Review Round 4, 2023 - Brisbane Lions vs. Collingwood

[3KZ is Football]

I liked Payne's game tonight.

Shut them down several times when we were under pressure because he has that extra yard of pace for a big man.

I think he's going to be a valuable player.

Payne is much better when he takes the game on. His pick up and disposal in the first quarter, under immense pressure was a highlight that won’t make the highlight package, but will stick in my mind. If he could channel a bit more Mal Michael he will be great. At this stage he is great playing in straight lines, but gets lost when players run off him or he needs to switch and cover for a teammate. To improve, he needs leaders around him. Andrews needs to step up in defence and lead by example.

I was very critical of Payne’s game last week. He was much improved last night. It very much seems there are two versions of the one player, with last night’s being the one we we want to see more of.

 

[3KZ is Football]

It'll definitely turn for Hugh. Personally, I'd be playing him on the wing again and let him cut opposition up on the outside.

Still, while his disposal wasn't good today he applied a lot of pressure and did well in that area. His game wasn't far off.

200% - he is not a midfielder. He was a passenger in the middle at restarts last night and Collingwood mids ran off him and Collingwood scored when he was in the middle. Much better on the wing, which is where he made his name.

 

[RoyBoy17]

The big positive for me is I think we have a lot of upside in us still. We played well last night but by no means were we the complete package. That’s a good thing. Hopefully come end of the season we are firing on all cylinders like Geelong last year

 

[M Malice]

‘A minute left and Brisbane are
hanging on for grim life by 40 points. We’ve never seen anything like it…’
What a dork.
Best bits: Jack Payne’s one handed pick-up and sure disposal under pressure in the first.
Nick Daicos’ shirk when faced with the oncoming bulldozer, skinny Darcy Wilmot.
Wilmot’s ability to keep his feet and have a second, third crack.

LOL, also I think it was BT who said at the start of the last quarter.. can the Lions hold on, he was also noticeably sad in his voice when he finally realised the game was gone, it was sweet.

I was a tad nervous on the night at the game but it was really never in doubt from early in the 3rd quarter.

 

[Leuy LongerCombo]

Thought McKenna had a really good game last night, he’s stepping up with every game and proving to be more than a handy recruit. He’s pace is very handy at times.

Rayner played really well, some really big moments last night, set the scene early for us.

Considering we’ve played Collingwood and Melbourne, throw in Bulldogs and Port who are rated to be their abouts. The 2/2 start doesn’t seem the worst,
I’d prefer to have won those games against the Dees and Pies. Never as bad as it seems, as they say.

Still lots of improvement too, McCluggage having a slow start to the year, Neale appears to be just cruising into the season, Dunkley still largely finding his feet. Ashcroft racking it up and having moments, scary to think he averaging 24 and appears to have more to give.

Coleman has had an interrupted start with that concussion (had him close to our best player in the Melbourne final last year), Yo-Yo form of Daniher, Hipwood, Charlie. Gunston hasn’t fired a shot yet.

 

[Berrygood]

Great to be at the game, even better to have visiting Collingwood supporters close by.

As I said in the Game day thread we just needed to work on our transitions and the midfield certainly lowered their eyes and looked for the forwards and kicked the ball into the spaces they needed. Still quite a few errors in a high intensity game. Joe, Cam, Charlie, Wilmont = we;; the whole team except - McCluggage and McCarthy they were atrocious again especially McCluggage whom seems to have lost all confidence now.

The REALLY bad - that umpiring was the worst I've seen in a long time and especially the last Qtr was ruined with poor decisions and the most laughable when Diacos tripped over his own feet and still was awarded a free kick. The crowd spent most of the last Qtr just booing the umpires.

Still, we are improving, not peaking too early. Collingwood can claim they are better with a ruckman and could have kicked straighter but it wasn't like they were missing them from 40 meters out dead in-front.

We roll on now - 3 qtrs agains Melbourne and 3 good qtrs against the Pies I like where we are at now.

Atrocious is a pretty strong descriptor for Clugg n McCarthy. Somewhat unjustified I believe. Clugg got better as the game went on and Linc worked so hard up n down the ground defensively and pressured well. He may not be hitting the scoreboard as he has previously but his work is definitely appreciated by team mates and coaches.

 

[DERRINALPHIL]

I have just watched the second quarter and we are so poor in the centre square. We got two clearances because Collingwood buggered up the 6/6/6 but most of the time we won the tap but they got the ball.

This has been a problem all year.

