Review Round 8, 2020 - Brisbane Lions vs. Melbourne

[adey115]

The umpire should have called play on. I personally think the umpire just forgot to call it then he had to pay the 50 against Zorko. Remember we all must wait for the umpire to call play on before we can run at the player, even if a player may have already moved of his line and run 10 metres but we must wait. ( Not saying this happened in this instance but just a bit of sarcasm)

Exactly.

Ah Chee doesn’t run off the line, but slips moving in to kick it, and he is called to play on. Jones ran at 60 degrees, thus off the line, dummying the handball, no call of play on, 50 paid. Infuriating.

 

[martinson]

probably responsible for a few of the holdings at clearances playing a negating role.

Yeah possibly. He's been a bit clumsy and rushed lately but overall is back on the trajectory he had 18 months ago.

A lot of our guys looked really spent in the end tonight . Not a lot of gusto in the team song . In many ways this could be the most gruelling season ever , you need to have decent reserves and be mentally tough.

 

[3KZ is Football]

No idea. We should probably defer to 3KZ is Football

Ballenden to Full Forward or alternatively - go for a Doc Wheildon style Full Forward and play Mathieson there. You watch.

 

[3KZ is Football]

3KZ jr to debut??!?!?!?

He’s only eight, so at this stage he’s better of sticking with his newly appointed role as head goal kicking coach.

 

[jackess]

The moment the umps referred the Lever mark apparently costing them the game. Apparently this kick was going 100m to Nathan Jones who would’ve setup a goal

 

[3KZ is Football]

He is named after Bernie Quinlan and a bit of the magic has rubbed off.

 

[Ralphy2017]

Yeah he does a lot right . But I've never been a fan . Not big enough and not quick enough but has absolutely made the most of his abilities and plays to his strengths.

Agree Lester does a few things right, but has played at AFL level for many years and over 130 games he would want to do a few things right. Lester is definitely not fast enough. Answerth In or when playing tall and mobile forward lines then Payne in. I will give McStay credit for competing for the ball and giving our smalls a chance, but for a KPF he is not taking marks nor is he troubling the score board too often. Missed again at a set shot (although acknowledge the wet conditions) and I am not talking about the one after the siren. We might have been the better midfield, but were fortunate, Melbourne's last I50 should have went to an unmarked Viney about 35m out and in front instead of the pocket. Glad we got away with that. I think two rucks was a good idea not sure about Archie maybe time for Skinner or Ballenden. Thought Oscar was good. Neal already been said, simply impressive week in week out.

 

[martinson]

View attachment 920192

The moment the umps referred the Lever mark apparently costing them the game. Apparently this kick was going 100m to Nathan Jones who would’ve setup a goal

Yeah ,he had a 3 against 2 to kick to . Odds are we would've mopped up.

 

[Ralphy2017]

Agree with most of post, except for Lester, he's been good this year plays a role which is very important to team balance.

Is there someone else who can play that role? had a very ordinary game against Geelong, not much better against GWS and a number of mistakes tonight against Melbourne. I think his past month has been ordinary but obviously the coaches and selection committee have faith, and reluctant to change a winning team.

 

[martinson]

Is there someone else who can play that role? had a very ordinary game against Geelong, not much better against GWS and a number of mistakes tonight against Melbourne. I think his past month has been ordinary but obviously the coaches and selection committee have faith, and reluctant to change a winning team.

He's struggled against the better teams imo but was still serviceable tonight apart from a couple of mistakes. The good thing about him is that he's fairly hardy and we might need him over the next 4 weeks.

 

[Paul Mac]

View attachment 920192

The moment the umps referred the Lever mark apparently costing them the game. Apparently this kick was going 100m to Nathan Jones who would’ve setup a goal

who knows what would have , could have ,should have happened but the one thing i noticed tonight was Melbourne cut as apart a few times directly from inside our forward 50. I think 4 of the 7 goals they got were scored directly rebounding from our forward 50 so they did cut us up a few times.

 

[lionsrules]

Ugly game ... was there had mixed emotions.
Rest rich if its minor.... bring him for Richmond
Bring in cey
Bring witherden.

Out
Berry rich

Id also punt smith for another runner.

 

[Pacman82]

Ugly game ... was there had mixed emotions.
Rest rich if its minor.... bring him for Richmond
Bring in cey
Bring witherden.

Out
Berry rich

Id also punt smith for another runner.

I agree, was Smith's best effort to date even though he couldn't clunk a mark.. I wouldn't be so fast to punish Berry off the back of one bad game though

 

[kenberger]

The umpire should have called play on. I personally think the umpire just forgot to call it then he had to pay the 50 against Zorko. Remember we all must wait for the umpire to call play on before we can run at the player, even if a player may have already moved of his line and run 10 metres but we must wait. ( Not saying this happened in this instance but just a bit of sarcasm)

It happened against us 10min earlier though. I think the ump was embarrassed he paid a mark to one of ours (can’t remember who) because the ball went about 6 metres so called play on after they encroached instead of 50. Honestly they are a debacle. Every team that loses this year has a legitimate claim against the umpires. I’d have broken the tv if we’d lost and I can understand why Melbourne supporters would feel the same

 

[dizzysquizz]

Game should have been sealed and finished when McCluggage was running into open goal 20m out. That terrible kick allowed the Dees back into the game and in the end we were a bit lucky to hold on. Hippy and McStay actually took some important marks in the last qtr but as usual with those two they couldn't finish with a goal. Lucky for us the Dees missed plenty as well.

