Review Round 7, 2015 - Brisbane Lions vs Port

[LicoriceAllsorts]

In fairness to McStay can't recall to many key forwards across the competition putting in the hard yards in a defensive role, it should be encouraged but at the end of the day he is there to kick goals. Would be easier without some of the illegal holdings but he will need to work through that until he gets some 'superstar' attention from the umps.

Best team performance for a couple of years, must say I enjoyed the game more than the miracle on grass, we deserved this one we beat them over the course of the entire game....better to grind it out than the hail mary at the finish.

I'm still concerned how we will kick a winning score week in week out with the current line up. Think the team would benefit with the inclusion of another mid size leading forward, ala a Mayes or a Dawson. Not sure how you fit them in but just sayin.

Was super impressed with NRobbo's game, his awareness appears to have doubled since last year, a couple of his little shimmys around contests rather than trying to bullock his way through were testament to his development, in saying that two weeks in a row he has absolutely destroyed an opposition senior player with a fend off (last week Judd) missed who was the Port victim yesterday, will rival Dustin Martin soon in this area if he keeps it up.

We deserved the miracle on grass as well

 

[Nunez]

Well, I'm not on the bandwagon at this point. It was a good win, but Port played terribly. How well we played is what can be debated - but Port played poorly.

I'd like to see us beat the Bombers, if only because I'll have tele

Beyond that, I'll re-assess week by week.

Why did port play bad?

 

[lionshine]

I was at the Gabba yesterday and it was marvellous! Nick Robbo cracked in, Lewy and Dizzy showed us more of the talent they showed last year, Leuy and McStay did their job and Andrews and Clarke did their job plus more! DBeams played his best game for the club and Bundy had another class performance. DBeams is so classy! Speaking of best games for the club, MRobbo!! Amazing! The 3 goals were so much fun but his effort and intensity was ridiculous. The 3 new recruits are showing the fans why they were recruited. Rocky, Reddo and Zorko cracked in.

Lester and Paparone played their best games of the year(As did Aishy) and were major reasons why the boys won. Stef Martin continues to produce fantastic performances. Josh Green has got his touch back. How good was Adcock's goal! I hope Cutler's foot is alright. He did some nice things.

You know that buzz among the fans in the crowd whenever Browny use to take a mark within kicking distance of goal? That was one of the things that I was really sad about departing when the big champ retired, however, the buzz around the stands when Richy gets the ball and is streaming forward through the middle certainly makes up for it to an extent. Speaking of Rich, he truly has picked up where he left off since returning from the ACL. He played very well yesterday setting up 4 goals and kicking one himself. Such an exciting player to watch live and I can't wait to watch both him and Pearce playing together at the Gabba once more. It has been to long since we have seen that! It will be an added bonus when Zorko picks up his form as well because he is an excitement machine himself.

All in all a great four quarter effort and if the boys can maintain that kind of effort and intensity for the remainder of the season we will be competitive against most teams. I still expect some ups and downs though. I couldn't have asked for anything more from the visit to the Gabba yesterday… Actually, one more thing, I would have liked to have seen Polec play and receive some boos before watching him shake hands with Aish at the conclusion of the game and tell him to stay put with the Lions

 

[Hollow Knight]

I need to get seats in section 67, I sat there last night and actually enjoyed it, although the whole heights thing still freaked me out.

Why didn't you say hello!

 

[patfullfankezz]

Why didn't you say hello!

Because I was scared for my life! I was 90% certain I was going to fall!

 

[nutralion]

Tell you what I was one of many at the start of the season who thought Leppa had gone bananas playing Papparone in defence. But I'm well and truly happy to eat my words now. The guy just couldn't stop taking intercept marks yesterday. We know we've got some good contest killers in clarke and gardiner to build our defence around but having defenders who can mark the ball as well is just so bloody valuable in todays game.

 

[pOleK]

Just had a look at the fixture and ladder but anyways
FUN FACT: After round 9, 4 of our 5 next matches are teams currently in the top 5 (only exception are the bulldogs).
Hopefully we can continue our form through that tough patch of the season

 

[pOleK]

Tell you what I was one of many at the start of the season who thought Leppa had gone bananas playing Papparone in defence. But I'm well and truly happy to eat my words now. The guy just couldn't stop taking intercept marks yesterday. We know we've got some good contest killers in clarke and gardiner to build our defence around but having defenders who can mark the ball as well is just so bloody valuable in todays game.

