12 hours ago, IRW said:

The answer is that we arnt as good as the bath water they seem to drinking.

Nowhere near a champion team, not ever close....yet.

A great list with a promising future.

But Trac ain't Judd or Martin

Kossie runs around a lot with his tongue hanging out

Ollie and Max are champions, the rest need to get on board every week for four quarters

Mind you Bradshaw and Salem are required players

 

 

Gee what a disappointing day. First game in years and the same for my two young sons. The game was a real let down. The 3rd quarter was extremely hard to watch. There must have been 8 occasions of bombing it into the F50 and being marked by Moore or Cox. No connection at all with the forwards and seemed to lack any line breaking run through the middle. Petty, Gawn and Petracca seem injured. 

The actual gameday experience was also a disappointment. Trying to talk to my kids and the breaks was near impossible because of the music and the expletives going all day was disgusting. I told one person to stop saying the F bomb and was looked at and told what's the problem. My 12 year old actually said after the game he doesn't want to go back again. That's how horrified he was of the behavior.  

the most telling stat is that we have gone from first to seventeenth for pressure acts. That surely is a mental thing or fitness or fatigue or a combination.

7 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

the most telling stat is that we have gone from first to seventeenth for pressure acts. That surely is a mental thing or fitness or fatigue or a combination.

Yep it was evident even during the WC and Norf games. It’s a hallmark of our game plan and when it is not there expect the opposition to run rampant. 
 

There is plenty of data to suggest this has been problematic for at least a month so that is before any reasonable loading etc became a suggestion. To me it’s simply desire and that extra 1%. It’s not there or the players are fried. Let’s hope it’s the former because that can be fixed easily. 

3 hours ago, Hatchman said:

If Turner had not been concussed and Max had not been playing injured then the result would have been closer as it threw our structures out of whack and the Pies smartly capitalized on this. Petty also looked hurt after a big clash in the third as well. 

Mitch Brown had to be moved to defense to cover Turner and then when Max went off in the third, Cox sat in the hole in our forward line and grabbed everything because Ben Brown was double-teamed and Fritsch was well-held. Why on earth our mids kept bombing it into the forward line in the third and fourth quarters is beyond me, that was a stupid tactic and it cost us momentum and ultimately the game. 

The competition is very close and every team knows us very well. Once our game plan came apart at the seams as the injuries mounted the momentum started changing, McCrae changed tactics and the result was inevitable. Good coaching by the Pies. 

But we head into the bye at the pointy end of the ladder and the two weeks break should be really good for us to put a better team on the park in a couple of weeks

Except it’s only a nine day break until we play the top of the ladder team on the Thursday evening.

Not sure if its been discussed, but Jake Lever is really out of form and to the point he is a bit of a liability. I know you cant drop him or do much with him and he is a better player with May in the team, but if that's what it takes for him to be good then that's a real worry. His decision making with teh ball and without the ball is costing is goals. If you go back and watch yesterday and i had a great view at teh ground and watched him closely, he gives far to much rope to his players, zones off or goes to contest when its simply not needed and leaves his opponent free.

 

Then he panics with ball in hand, makes bad decisions, turns into trouble all the time.

 

He is a liability at the moment.

1 hour ago, Stein9193 said:

This is so much bull I can't stand it. We looked weak and physically unable to compete. 

Lord Nev faceplam this if you are a coward

I'm confused.

Do you want nev to facepalm - but only if he is a coward?

But if he were to facepalm your bemusing post, given your challenge, wouldn't that be courageous?

But if facepalming your post is courageous, then he would not be a coward in doing so..

So then can't facepalm because he is not a coward.

Personally, if was nev, o would use the laughing emoji. Because the post, like pretty much every one of your posts, is pure comedy gold.

By the by, on the topic of cowardly posting behaviour, I don't recall you posting much, if at all, during our run of 17 straight wins.

But, now, with tge cover if 3 losses you suddenly appear with more of your, we are woeful, contributions.

So very courageous. 

Not.

Wonder if the Brisbane Lions fans are running a "what they're saying over at Demonland" thread ?
 

