Preview Round 5 - Melbourne Demons v Brisbane Lions (Thursday, 11 April 2024 @ 7:30pm)

[Denno]

No it’s not. Comments regarding Starcevich in relation to who is best to play on Fritsch.

Except you went down a rabbit hole you didn't need to?

FWIW, I reckon Lester will get first crack at Fritsch, which will allow Starcevich to match up on Petracca when he goes forward (not sure we have THAT many options for him).

 

[Nathan Barley]

Except you went down a rabbit hole you didn't need to?

FWIW, I reckon Lester will get first crack at Fritsch, which will allow Starcevich to match up on Petracca when he goes forward (not sure we have THAT many options for him).

They could have Brown, Petty and JvR all playing forward

 

[Elixuh]

not enough emphasis on viney being your favourite non-lions player

I have a Viney collage on its way

 

[3KZ is Football]

Or Lester’s soft tackle effort on Curtis which led to his goal

Mate, you are OBSESSED with Lester. You need to move on.

#Lester200
#LesterArmy
#FrogMarch

 

[Kernel Kurtz]

I have banged on about this before but i think it's a failure by the club / board to not recognise our biggest weakness, by a long way, has been match day coach and gameplan / strategy. Not to say those have been hopeless. Just clearly not at the level of top sides, and it has hurt us in key games over the years.

It's not up to Fagan to change this. He is unlikely to say i am not a great match-day coach can you get me help. The club should have said at various points, why are we finishing high on the ladder and struggling in finals, why are we getting figured out in big games, even after last year why did we get found out so badly in the rucks and wings on grand final day - and got proactive on getting a serious senior assistant coach to share the match-day coaching and bring new ideas to strategy.

Leigh Matthews has been lauded as a great coach. He coached in simpler times, but he was also a coach much more about motivation and bringing a talented group together for a common goal as a good motivator of people. Matthews needed O'Donnell. He would have struggled without him - O'Donnell was a big part of bringing together gameplan and moves on matchday.

I don't know how we are traveling with the soft cap, but surely it was worth going over for a couple of years to see if it could make a difference. The Trent Cotchin appointment is fine but seems a bit token to me - like admitting we need something to take us to the next step but not really offering a genuine solution.

Anyway the way we have started the year we will lose our next 3 and it will all be academic!

Summed it up pretty well howler
But I feel we will bust our boilers and get a win or two over the next three.
Having accomplished that still brings us back to your points and that’s where we fall short when it matters

 

[3KZ is Football]

Summed it up pretty well howler
But I feel we will bust our boilers and get a win or two over the next three.
Having accomplished that still brings us back to your points and that’s where we fall short when it matters

100% Correct.

 

[Viceregal]

Has he been playing wing in reserves?

Do we play our players in the reserves in the positions they will be playing in the seniors? (I have heard comments both ways so legit question)

 

[3KZ is Football]

I have banged on about this before but i think it's a failure by the club / board to not recognise our biggest weakness, by a long way, has been match day coach and gameplan / strategy. Not to say those have been hopeless. Just clearly not at the level of top sides, and it has hurt us in key games over the years.

It's not up to Fagan to change this. He is unlikely to say i am not a great match-day coach can you get me help. The club should have said at various points, why are we finishing high on the ladder and struggling in finals, why are we getting figured out in big games, even after last year why did we get found out so badly in the rucks and wings on grand final day - and got proactive on getting a serious senior assistant coach to share the match-day coaching and bring new ideas to strategy.

Leigh Matthews has been lauded as a great coach. He coached in simpler times, but he was also a coach much more about motivation and bringing a talented group together for a common goal as a good motivator of people. Matthews needed O'Donnell. He would have struggled without him - O'Donnell was a big part of bringing together gameplan and moves on matchday.

I don't know how we are traveling with the soft cap, but surely it was worth going over for a couple of years to see if it could make a difference. The Trent Cotchin appointment is fine but seems a bit token to me - like admitting we need something to take us to the next step but not really offering a genuine solution.

Anyway the way we have started the year we will lose our next 3 and it will all be academic!

