Review Round 22, 2023 - Brisbane Lions vs. Adelaide

[MSB ROYS]

Worst pick 1 in history.

Nitrogen narcosis on show. What about Scully, Patton, Watts and anyone before 1991?

 

[Warwick]

Just watching the highlights. That unforced turnover by Starc when he had 3 Lions to choose from and pinpointed the sole Crow is inexcusable. We were up by 17 at the time and would have been out the back to have another shot on goal.

Turnover, Crows goal. They kick the next and we go into our shells again.



Not the clearest image but you can see one of our players in acres of space in the corridor (he had more but is running towards where the ball is travelling). Also had Dev unmarked on the wing. And players running past.

He hits that 30m pass and we go untouched down the other end. Shocking skill error.

 

[lioninthesand]

I think our current form is on a par with most other top teams' current form. Neither Carlton nor Melbourne looked like clear grand finalists to me and Collingwood had to fight all the way to beat a mid-table team on Friday night. Port is struggling. Our form is as good as anyone's.

I disagree, but I respect your confidence. I just don’t want to fall in the trap of thinking patchy form takes you to GF.

We have thought that for last 2-3 years and it never eventuates.

We were flying up to late in the 3rd VS the Dees and haven’t looked the same same since.

Everyone is patchy, but playing like this, with our inherent mental fragility, we could easily cough up week 1 home or away, then a Carlton/Geelong/Sydney/Dogs type team will be licking their lips at having us week 2.

We can’t be not defending transition, getting smashed in the midfield and giving up last 1/4 leads going into finals.

Our game is ok and I’ve actually like the close wins, we just not up and going.

Good news is… we have 2 weeks to find some better form.

 

[twhowler]

Yep back to the NRL for twhowler - as they clearly don’t know much about Australian Rules Football.

Sorry guru! How do i gain your forgiveness for questioning the chosen one? Do you do run an aussie rules educational course?

Not that it matters but i am melbourne born and raised and have never been to an nrl game in my life.

I rate Lester highly and have often given him credit. But i also have two eyes and a fully functional frontal lobe so i noted he conceded some goals.

But keep doing your thing it’s very fresh and has me rolling in the aisles.

 

[Warwick]

The concern is how easy a team goes coast to coast. I’m not sure what the solution is, whether it’s applying more pressure on the D50 outlet kick, or whether our zone defence is not quite right.

But we can’t be conceding forward 50 entries with no pressure against the best teams.

 

[BrainOfMorbius]

I disagree, but I respect your confidence. I just don’t want to fall in the trap of thinking patchy form takes you to GF.

I wouldn't say I have confidence - other than the sort of confidence you might have when entering a lottery, because that's what the premiership is at the moment. That's what I mean when I say we have as much chance as anyone.

Everyone is patchy, but playing like this, with our inherent mental fragility, we could easily cough up week 1 home or away, then a Carlton/Geelong/Sydney/Dogs type team will be licking their lips at having us week 2.

We could easily lose week 1 whatever our mental state is though, and I'm not going to throw the toys out of the cot if we do. All the teams in the 8 are playing at about the same level at the moment IMO.

 

[Morbidly_Obese]

The concern is how easy a team goes coast to coast. I’m not sure what the solution is, whether it’s applying more pressure on the D50 outlet kick, or whether our zone defence is not quite right.

But we can’t be conceding forward 50 entries with no pressure against the best teams.

We didn't have this problem at the start of the year, the solution is forward pressure and lock it in inside the 50m arc. I don't know why we abandoned that gameplan now I have no idea what the gameplan is.

 

[Nunez]

Just watching the highlights. That unforced turnover by Starc when he had 3 Lions to choose from and pinpointed the sole Crow is inexcusable. We were up by 17 at the time and would have been out the back to have another shot on goal.

Turnover, Crows goal. They kick the next and we go into our shells again.

Wouldn't have been a shot at goal, but goal itself. Would have ran it in and scored.

Horrible mistake.

 

[Squizz89]

Wouldn't have been a shot at goal, but goal itself. Would have ran it in and scored.

Horrible mistake.

From memory did he wait too long to pull the trigger and give the Crows defender enough time to get close to him, to put his kick under more pressure than it needed to be? Either way it was a bad mistake and certainly not the first he’s made this year.

To his credit, I thought he took a couple of good intercept marks after that, so at least he didn’t go into his shell after it.

 

[BrisVegasDru]

Thought Kane Cornes had some decent things to say about our forward line on TRSW (afl) website.

Next week will be fascinating, may take something to settle my stomach pre game, and probably something to erase my memory afterwards

But whatever happens would be great to win the last quarter!