Don't forget Harris Andrews. Kid played some great football yesterday but people aren't acknowledging it as much as paps

 

[Eons]

Don't forget Harris Andrews. Kid played some great football yesterday but people aren't acknowledging it as much as paps

Harris Andrews gets plenty of love, check out some of the threads after last weeks game or his roster watch thread. Paps played arguably his best game for the club so he's getting a bit of love this week.

 

[Davemonkey]

Well, I'm not on the bandwagon at this point.

Yeah but your house is.

 

[a mayes ing]

I think the next 3 are definitly winnable.
Essendon, hard to know who is gonna turn up, but l think they are vulnerable if we bring the same intensity.
Saints, we can beat them.
GWS, hard with the form they are in, but they are still kids, need to keep Cameron and McCarthy from getting too many.

Could be 5-5

 

[Davemonkey]

I think the next 3 are definitly winnable.
Essendon, hard to know who is gonna turn up, but l think they are vulnerable if we bring the same intensity.
Saints, we can beat them.
GWS, hard with the form they are in, but they are still kids, need to keep Cameron and McCarthy from getting too many.

Could be 5-5

I'll give you Bombers and the Saints but GWS are looking the goods. They'll run out of steam towards the end of the year but before the bye they could beat anyone, I reckon they'll tear us up if we are even a bit off our game.

 

[Toffee Lion]

All I see when looking at the Bye is Pearce Hanley.

If we can win 2/3 of the next 3, oh boy.

 

[matwt73]

Tell you what I was one of many at the start of the season who thought Leppa had gone bananas playing Papparone in defence. But I'm well and truly happy to eat my words now. The guy just couldn't stop taking intercept marks yesterday. We know we've got some good contest killers in clarke and gardiner to build our defence around but having defenders who can mark the ball as well is just so bloody valuable in todays game.

I suspect Paps is just a really smart coachable kid. He looked lost in his first year and then last year playing as a running HF or winger, it just seemed to click. This year has been a bit the same, he did look out of his depth in the first couple and now he just seems to get it. The one thing I have noticed though is that when he has found himself forward with the ball he does not now pull the trigger and go for goal. No doubt he is playing his role but I imagine by the end of the year Leppa would be saying... and if you do find yourself 45 out, with the ball in hand, remember you can be a forward too.

 

[ImAFreeMan]

I'm more impressed by his lack of brain fades. Has been using the footy better than expected and not giving away any stupid frees or losing his cool.

More surprising is the fact he had a very DE high disposal count and 3 goals


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PaddleFoot]

Yeah, as a defensive match up (and probably what he will end up developing into), Westhoff is the perfect matchup. Paps pretty much is being crafted into that tall wingman that can fill a hole down back but also stream forward and score. Did a great job today.

It's a long bow but .. when the young Paul Roos started at the Roys, he was a little lost at half forward so Walls shifted him up to the wing. He blitzed the Blues on debut and suddenly he was a key part of the team .. and moved to chb to form a great enduring defensive partnership with Gary Pert. Just saying ..

 

[Viceregal]

Patrons of the Numpty Questions thread may remember that I was asking about locations and sun etc before heading off to the 'Gabba on Sunday.

Here is how my night went.

1) Got there nice and early (wasn't sure of the route (did get lost but recovered) or the bus timetable etc) and got a seat right on the fence in Section 20 (thinking that it would be a better view of the screen) ... then realised that my advisers hadn't been kidding and I was going to surrounded by Port supporters and took made my first move ...

2) Took a similar position in Section 31. Had to resist the guy who was telling me that the first four rows of the whole section were reserved for a Lion's authorised supporting group called The Cage. He went and got a 'Gabba official, who ended up getting a Lion's official, and it turned out that they normally *do* mark seats as reserved for them but had forgotten to this time but it turned out there were only going to be six of them that match and since there were six seats spare to my left ... *sigh*.

The game finally began - and I couldn't see a thing. Now admittedly I don't have the best eyesight in the world but all I could see was blurry people running around mostly far far away from me and was having to look hard left to see the screen to see what was going on. In the meantime the fans to my left (who by this time had offered to let me join them () were screaming at any Port player who came near that they were either w***ers or losers in-between snippets of Lions-clap-clap-clap and the Port guy behind me was screaming 'Kick it to Jay' *every* time Port got the ball.

So I start to wonder if there is a second level GA area and just before quarter time decided it was time to check out some other options ... having ticked 'sit on the fence at an AFL game' off my bucket list (had I had one and had it been on there...)