That was an amazingly accurate post with regards to Fagan and his coaching. I’m going to the game and would be surprised if we won. We haven’t WON a big statement game during the Home and Away season in Melbourne for a while now. We win plenty at Marvell, but wins against Carlton or Collingwood there are never emphatic enough to make the footy world stand up and take notice.

Prior to a big match, the process under Fagan is the wheels start to fall off at the selection table, with out of form players being gifted a game and Fages pursuing his latest brain fart, currently that we need Gardiner clogging up our forward line.

After that we have a nap during games and lose or simply don’t turn up. Hoping this doesn’t happen on Thursday.

#TINT

 

[M Malice]

View attachment 1954007
That was an amazingly accurate post with regards to Fagan and his coaching. I’m going to the game and would be surprised if we won. We haven’t WON a big statement game during the Home and Away season in Melbourne for a while now. We win plenty at Marvell, but wins against Carlton or Collingwood there are never emphatic enough to make the footy world stand up and take notice.

Prior to a big match, the process under Fagan is the wheels start to fall off at the selection table, with out of form players being gifted a game and Fages pursuing his latest brain fart, currently that we need Gardiner clogging up our forward line.

After that we have a nap during games and lose or simply don’t turn up. Hoping this doesn’t happen on Thursday.

#TINT

I'd love to see the side you would put out on the park for this Thursday night if you were sole selector 3KZ... please.

 

[BangyBangy]

I reckon Fritsch is a very smart player and would love to have him at the Lions. Despite everyone I speak to seeming to have some sort of dislike for him for a variety of reasons.

Starc is the best matchup for him. Lester has the nous but could get the runaround . Answerth ,no.

Dunno why everyone is so bearish. We've got a big chance in this game. It is however reasonably important that Pickett doesn't play.

Bearish & dramatic.

We have a good shot at winning this game.

But if we don't. It's not our season over. This isn't a season defining game.

Last game of the season & you have to win to make finals. That's a season defining game.

 

[Nunez]

I don't know why but I have a weirdly good feeling about the game. Winning at the G almost feels like 'our grand final'. Got to win there if we are going to have any chance of salvaging the season, but also think the players need to win there for their own belief - especially against a good team.

Think we'll be up for it and throw absolutely everything at this.

 

[3KZ is Football]

I'd love to see the side you would put out on the park for this Thursday night if you were sole selector 3KZ... please.

Ok.

B: Starcevich, Payne, Lester
HB: Wilmott, Andrews, Zorko
C: Berry, Robertson, McCluggage
HF: McCarthy, Hipwood, Ah Chee
FF: Bailey, Daniher, Cameron
FOL: McInerney, Neale, Dunkley
INTER: Lyons, Answerth, Fletcher, Lohmann
Sub: Gardiner

I think this team would give it a real shake M Malice

 

[rye]

Ok.

B: Starcevich, Payne, Lester
HB: Wilmott, Andrews, Zorko
C: Berry, Robertson, McCluggage
HF: McCarthy, Hipwood, Ah Chee
FF: Bailey, Daniher, Cameron
FOL: McInerney, Neale, Dunkley
INTER: Lyons, Answerth, Fletcher, Tunstill
Sub: Gardiner

I think this team would give it a real shake M Malice

would be ridiculous to drop lohmann after his game on friday

 

[3KZ is Football]

would be ridiculous to drop lohmann after his game on friday

That was an error. I fixed it. He can play for the rest of the season as far as I’m concerned.

 

[3KZ is Football]

I'd love to see the side you would put out on the park for this Thursday night if you were sole selector 3KZ... please.

I’ve dropped Rayner, because we can’t go into this game with passengers and unfortunately that’s what he was during the Grand Final and largely has been since. If Fagan selects him and I am almost certain that he will, then the acid must come on to Fagan if Rayner’s numbers are anything like his performance against North Melbourne. Worse still, if Rayner produces one of his “classic” three disposals in a half and less than 10 or so for the match scoreless games, people have every right to get absolutely stuck into Fagan.

It is not fair to drop Robertson and others while maintaining a “Cam will learn more in the Seniors” policy no matter how poorly he plays.

