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Our finals exit last year could have been worse..

P-man
in Melbourne Demons

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Horrible story. And yes yr right. The dees we’re crap against WC but at least they were there on time and sober! Small mercies. 

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    Would have been worse if one of our players had got suspended for using Gatorade as a urine substitute in a drug test

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    15 minutes ago, Dees247 said:

    Would have been worse if one of our players had got suspended for using Gatorade as a urine substitute in a drug test

    ?

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    I actually reckon the Dogs got away lightly from the media, for their pathetic loss to GWS.

    They lost by only 8 point less than what we did and at least we had 2 finals wins to show for our September. 

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    On a related note, as good as the Lions were for most of the year, to get bundled out in straight sets is pretty disapointing on the back of two home finals where they had a far greater home ground advantage than we did against our respective opponents last year.

    At least we stood up and won big moments and big game finals.  Not that Hawthorn or Geelong were really that much chop last year, but the way we were playing, I think we would have beaten most other finalists, including WC at the MCG (particularly if they didn't have the luxury of a second week off in 3 weeks).

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    10 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

    On a related note, as good as the Lions were for most of the year, to get bundled out in straight sets is pretty disapointing on the back of two home finals where they had a far greater home ground advantage than we did against our respective opponents last year.

    At least we stood up and won big moments and big game finals.  Not that Hawthorn or Geelong were really that much chop last year, but the way we were playing, I think we would have beaten most other finalists, including WC at the MCG (particularly if they didn't have the luxury of a second week off in 3 weeks).

    They let themselves down in pivotal moments. Statistically they were very good in both games and arguably should have won both. The Giants game moreso. 

    Edited by P-man

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    5 hours ago, Wells 11 said:

    Horrible story. And yes yr right. The dees we’re crap against WC but at least they were there on time and sober! Small mercies. 

    That WCE game was horrible. I was all settled in front of the TV and 15mins later I was doing gardening.  

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    4 hours ago, Nelo said:

    That WCE game was horrible. I was all settled in front of the TV and 15mins later I was doing gardening.  

    Yep.... truly horrible how fast that ended. Memories of the 88 gf...which was actually way worse. Mainly because I was there and stayed to the end. But even then we were in front half way through the first qtr. ie we at least turned up fr half of the 1st qtr. That was the official end fr me of the dream that started in 87. But as has been pointed out in other threads now we DID win 2 finals in 18. the lions bundied out in straight sets would be hard to bear. 

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    12 hours ago, P-man said:

    They let themselves down in pivotal moments. Statistically they were very good in both games and arguably should have won both. The Giants game moreso. 

    I understand their goal kicking accuracy in the first half against Richmond was bad, but from watching the second half of that game, they weren't really in it with the general play, with Richmond pretty much dictating the terms the game was played on.

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    For some miraculous reason, I accidentally fell asleep Saturday Afternoon and woke up at Half Time. Freaked out, thinking; "Crap, I've missed the start of the game." Grabbed my phone and checked the score and thought; "Thank god I missed the start of the game."

    If I wasn't upset that I'd missed the start of a preliminary final, then yeah, it couldn't have been worse. At least, in my opinion.

    Edited by AshleyH30

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    4 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

    I understand their goal kicking accuracy in the first half against Richmond was bad, but from watching the second half of that game, they weren't really in it with the general play, with Richmond pretty much dictating the terms the game was played on.

    Dusty made a big difference and Lions were wasteful going forward, but they still won pretty much every stat - CP, clearance, inside 50s, scoring shots etc. It should’ve been much closer than it was on the scoreboard.

    It will be interesting to see how they bounce back next year without Hodge running the show out of the back half.

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    6 hours ago, P-man said:

    Dusty made a big difference and Lions were wasteful going forward, but they still won pretty much every stat - CP, clearance, inside 50s, scoring shots etc. It should’ve been much closer than it was on the scoreboard.

    It will be interesting to see how they bounce back next year without Hodge running the show out of the back half.

    And how they fair if they cop a normal share of injuries, they were almost injury free all year from all accounts.  The harder draw they get due to finishing 2nd could also make a significant difference.

    Don't get me wrong, Brisbane have been building over a period and I fully expected them to make the top eight, but I do think they were a little flattered by their top two finish.

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    18 hours ago, Wells 11 said:

    Yep.... truly horrible how fast that ended. Memories of the 88 gf...which was actually way worse. Mainly because I was there and stayed to the end. But even then we were in front half way through the first qtr. ie we at least turned up fr half of the 1st qtr. That was the official end fr me of the dream that started in 87. But as has been pointed out in other threads now we DID win 2 finals in 18. the lions bundied out in straight sets would be hard to bear. 

    Good point. At least we got beaten by the premiers. 

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    Sorry to dig up bad memories plus be about a year behind the eight ball with this review, but despite the disaster that was last years prelim being such an awful loss, what did we honestly expect. Sure we were on a roll beating the cats and hawks and were looking promising, but the Eagles on a weeks break in Perth was a massive task. Yes we beat them in rnd 22, but we had everything to play for, and they had quite little at that point. 

    Obviously this years results were beyond poor or acceptable upon what was built last year, but I genuinely believe we reached a height we or the club did not expect to achieve so soon. Finals seem to be a strange beast in not just the AFL but across all sporting codes (I could list numerous teams of higher standing than ours that have seemed to crumble under that pressure). Bar the dogs run at it in 2016 - which was genuinely an AFL gift, not many teams in recent memory have really defied the odds to reach the ultimate glory. 

    Confidence/momentum into finals can often appear promising (dogs this year and us last year is case and point) but ultimately experience, leadership and that hard-nosed drive to succeed ultimately carries teams to win. Either we step up to this mentality or we step off, there are no ifs or buts about it. 

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