Review Round 6, 2024 - Brisbane Lions vs. Geelong

[Nathan Barley]

Is Lester worthy of praise tonight? Excellent first quarter, but had a few blunders after and was barely involved with ball in hand (7 touches, 2 spoils, 0 tackles). Contributed to Cameron going goalless which is a tick, but I thought Answerth and Mot were significantly more impactful.

Lester made a few poor choices with the footy but his defensive work was excellent

 

[martinson]

As I said, Payne is comedy bad. He is a classic example of Fagan's addiction to Brutus Beefcake defenders who just aren't that clever. Starcevich is another example of a player who fits that mold. Just not smart enough. He was murdered in the Grand Final and has pretty much stunk it up ever since. He will get a Mulligan though because he will NEVER be dropped under Fagan. You would have though conditions tonight would have suited Rayner, but he was another who just didn't stand up.

McKenna should come in for Starcevich, Gardiner must go back to defence to replace Payne and I would not mind seeing Prior get another crack. Hats off to Answerth, Wilmott and Lester tonight. They were players who busted a gut all night. Answerth, in particular, started a bit shakily, but got better as the game went on.

The one really pleasing aspect for me is that a guy that I doubted would ever make it in Answerth could be there to stay. Was generally very calm under pressure all night.

He's had to fight for his spot hasn't he and has now earnt it.

 

[Tom14]

Highly doubt it

Has only received coaches votes for the Melbourne game where he won the 5th most votes for us

We’ve won two games. Basically no one has coaches votes for us.

He’s probably got votes in most games though. Other players have played better for a game but been dead average or worse outside of that. Even in the blues game he was one of our best in the first half.

But regardless, I think it’s arguable - which is depressing.

 

[moncon]

Thought our defence did very well keeping both Hawkins & Cameron goalless; Lester was really good, again.

We were in pretty good shape until Oscar went down, but really: at home, Stewart off the ground, two of the best forwards in the league goalless, and they never looked in any trouble at all.

 

[Thomasno]

Is Lester worthy of praise tonight? Excellent first quarter, but had a few blunders after and was barely involved with ball in hand (7 touches, 2 spoils, 0 tackles). Contributed to Cameron going goalless which is a tick, but I thought Answerth and Mot were significantly more impactful.

Honestly he pretty comfortably blanketed Jeremy Cameron for most of the night; didn’t see as much of the ball after QT but Cameron did nothing all game (except try to put McCluggage in hospital like he did Andrews)

 

[Nathan Barley]

Any chance HSmith will debut or do we play it safe with Fort?

 

[Thomasno]

Any chance HSmith will debut or do we play it safe with Fort?

Against GWS might be able to get away with giving Smith a run?

 

[bungalow_bill]

Just end this Gardiner forward bullshit, he is no good. You can’t have a forward who is there to compete and no danger of ever kicking a goal. Sick of knowing as soon as Charlie marks it more the 35 meters out he is going to spray it or not make the distance. Payne was disgusting tonight, Geelongs best player to half time. Answerth shows what a bit of want and determination can do, maybe our least talented but somehow nearly our best player tonight. It’s all too hard for this group, we wanted everything so bad the last 4 years and now they barely give a whimper when the games on the line. Really disappointing.

It's often our least talented players like Answerth or Lester who stand up. Unlike the ultra talented players such as Rayner or McCluggage they need to be putting in 100% every game just to stay in the team.

 

[bungalow_bill]

Players were kicking long at times, lots of dump kicks out of defence
All players make mistakes, Neale kicked straight to Cats player, they run it down and goal
Hawkins marks outside 50 on an angle and the defence set up as if he’s having a shot, Cats player all alone in front of goal, takes uncontested mark and then goals
Players are responsible for these errors not the coaches

Any chance to attack Fagan with some posters

 

[martinson]

Against GWS might be able to get away with giving Smith a run?

My money's on Fagan playing Fort.

 

[DreadBat5701894]

My money's on Fagan playing Fort.

We could get both if Gardiner doesn’t play forward

 

[braddsey]

I’m going to be honest, if it doesn’t rain we probably win? Had so much ball in the first half and our defence wasn’t giving them an inch; we just tried to be too cute in the wet and kept turning it over.

Pretty woeful from a decision making point of view in the wet, but are we ever going to play in a game like that again this year, or next even? Probably not.

I’m happy to let that one slide, just frustrating because leaves us with almost no margin for error now if we want to make top 4.

Can see us comfortably beating GWS next week as we did Melbourne last week lmao

I like your glass half full view. My only concern is tonight was such a slog in the wet that it will impact our GWS game next week with a 5-day turnaround.

Clearly the ball was like a cake of soap. The first half was a hard fight for both teams. Sadly we didn’t take our chances, so couldn’t put scoreboard pressure on. Then the cats were well better in the second half.

 

[Thomasno]

We could get both if Gardiner doesn’t play forward

Actually not a bad idea, good way of easing Smith into it.

Although tbh I thought Gardiner played well tonight

 

[RU_]

It’s a weird feeling that I don’t really give a **** that we lost.