 

[martinson]

Wouldn't have been a shot at goal, but goal itself. Would have ran it in and scored.

Horrible mistake.

Starc's been doing very well defensively but for some reason a couple of these shonky kicks seem to come out of nowhere most games.

Maybe he's getting a bit tired. The good thing is it's something he has the capacity to tidy up.

 

[Nunez]

Starc's been doing very well defensively but for some reason a couple of these shonky licks seem to come out of nowhere most games.

Maybe he's getting a bit tired. The good thing is it's something he has the capacity to tidy up.

I think he just needs to remember to play within his limits, although I suspect when Kiddy is back this will be ironed out.

 

[Gadzorks]

We have no inside knowledge of wether the boys are implementing a heavier training load at the moment pre-finals. What we can do however is look at the facts. That is we just had a six day break away with the longest trip football. It’s amazing that some here don’t take that into account. When I was watching the Pies v Blues BT made a comment about their 6 day break when they did their amazingly long trip to Adelaide. I was thinking before the game about our trip to Perth and also that the Crows are a pretty good team playing for finals. All in all it was a good win. Further to add for the integrity of the competition we have another 6 day break…..back to back!

RE Six days again this week. At home but still.

Hope the ice baths and leg compression machines and sleep and recovery foods are running overtime.

 

[Gadzorks]

The concern is how easy a team goes coast to coast. I’m not sure what the solution is, whether it’s applying more pressure on the D50 outlet kick, or whether our zone defence is not quite right.

But we can’t be conceding forward 50 entries with no pressure against the best teams.

I don't think there is a solution.

Third is a high scoring game previously because attack tactics leave you exposed to the quick rebound.

As long as we can also quick rebound I back our backs to keep the opposition number of rebound goals to less than any other team.

So we win.

 

[knaf]

I wouldn't say I have confidence - other than the sort of confidence you might have when entering a lottery, because that's what the premiership is at the moment. That's what I mean when I say we have as much chance as anyone.



We could easily lose week 1 whatever our mental state is though, and I'm not going to throw the toys out of the cot if we do. All the teams in the 8 are playing at about the same level at the moment IMO.

Yes pretty much how I feel. Happy to have the double chance locked in after a solid season and trying to keep expectations in check. Well done **** and the team.

I was pretty stressed during the game but thought we played as well as the Crows let us. We appeared to celebrate like we had it won in the third. Bit of an issue. When we play well, we play with high emotions. We need to better manage the let down.

 

[AFLQLD]

Hipwood still gets hammered mercilessly by some around here and even more elsewhere but at the ground he is often the one working hard to make space or become the outlet from D50. He times his runs very well now which makes him hard to contain. His kicking to other players is actually very good, although he attempted a couple last night that he should have just taken himself. He is certainly our hardest working forward much of the time without always the reward.

Lester runs the show quite often out of defence and if you watch him closely live he knows where the ball needs to go but other players don’t always listen. Having by far his best season and hard to think he would be dropped now because he is actually too valuable. With McKenna, Wilmot and Kiddy he has the tools to steer us out of defence. Notable that a few have started to copy him finding the one on one contest and putting it over a team mates head to run into space and suddenly we are out.

Also it was interesting that we chose to use the opposite side of the ground much more last night, away from the interchange which we usually favour heavily. It opened up the field a lot more a few times.

 

[rye]

This has been floated for weeks. Statistically he is a worse player (somehow) with Gunston out of the team..............

such a weird furphy constantly posted on this board that somehow gunstons inclusion is to rayners detriment

 

[Sanchez365]

As Squizz89 said, it was the pressure on the kick that made it fall probably 10-15m short and allowed the Adelaide player to intercept. A costly turnover and he had other options but he was trying the right thing at least.

The positives out of the game was that third quarter. We won clearances 17-10 (and 10-1 to start the third) mostly off the back of McCluggage having his best quarter possibly of his career. 6 Clearances, 3 Center Clearances, 10 disposals. Literally changed the game. We also actually mixed up the center square combo, Dev came in to cover for Dunkley a few times (and did a good job pushing his man into the congestion) and we saw a Dunkley Robertson Rayner combination. We also saw a Neale McCluggage Zorko combo though so not all combinations are worth trying.

But once we got on top in the midfield, everything else fell into place. If anything the fact that our backline has been able to hold up while the mids have been so down the last few weeks, and our forward line still putting on good scores when they are getting limited opportunities is reassuring for our overall fortunes. We all know the midfield is our weakest area of the ground and Ashcroft going out has made that more apparent. What we saw this week was Bailey step up at points in the second and then Clug in the third. If they can stretch that out to 2 quarters each, Neale of Dunkley get back into some decent form, Berry not go completely missing, we have the quality there. They just need to dig in with the effort.