Oscar I thought had a ripping game and really competed hard but my gosh Gawn is a seriously good ruck. Some of his taps were sublime. The Dees should be a top 8 side just on the service he provides them every week.

We missed Richy off half back. Lost a bit of drive. Birchall is very suspect in marking contests but his kicking and changing angles is massive plus. Can see how he made the Hawks so good coming out of the back line.

Bailey super again. He should be permanent on the wing next year. McCluggage on the other wing. Neale another 3 votes. simply we don't win without him tonight or Harris. Gardiner was excellent down back. Liked Starcevich game.

More than ever I think after that game tonight we need to seriously consider resting half to 3/4 team for the Tigers game in 9 days. Throw everything into Fridays game against Essendon.

If we were going to rest players, which I dont think FAGES will. I would rest players for the Bombers match, and put Everything into the Tiges match. OUR midfield SHOULD smash the bombers, mids, and they limped across the line to the Crows.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

If you watch the replay have a look at Harris really giving it to Hippy straight after the game , in what looked like a controlled and educative manner. Hippy was shaking his head and pleading innocence but there was obviously something that happened in those last couple of minutes that Harris was really annoyed with.

Footage anyone!!!?

 

[iBeng]

We got pretty lucky. Was tired of the commentators pretty quickly as well. Absolute Demons love fest.

Rich and Berry will def be outs I suspect. Possibly Archie but he wasnt the worst for essentially a second string ruck. He'll never be that Ruck/Extra Midfielder that blokes like Martin can be.

 

[Lazza16]

Also petty to say, but quite happy from my memory Petracca didn't rip the game apart. Granted he did have quite a few real quality plays.

Someone said either in this thread or the game day one that players sometimes can be overwhelmed by the hype of how some players are untackle-able. Sometimes he really blitzed us with speed/strength but other times it was a really weak effort at a tackle which was infuriating.


I think 2-3 were HTB? Someone mentioned earlier Berry had a tendency to go for the play-on without fully being aware of the upfield/surroundings.

Other than that were the spate of late hits etc when he was having a stinker.

He Berry needs a haircut....affecting his peripheral radar

 

[seanthelion]

Lowest winning score in Brisbane Lions history today (53), surpassing the previous lowest of 59 against Gold Coast in 2012 at the same ground.

 

[pulpdriver]

I'd love for Archie to make it cause he seems like a great guy and we need a ruck replacement but he's simply not good enough.

 

[pulpdriver]

View attachment 920192

The moment the umps referred the Lever mark apparently costing them the game. Apparently this kick was going 100m to Nathan Jones who would’ve setup a goal

Thank you putting this in perspective just how ****ing ******ed this call was from the commentators.
Does anyone else really despise Dal Santo's commentary contributions?

 

[Leuy LongerCombo]

I’ll start this post by saying I’m no Archie Smith apologist.

However, I think it is clear that we prefer a two ruck strategy every week. And this week, that strategy seemed to contribute to nullifying the potential impact of Gawn.

We don’t have another ruckman on the list. Archie is our number 3 guy at a when our first choice is unavailable. Therefore, assuming no change in our 2 ruck strategy, he gets a game. Furthermore, his job is no more than to keep working the opposition’s main ruckman over. Citing his possession count is almost irrelevant.

I’m sure he’d have liked to have a more positive impact on the game. But, for the strategy we’ve adopted, it seems to me that he’ll keep getting a game.

Perhaps the conversation should go to whether the two ruck strategy is the right one. I’ve never been a fan but we’ve stuck to it for 18 months now and we’ve had significant success so I’m hardly on strong ground asking for it to be changed. But tonight in particular, I actually think the strategy was very successful and so this is the wrong game IMO to call for Archie to be dropped.

We seem to be pretty committed to the 2 Rucks, there little doubting that. Personally I don’t think it really worked that well tonight.

Gawn was still very dominate, and would have had him in the top few players for the game. Smiths output still needs to be measured, and not given a pass mark because Gawn wasn’t as dominant as he could have been otherwise.

Simplistic view I know, but I see it as we used two playing spots, to try and nullify his influence and he still had a great game. Oscar and Archie also combined for 81% time off the ground, something that I think needs to be seriously considered with this compressed schedule, is managing everyones work load. Archie only spending 47% TOG

When we’re at our best, we play a very high intensity game style, is having minimal rotations hurting us as the game goes on? Would having the extra runner help us overall ?

Ultimately I really think we’re at a no win situation with the Rucks at the moment. Big O hasnt got the capacity to play large chunks in the middle, And we haven’t got a second Forward/Ruck to give him a remote chop out.
Think we will just need to ride it out for a little bit yet

 

[AFLQLD]

At the moment I think McStay and Hipwood are playing their roles well in general play. They make a contest, provide space for the small forwards and put a lot of pressure on defensively. This wasn’t a fast open game for our forwards the way Melbourne set up in defence so they had to do their best. On a dry track Melbourne would have struggled a lot more with our ball movement.

Goal kicking has to be frustrating half the team at the moment.

 

[JasRulz63]

Archie only played 43% game time despite having Rich off for almost all of the second half. Can't have been good for the rotations, especially coming into some short breaks.

On the other hand, Essendon play Bellchambers and McKernan in the ruck, so he should hold up fine there hopefully allowing us to play Oscar up forward more next week.

 

[Happy_Neale]

It was technically there as no play on had been called.

The play on calls after a mark are such a lottery, often times a player is deemed to have ‘played on’ having barely moved, other times like in Jones case they run a mini arc (clearly off their line) and nothing.