 

[Elixuh]

I don't know why but I have a weirdly good feeling about the game. Winning at the G almost feels like 'our grand final'. Got to win there if we are going to have any chance of salvaging the season, but also think the players need to win there for their own belief - especially against a good team.

Think we'll be up for it and throw absolutely everything at this.

 

[Nunez]

Did he win though

 

[Elixuh]

Did he win though

The 1999 Ryder Cup matches were held at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachesetts where the U.S. team won by a single point after being down 10-6 heading into Sunday's singles matches.

 

[3KZ is Football]

I don't know why but I have a weirdly good feeling about the game. Winning at the G almost feels like 'our grand final'. Got to win there if we are going to have any chance of salvaging the season, but also think the players need to win there for their own belief - especially against a good team.

Think we'll be up for it and throw absolutely everything at this.

Cool and normal. Love your optimism Nunez and I hope you are right.

 

[M Malice]

Ok.

B: Starcevich, Payne, Lester
HB: Wilmott, Andrews, Zorko
C: Berry, Robertson, McCluggage
HF: McCarthy, Hipwood, Ah Chee
FF: Bailey, Daniher, Cameron
FOL: McInerney, Neale, Dunkley
INTER: Lyons, Answerth, Fletcher, Lohmann
Sub: Gardiner

I think this team would give it a real shake M Malice

So you have only omitted 2 from our team on the weekend, Gardiner(who goes to the sub spot) and Rayner FOR Lyons and Robertson.

I was under the impression that you and some others wanted mass changes, for what it is worth I like your side EXCEPT I would substitute Tunstill for Lyons if we rule out Rayner as an option.

I still maintain Lyons is way too slow on transition to be in the side particularly on the wide open spaces of the MCG.

 

[Gadzorks]

Need to start showing up in the list below to be any chance of winning in next 3 weeks.

Flying high: Magpies ramp up heat in pressure cooker

Collingwood records the highest ranked pressure game for the season against Hawthorn

www.afl.com.au

View attachment 1953772

Just listening to roar deal now. Fish did a data dive and says pressure is THE stat for performance. Win the pressure, and you win the game.

So, that list is ugly for us.

 

[DreadBat5701894]

Just listening to roar deal now. Fish did a data dive and says pressure is THE stat for performance. Win the pressure, and you win the game.

So, that list is ugly for us.

I thought our pressure last week was very good, albeit against weak opposition.

 

[martinson]

On performances last year and given our traditionally slow starts to the year this is about the time where we start to show some form.

I don't rate Melbourne like most seem to. They had their year where everything clicked.

Sure they're a very competitive side but ability wised we're just as good .Easily.

If we cough it up here and at the worst don't lose a close one then maybe we need to reassess a few things.

Even so it's far from season over ,this is a very competitive year where many teams will look good and then bad.

We lost 2 games we should've won , that's what's made it harder.

 

[PTizzle]

I thought our pressure last week was very good, albeit against weak opposition.

I'd also say we've been good at repeat entries inside 50 and keeping the ball in there, barring these nightmarish third quarter lapses we've been having. We just haven't been finishing off our work and taking advantage of our momentum. We're 3rd in the league for inside 50s but bottom 4 for goals per inside 50.

 

[3KZ is Football]

I still maintain Lyons is way too slow on transition to be in the side particularly on the wide open spaces of the MCG.

I actually think Lyons matches up really well against Melbourne and their midfield “bulls”. Certainly much better than Rayner. Last time we played Melbourne at the MCG, Rd.18, 2023.

Disposals
Lyons 19 (10 Kicks / 9 Handballs)
Rayner 8 (4 Kicks / 4 Handballs)

Marks
Lyons 2
Rayner 0

Clearances
Lyons 4
Rayner 0

Inside 50’s
Lyons 4
Rayner 1

Goals
Lyons 1.0
Rayner 0.0

Tackles
Lyons 4
Rayner 3

Metres Gained
Lyons 346
Rayner 129

Of course in true Fagan fashion, Lyons was dropped for the next week and Rayner held his spot.