I want Oscar to smash it forward as his taps are a waste of time.

Did Mihocek kick all his goals on Andrews?

 

[Viceregal]

LOL, also I think it was BT who said at the start of the last quarter.. can the Lions hold on, he was also noticeably sad in his voice when he finally realised the game was gone, it was sweet.

I was a tad nervous on the night at the game but it was really never in doubt from early in the 3rd quarter.

I loved the bit where Pendlebury got the ball and everyone ran in a different direction but no one actually towards him ... he stood completely still while everyone else moved out of the way ... commentator comes out with some over the top praise of his abiltiy to weave through traffic

 

[Squizz89]

Wasn’t overly fussed with Oscar’s game. Won the HOs convincingly which was to be expected but a lot of his HOs seemed to be to his own feet or away from our players. Not sure that’s on him, the midfield, coaching or a mixture of all 3, but I wouldn’t mind just seeing how we go one week with Fort as the number 1, as unlikely as we are to making that change.

 

[JasRulz63]

Yeah the commentary were clearly serving one fan base only. The AFL is so bush league with this sort of thing, it's gross.

I watch a lot of American sports and some European football/soccer and the commentators on those sports make our commentators look like a bunch of 16yos that decided to take up commentating for s**** and gigs.

We were apparently hanging on by dear life for the whole fourth quarter when the lead didn't go below four goals.

 

[M Malice]

Wasn’t overly fussed with Oscar’s game. Won the HOs convincingly which was to be expected but a lot of his HOs seemed to be to his own feet or away from our players. Not sure that’s on him, the midfield, coaching or a mixture of all 3, but I wouldn’t mind just seeing how we go one week with Fort as the number 1, as unlikely as we are to making that change.

I bang on about it all the time but hit outs mean absolutely Jack Shite, O should just bash the ball forward unless he senses a hit out to a clear advantage on offer.

 

[JasRulz63]

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/ch7-commentator-brian-taylor-goes-too-far-is-complete-laughing-stock/news-story/6ef0eb1175b12726fa98f1045c76c11f

Pinched off the main board. Pretty funny seeing it called out in the media.

 

[Thomasno]

I'm still scratching my head over Oscar's game. Did some nice work at times from the centre when he bashed it away from both sets of onballers but just couldn't seem to engineer much at all when he tried tapping. Coll mids seemed much more adept at clearing the dirty ground ball from the centre than our guys did so I'm not sure if that's a Ruck problem per se or if our mids just weren't working well with O on the night. Whatever the reason, losing the Centre Clearances 12-15 is a pretty disappointing result when we had a supposed huge advantage in the Ruck. He should absolutely quit that stupid look away hand pass over his head to ??????......that invariably leads to a turnover.

Just on this - I don’t know how much I’d read into that. It’s very difficult, because I guarantee Collingwood would’ve spent all week learning to read Oscar’s taps and work on winning the ball on the assumption they would lose the hit out.

We actually did a very similar thing in that famous Rd3 2021 game vs Collingwood - Oscar was out, and we didn’t really have anyone else so we went in against an in-form Grundy and also ended up winning centre clearances from memory; because we spent the week learning how to read Grundy’s taps.

Would also explain why it worked in our favour whenever O belted it forward, because it nullified whatever prep they’d done.

 

[KissKiss]

He’s in some kind of form slump, rather it be now than in September.

Last night 59% DE
Last week 50%
R2 57%
R1 69%

I mentioned it in the match thread but should really check the CBA and wing stats or the replay. But he got beaten by his man quite a few times at the centre bounces (he looked better in general stoppages though). De Goey ran straight off him for an easy clearance multiple times.

Im not sure if its an adjustment to the new mid set-up, or hes out of form, or hes the guy that's allowed to charge forward every time, or what. But there's a problem when hes in there, and his man repeatedly gets the clearance.

Again I'm someone who thinks he (and the team) look better on the wing

 

[Dalions]

I bang on about it all the time but hit outs mean absolutely Jack Shite, O should just bash the ball forward unless he senses a hit out to a clear advantage on offer.

I don’t think Oscar has very good peripheral vision.

 

[M Malice]

FWIW > Collingwood's new away strip.

 

[luthor]

I watch a lot of American sports and some European football/soccer and the commentators on those sports make our commentators look like a bunch of 16yos that decided to take up commentating for s**** and gigs.

We were apparently hanging on by dear life for the whole fourth quarter when the lead didn't go below four goals.

