume a hammy means 2-3 weeks at least but I haven't seen any confirmation. Gardiner possibly. Beyond that we are throwing more kids to the wolves and I don't think that is necessarily the long term way to go - we could just kill their development stone dead in a team like the one that played today. I don't envy being Justin Leppitsch this week. I hope he's got a supply of Horlicks or some bloody strong sleeping pills, otherwise he won't be getting much shut-eye.

 

[Elixuh]

Thought Robbo had a decent game for us - if he offered that when the rest of the team shows up, he'll definitely add something.

Agree, think it can be hard to genuinely rate players performances when the team plays so poorly but some of the criticism of Robbo on here was certainly unfounded.

 

[KissKiss]

You can't go into matches with 5 players 180cm or less. It's no wonder we get smashed at contested possession, also means far too many broken tackles, they lose the majority of 1 on 1 contests, and they don't provide a contest in the air. Whilst Mcgrath shows promise you really can't afford to have 25% of your team that short. It also doesn't help when two of our taller players in Paparone and Lester have little to no aerial ability.

Im starting to think this too. I love all the mozzies, but we do seem too small out there. They are some of the few who seem to be putting in the effort unfortunately but I cant see us going forward with all of them in the team

 

[jackess]

Yeah Robbo was good in the second half. Worked hard.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Got to the ground 5 minutes late, just got home...

Why didn't Zorko play?

 

[jackess]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark

Yep lots of question marks when it comes to our gameplan.

 

[alscotoz2]

Attempting to add a little bit different to this review thread instead of the usual "SACK LEPPA" or "GET RID OF PLAYER X", so bear with me folks.

I don't even know where to begin, that was a shocking game for a variety of reasons. I mean, we can’t expect to win games only turning up for 1 or 2 quarters per game. Don’t know where this mentality has creeped in from, but it has to stop.

No effort from most of the team, it's pretty sad when I count the number of players who played well on one hand. Hats off to Rich, Redden, Robinson, Clarke and McGrath.

Where's the pride in the jumper, no one is playing for the team, everyone's low on confidence. Most of our team was lagging behind their direct opponent, it looked like they had extra players everywhere across the ground. Granted, they are a top 4 team from last year, but we significantly improved our list in the off-season, and to throw up a performance like that for our Victorian supporters is disgraceful.
Gotta feel sorry for all the Victorian supporters who travelled far to watch that tripe served up.

We really missed our on-field leaders today, Rich tried his best but he needed more support. Rockliff, Hanley and Merrett can’t come back fast enough into the team. Not really much to talk about when we kept getting smashed in the middle. Early injury to Close didn't help matters as it made our already weak forward line even weaker with no targets to kick to. Can't remember a time when most of our players had a shocker. Mayes, Zorko, Green, Leuenberger just some of the ones I hardly sighted in the game and didn't care about the game at all.

It was a terribly dissapointing game for a few reasons, it was our chance to stamp authority on a team which had just been flogged last week by Adelaide but instead, we chose to collapse and barely give a whimper after quarter time. For most of us, it was a classic case of;

Again, I don't mind if we lose, but I want to see the effort. There was clearly none in the game today, and this is why most of us are upset about it. There was absolutely no sense of feeling in the boys that we had a chance to upset last year's top 4 team, but we just didn't run hard, tackle hard and play hard.

The fact that O'Brien came in late and got more tackles than anyone in the team shows how much the rest of them team is caring. Absolutely disgraceful.

Lots of work for Leppa and the boys to do to recover from this and face our bogey team in Richmond next week.
Dark day for the Lions, it can’t get much worse than this. Right? Time for me to abandon thread until I make the player reviews.

Richmond win win by 5 goals plus.

 

[James North]

Yep lots of question marks when it comes to our gameplan.

Turns out we aren't executing it:

 

[mr_cellotape]

-snip-

 

[Mooch]

Agree, think it can be hard to genuinely rate players performances when the team plays so poorly but some of the criticism of Robbo on here was certainly unfounded.