Kinda feel like I’ve mentally put a line through us for this year already.

 

[martinson]

I thought as soon as the 4th quarter started you could tell we weren't up for it.

Make of that what you will but to me that was very disappointing.

 

[Elixuh]

Any chance HSmith will debut or do we play it safe with Fort?

They won't be debuting Smith in a must win game against a top side. It'll be Fort.

 

[DreadBat5701894]

Any chance to attack Fagan with some posters

Can't believe Fagan made Fletcher miss from 10m out directly in front

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Actually not a bad idea, good way of easing Smith into it.

Although tbh I thought Gardiner played well tonight

Was so far ahead of Hipwood's performance it's not funny.

 

[DreadBat5701894]

It's not an excuse, but I think it's being underestimated just how much having no ruckmen messed with our structure. The difference between our side before and after Big O went off was huge.

 

[M Malice]

We were right in it until the Cats went 13 points up in the last, just could not take our chances, seems to be a regular occurrence unfortunately.

Top 4 is gone, we would probably have to win 15 of the remaining 17 games to make it... should still make finals though.

Fab5- Ryan Lester

35

Ryan Lester

Age

32

Ht

192cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.9

4star

K

7.9

3star

HB

7.0

4star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.7

4star

MG

170.4

3star

D

10.3

3star

K

5.8

2star

HB

4.5

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

1.5

2star

MG

140.7

3star

D

12.6

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

5.8

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

0.6

3star

, Noah Answerth

43

Noah Answerth

Age

25

Ht

183cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.0

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

3.7

4star

T

2.9

4star

MG

208.9

3star

D

15.0

4star

K

15.0

5star

HB

0.0

1star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.0

3star

MG

357.0

5star

D

12.0

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

4.2

4star

M

3.4

4star

T

3.0

5star

MG

179.2

3star

, Darcy Wilmot, Dayne Zorko

15

Dayne Zorko

Age

35

Ht

175cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.4

5star

K

13.2

5star

HB

8.2

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

6.0

5star

CL

3.6

5star

D

14.0

3star

K

9.0

4star

HB

5.0

3star

M

2.0

2star

T

5.0

5star

CL

2.0

4star

D

16.4

4star

K

9.8

4star

HB

6.6

4star

M

5.2

5star

T

6.6

5star

CL

1.2

4star

, Jarrod Berry

7

Jarrod Berry

Age

26

Ht

192cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.4

4star

K

8.5

3star

HB

8.9

5star

M

3.9

4star

T

4.2

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

17.0

4star

K

9.4

4star

HB

7.6

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

5.1

5star

CL

2.9

4star

D

10.6

3star

K

4.4

2star

HB

6.2

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.8

5star

CL

0.8

3star

.

Jack Payne had a horror night, made an early mistake, seems like the kind of player who loses confidence pretty rapidly when that happens, needs to be tougher mentally.

 

[martinson]

We were right in it until the Cats went 13 points up in the last, just could not take our chances, seems to be a regular occurrence unfortunately.

Top 4 is gone, we would probably have to win 15 of the remaining 17 games to make it... should still make finals though.

Fab5- Ryan Lester, Noah Answerth, Darcy Wilmot, Dayne Zorko, Jarrod Berry.

Jack Payne had a horror night, made an early mistake, seems like the kind of player who loses confidence pretty rapidly when that happens, needs to be tougher mentally.

Payne did some good things tonight but his mistakes are amplified by the fact that he sleepwalks once things don't go his way.

Pathetic zero chasing when he actually has good pace for a big guy.

I know we need him desperately but sometimes I wish someone could put a rocket up him.

I imagine they've tried.

 

[The Zork]

That Mcluggage non free x3 that would have been a kick on goal sucked the life out of me and I never recovered.

Didn’t show the replay of the mark so not 100% sure if that was there but might have been infringed, then got taken down by an intentional leg thrown out, then got tackled around the ankles.

 

[martinson]

That Mcluggage non free x3 that would have been a kick on goal sucked the life out of me and I never recovered.

Didn’t show the replay of the mark so not 100% sure if that was there but might have been infringed, then got taken down by an intentional leg thrown out, then got tackled around the ankles.

That and the Ah Chee mark in the goalmouth.

But when you consider one of our 2 goals in the first was from a 150m penalty it was just a very poor performance all round.

 

[Thomasno]

Was so far ahead of Hipwood's performance it's not funny.

Find it hard to criticise for skills in conditions like tonight. Hipwood wasn’t as good as last week but definitely better than he has been earlier in the year; in terms of getting up the field and pressuring contests.

Again, he did nothing, sure, but hard to quantify that given the conditions.

 

[Mooch]

So when are we knocking the Gabba down again?

In conditions like tonight, not kicking straight is going to kill you. We consistently couldn't get over the man on the mark or kick regulation goals, we were never going to win. Add not being able to stick a tackle or hold a mark and it was a recipe for disaster. Got all the basics wrong and we can't blame the weather or missing Oscar. Can't even blame the umpires tonight (not that they got everything right). Poor night all round.