BT in the third quarter:

"AND COLLINGWOOD GET MULTIPLE GOALS !!"

Multiple as in two in a row......following 10 in a row from the Lions.

Laughable.





On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[The Zork]

Very fortunate to have Ashcroft come in and play at the level of a seasoned mid from the get go.
His field kicking isn’t quite at a real crisp level yet but I genuinely think he is in the top 10 cleanest 1 touch players in the league at the moment.

 

[Thomasno]

The first 20 minutes of last night was the most frenetic footy i've seen live in a long time. One swallow doesn't make a summer for a number of our boys. Daniher, Hipwood and Rayner set benchmarks for effort this week, but they are benchmarks. The criticism on our team has been justified and our lack of intensity destroyed us against Port and the Dogs. We were significantly more team orientated last night and this led to increased accuracy around goal.

We also set a benchmark for defensive running last night. It was the best i've seen from our boys. We didn't give up and it forced the pies to make more mistakes than usual. Credit to Linc McCarthy for a number of significant defensive acts. Watch the replay, it is more evident than at the ground if you sit on the vulture street side of the ground

Agreed, something I noticed at the ground was that linc had a HUGE 1st quarter pressure wise, it really set the tone. Even though he dropped off afterwards, it can’t be overstated how good his effort was early.

 

[SizeMatters]

I bang on about it all the time but hit outs mean absolutely Jack Shite, O should just bash the ball forward unless he senses a hit out to a clear advantage on offer.

I agree. But I also feel not having a ruck against a quality ruck opposition is suicide. Pies not having a proper ruck went a huge way to them losing imo.

They were playing defensive before the ball was bounced and that can’t be good for any team. Couldn’t play natural midfield game once big o was knocking it forward. Having mcstay play ruck took out a reliable forward option as well. Probably why they couldn’t really get a clean inside 50 and were turning it over at half forward a lot. No one there besides mihocek who had two blokes hanging off him all night. Gotta think laterally what playing mcstay did for pies structure. Even if they had a spud like Cox it would have changed mindset imo.

See how we played last week with soft tall compared to tonight. Having that dominant target inside 50 straightens a team up.

 

[M Malice]

I watch a lot of American sports and some European football/soccer and the commentators on those sports make our commentators look like a bunch of 16yos that decided to take up commentating for s**** and gigs.

We were apparently hanging on by dear life for the whole fourth quarter when the lead didn't go below four goals.

Yes the professionalism of the commentary and pundits in the EPL is first class for the most part... AFL equivalent is unfortunately still too much boys club juvenile and boorish.

There is room for humorous versions eg. The Front Bar(I am a big fan of Sam Pang's humour) if that is your thing but the childish stuff creeps into the so called serious shows a tad too often.

 

[Thomasno]

I have just watched the second quarter and we are so poor in the centre square. We got two clearances because Collingwood buggered up the 6/6/6 but most of the time we won the tap but they got the ball.

This has been a problem all year.

I want Oscar to smash it forward as his taps are a waste of time.

Did Mihocek kick all his goals on Andrews?

Some of Mihocek’s goals were just stupid though, especially 2/3 in the 3rd quarter. Absolutely freakish kicks. The 3rd one especially, 99/100 what Harris did there is enough to save the goal, how he kicked that straight is beyond me. He was certainly on last night

 

[Warwick]

I bang on about it all the time but hit outs mean absolutely Jack Shite, O should just bash the ball forward unless he senses a hit out to a clear advantage on offer.

It’s such an overrated position to be in to have a dominate ruckman. Unless they get around the ground and drift forward like Cox and Gawn they rarely affect the result of the game. Look at someone like Tom Hawkins when he contests the ruck in the Cats forward 50 - far more effective than trying to find a teammate with a dainty little tap.

I would also rather we went in Keating-style and just had O smacking the ball 30m up field, to clear the congestion.

Most ruck battles are just nil all draws and you rely on the midfielders to work it out. You could honestly go with an ice hockey-style restart with the ball on the ground with two midfielders trying to hack it forward with their hands tied behind their backs.

 

[Lionwest]

Mcluggage was down. Berry not a huge impact. Lachie whilst very good, he wasn’t BOG dominant. Even as recently as last year could we have those lads perform at that level and still manage to knock off the form team in the comp in the manner that we did.

Very happy that we cashed in some fwd
50 capital and reinvested into the midfield. It’s still a work in progress but we will be much better for it in the long run.

 

[Dalions]

Thanks Mitch