3) My wanderings ended up with me sitting about four rows from the back up in section 63 or 64 (somewhere thereabouts) and what a difference that made! I could not only see the whole ground (ok the far side still a bit fuzzy) but I could see the stuff that we just don't see on the TV - when the player had the ball I could see the people moving (or not) to get to where he would kick it and found myself anticipating where it would go next and being a bit thrilled when it did. Even though I was that far up / back I could still see the determination on N Robbo's face and hear the twack of a fisted/kicked ball.

I don't think I would go again to sit on the fence but there was something strangely appealing about being up where I ended up ... and being part of the crowd/atmosphere as opposed to watching it from the lounge room ... oh and yes I joined in on the LIIIIIOOOOONNNNNNS ... (and watched Brion's maiden inflation!)

 

[PaddleFoot]

I'm really interested to see what we do with Merrett.

Instinctively, I think that we have to pick him when healthy. On the other hand, there must be a temptation to leave what's not broken. The most obvious candidate would be Andrews (or Gardiner if his body needs a break), but it's not really a like for like replacement. Andrews gives us some important things that Merrett doesn't do all that much. Then again, Merrett looked really settled in defence again before he went down injured.

It's a good problem to have at least.

He goes back .. and can run on ball ( he's pretty good contesting ). Depends on opponent eg Cloke - we all need a defensive gorilla.

 

[lionshine]

I know I already talked about DBeams but god he's a gun! His performance against Port was at a seriously high standard and I expect him to continue to build into the season and hit his peak in perfect corroboration with the return of the Irishman Pearce Hanley and hopefully a return to full fitness/form for players like Rockliff, Christensen and Zorko. Rockliff, DBeams, Rich, Christensen, Hanley and Zorko all playing at their best will be very, very difficult to stop and it will shut all the oppositions fans saying things like "I thought Brisbane had the best midfield in the comp" up if they haven't shut up already after yesterday's performance Get excited guys because the days the aforementioned midfielders all play at their best together is the day the Lions will play at a level that none of us fans have seen since 2004. Bookmark it.

 

[luthor]

Tell you what I was one of many at the start of the season who thought Leppa had gone bananas playing Papparone in defence. But I'm well and truly happy to eat my words now. The guy just couldn't stop taking intercept marks yesterday. We know we've got some good contest killers in clarke and gardiner to build our defence around but having defenders who can mark the ball as well is just so bloody valuable in todays game.

Not just in today's game.

Back in our golden era (late 90's -2004) we had guy named Chris Scott who plucked defensive marks with regularity. Reckon he defused so many dangerous situations by taking a clean contested mark, often in a pack or outnumbered by opponents.

He could have played a a key forward but from memory he was a terrible kick for goal.

 

[Elixuh]

I must admit seeing Beams interchange numerous times for Rocky (and vice versa) made me feel all warm inside. Class replacing class.

 

[Bucking Beads]

The beauty of these 2 wins is Rocky has hardly had an impact in either of them. He is not even close to his best form yet. He actually looks like he is still a bit busted TBH.

 

[PaddleFoot]

And one other thing about about McStay- he has the potential to be something special [and if he'd kicked 6 or 7 v Carlton as he should've he might already have this tag] but he has ZERO defensive skills.

Something to seriously work on.

Absolutely agree - looked like a soccer striker. Those guys never chase back. Must pressure ALWAYS - you never know.

 

[PaddleFoot]

The beauty of these 2 wins is Rocky has hardly had an impact in either of them. He is not even close to his best form yet. He actually looks like he is still a bit busted TBH.

I thought his in-close tackling and backline possession game was back on - but I get the feeling that the last week's internal 'bust up' - where he just called it out emotionally - has galvanised everyone. A bit like Rob Murphy - he is a natural leader who is beginning to realise the powerful influence that the role has. He is after all an All Australian - so no need to worry on that account. I'm enjoying his ride - I hope he is.

 

[PaddleFoot]

Not just in today's game.

Back in our golden era (late 90's -2004) we had guy named Chris Scott who plucked defensive marks with regularity. Reckon he defused so many dangerous situations by taking a clean contested mark, often in a pack or outnumbered by opponents.

He could have played a a key forward but from memory he was a terrible kick for goal.

2001 Prelim Final vs Tigers - started forward ( ? ) and had a blinder but 2:2 .. You have to reflect on the team culture that had both Chris and Brad as leaders. Solid.