The bad, why did Robertson and Bailey play 56% and 52% TOG in the third? Seems very low esp for Bailey who was red hot in the second. Maybe Clubs insane streak meant they left him on and kept the other mids off.

I'm sad to see Gunners go down with that knee. Noone wants to watch a player get wrenches like that. However as a proponent of the 2 tall system, let's see if Rayner can do what his fanbois have been crying out for. No more excuses.

 

[Section 5]

Both teams heat map is very interesting. Unable to put it up here someone else may be able to do it.

The Crows possessions were on one side of the ground by a big margin being the opposite side to the interchange bench.
Total: Crows 52% defensive half and 48% forward half

Lions a more spread out over both sides of the ground but slightly more taken on the interchange side.
Total: Lions 65% defensive half and 35% forward.
Our defense players were under pressure all night and i think our win belongs to that group of 7.

Lions
Q1: 64% defense, 36% forward. Scored 4 goals 4 behinds.
Q2: 65% defense, 35% forward. Scored 3 goals 2 behinds.
Q3: 52% defense, 48% forward. Scored 7 goals 2 behinds.
Q4: 83% defense, 17% forward. Scored 1 goal 1 behinds.

Both teams players were out on their feet using 75/75 interchanges
Lions average 68 Crows 70

 

[RoyBoy17]

Great win, was not confident at all on this one given how our mids have been off. Adelaide has played very well this year against the top sides and could easily be top 6.

Just need to leave Dev in now and trust him to play a role in the mids.

 

[Section 5]

Hipwood still gets hammered mercilessly by some around here and even more elsewhere but at the ground he is often the one working hard to make space or become the outlet from D50. He times his runs very well now which makes him hard to contain. His kicking to other players is actually very good, although he attempted a couple last night that he should have just taken himself. He is certainly our hardest working forward much of the time without always the reward.

Lester runs the show quite often out of defence and if you watch him closely live he knows where the ball needs to go but other players don’t always listen. Having by far his best season and hard to think he would be dropped now because he is actually too valuable. With McKenna, Wilmot and Kiddy he has the tools to steer us out of defence. Notable that a few have started to copy him finding the one on one contest and putting it over a team mates head to run into space and suddenly we are out.

Also it was interesting that we chose to use the opposite side of the ground much more last night, away from the interchange which we usually favour heavily. It opened up the field a lot more a few times.

I don't think it was us more like the Crows chose that side.

 

[Sanchez365]

AFLQLD is very right about Hipwood. He has been doing such a great job presenting (tbh as has Danniher) on the D50 far side as an outlet release. Hipwood probably has a few chest marks he was stiff not to get given, including one in the last 3 minutes that would of sealed the game.

I think he will be back kicking goals again with the gap in the F50 Gunston will be leaving.

 

[BrainOfMorbius]

I thought Hipwood's game was excellent. He worked very hard to keep the ball in the forward 50. It was a shame he wasn't able to convert some of those long-range chances but that's not where his role starts and finishes.

 

[Nunez]

AFLQLD is very right about Hipwood. He has been doing such a great job presenting (tbh as has Danniher) on the D50 far side as an outlet release. Hipwood probably has a few chest marks he was stiff not to get given, including one in the last 3 minutes that would of sealed the game.

I think he will be back kicking goals again with the gap in the F50 Gunston will be leaving.

So many look at the stat sheet to judge players, but somehow forget that a forwards role can so often be a lot more than just touches.

 

[lioninthesand]

I wouldn't say I have confidence - other than the sort of confidence you might have when entering a lottery, because that's what the premiership is at the moment. That's what I mean when I say we have as much chance as anyone.



We could easily lose week 1 whatever our mental state is though, and I'm not going to throw the toys out of the cot if we do. All the teams in the 8 are playing at about the same level at the moment IMO.

I won’t be throwing the toys out of the cot either, mainly because I don’t believe we are good enough. It’s a unique opportunity for someone to find form in a year where the seas have parted at the top of the ladder. After 5 years of being there abouts I don’t think that we should be saying ‘we arnt very good, but everyone else sucks too’ - I think we should find form, tackle and pressure and crush the end of season and finals run, it should/could be our time.

It’s a tough league and it might not happen, but by the above measure, people are saying ‘we are shite unless we win by 10 goals’ - they just feel our game shouldn’t be falling apart ore-finals.