I thought the same last week. Execution was lacking at times but he looked like he was putting in the effort when many were standing back and waiting for somebody else to do it.

 

[MSB ROYS]

Lions in 17th place, Geelong in last!

 

[Madkeenlions]

Went tonight not expecting to beat a pumped up North, but at least expected a contest........ Nope.
Can feel a carbon copy season to the last two coming on.

 

[Cockliff38]

Positives

• McGrath. Had a dip which is more than you can say for a lot of players tonight. I've been surprised how highly rated he is to get two full games to start the season but he's starting to justify that internal status.
• Redden. Toiled away and felt he could at least hold his head high from this game.
• Robinson also had a crack. Obviously not the most talented player going around but you can't fault his endeavour.
• Got to play credit to Adcock too. He was probably ranked 18-22 in our best last week but bounced back for a serviceable game.

Negatives

• The effort was as poor as I have seen in a long time. At half time we had less tackles and were down 10 goals - unacceptable.
• We really need to get the defensive 50 right. Merrett out hurt a lot but it's at ground level which is concerning. Even if we can affect a spoil the opposition seem to pounce. Lester/Paps are quite fumbly and it cost us a few goals tonight.
• I don't think you can be too critical of the midfield considering our two best players are out but they did get absolutely smashed tonight. Thought Beams would deliver but his effort was left wanting.
• Goldstein had a field day. Not sure how a player can dominate two quality rucks like he did. Even when we did get the hit-out it was inevitably sharked or tapped straight to a North player.
• The worst part was how badly we were caught out in transition. Our F50 pressure was non-existent and North just swept the ball out as if it were a training drill. The pace of the game has got us stumped atm

 

[jackess]

Turns out we aren't executing it:

View attachment 123851

Yep we've executed some sort of gameplan very rarely in 24 games and show next to no improvement in that time.

 

[WhiteLionFeva]

Im starting to think this too. I love all the mozzies, but we do seem too small out there. They are some of the few who seem to be putting in the effort unfortunately but I cant see us going forward with all of them in the team

It's not because of the smalls that we struggled, it's because our talls are not up to it. As scattman3 says, guys like Lester (191) and Paps (194) don't really play as genuine talls in that they can't take a contested overhead mark. Lester really doesn't have any ability to contest in the air and his pace and ball handling are sub-par. As for Leuey, well he is frankly holding Martin back because Martin is not the same force when he is required to share the ruck duties. Not time to abandon all hope but it is going to be a long season.

 

[Madkeenlions]

We just lack class, smarts and bulk. Game plan A doesn't work and B.C.D etc... Don't exist. Where to from here?

 

[Harris Specter]

Close's injury is knee related, they're hoping it's just a knock and nothing worse, but scans on Monday.

 

[theteamtobeat]

Bad loss tonight considering the amount of North Melbourne players got injured.
North Melbourne: Wells (left ankle), Dal Santo (left hamstring), Thompson (left ankle)

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Got to the ground 5 minutes late, just got home...

Why didn't Zorko play?

Are people gonna tell me or just like this?

 

[Skoob]

Oh well.
Too short.
Too stoopid.
Too sloppy.
Too lazy.

Always good to see the influx of posters who only pop in once or twice a year after our worst losses though. Hi guys.

 

[WhiteLionFeva]

Close's injury is knee related, they're hoping it's just a knock and nothing worse, but scans on Monday.

I'm liking your post because of your work, not because I like the content. For Leppa to say we were on the pace in the NAB Cup (i.e in practice games) but not in the season proper really just emphasises that at the moment we are well behind the Rest of the competition.

 

[Madkeenlions]

Close's injury is knee related, they're hoping it's just a knock and nothing worse, but scans on Monday.

Not a knock, he fumbled a mark on the boundary all on his lonesome. Would have been only 10 metres from where I was sitting. Knee buckled and went straight off, had a few run through after some physio and I thought looked ok?
Didn't come back on, but didn't look serious. Frankly I doubt we'd miss him anyway