 

22 minutes ago, Demon3 said:

Not sure if its been discussed, but Jake Lever is really out of form and to the point he is a bit of a liability. I know you cant drop him or do much with him and he is a better player with May in the team, but if that's what it takes for him to be good then that's a real worry. His decision making with teh ball and without the ball is costing is goals. If you go back and watch yesterday and i had a great view at teh ground and watched him closely, he gives far to much rope to his players, zones off or goes to contest when its simply not needed and leaves his opponent free.

 

Then he panics with ball in hand, makes bad decisions, turns into trouble all the time.

 

He is a liability at the moment.

I'm not too worried about Lever. He is absolutely at the mercy of what happens up the ground. Sure he makes a few glaring mistakes that stand out, but so would all players that aren't at the AA level of a Steven May type - Perhaps we need to re-adjust our expectations. Lever is only 15 months older than Weideman, when you consider how Lever has basically kept his spot in the team on merit for the past 5 years, that's a pretty extraordinary effort. The real story here is not Lever, but how fantastic Petty has been over the past season and continues to grow, overshadowing Lever. If we can get May & Petty back into the team as our foundations down back, then we can worry about whether Lever or Smith take that 3rd tall role, and how much/if any of their mistakes are mitigated by all of our other key pillars.

Edited June 13, 20222 yr by John Demonic

We definitely don’t look as hungry or as intense as last year .

For those that say we are just cruising through and will explode in the second half of the year, I really hope so, because the current mindset is not that of a premiership team.

24 minutes ago, Scipio said:

Lever seems to lose the plot when May is out of the team. Not that he was having a blinder early in the year anyway. 

He was up and down (with May playing) after his return from injury but has yet to find something like his 2021 levels consistently. 

As soon as May went out any 'ok' days for him have disappeared and any bit of intermittent (every other week) ok days have dropped away badly since.  This is also backed up statistically (starting with the Dockers).  Including that game he has produced a worse result post May's exit each week, culminating in his worst performance for the season yesterday.  3 'ducks' in a row.  Not good for us.

May makes every defender look better when playing, he is that good.

Funny thing is Lever will probably start improving after May returns.  If he doesn't however, we need another hard nut defender and would like to see what Turner can bring (once he recovers). I'd bring him in for Lever within a few weeks of May's return if Lever doesn't get back near his best.

Not many other options in this area other than Tomo and Smith who are pretty much a coin toss in difference in terms of the impact they are having at this stage in their careers.

3 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

He was up and down (with May playing) after his return from injury but has yet to find something like his 2021 levels consistently. 

As soon as May went out any 'ok' days for him have disappeared and any bit of intermittent (every other week) ok days have dropped away badly since.  This is also backed up statistically (starting with the Dockers).  Including that game he has produced a worse result post May's exit each week, culminating in his worst performance for the season yesterday.  3 'ducks' in a row.  Not good for us.

May makes every defender look better when playing, he is that good.

Funny thing is Lever will probably start improving after May returns.  If he doesn't however, we need another hard nut defender and would like to see what Turner can bring (once he recovers). I'd bring him in for Lever within a few weeks of May's return if Lever doesn't get back near his best.

Not many other options in this area other than Tomo and Smith who are pretty much a coin toss in difference in terms of the impact they are having at this stage in their careers.

I do agree with most of that, but Tomlinson is a quality player - people forget how well he was playing last year before he went down. I think it's just a matter of him rediscovering that form. If that does happen and Lever doesn't improve, we could end up with May, Petter and Tommo playing together.

FWIW I think Smith was playing well before he went down too.

14 minutes ago, Sydee said:

Wonder if the Brisbane Lions fans are running a "what they're saying over at Demonland" thread ?

In my trawling of fan forums for our own 'what they...' thread I haven't seen any.

Bigfooty in particular seems to have limited new threads so a preview' thread covers 'team changes, opps commentory etc.

I will shortly have a look at the Lions fan sites but suspect there won't be much comment just yet as we played only yesterday and the game is 9 days away.

Even though we hate to admit it, the domino effect Steven May's omission has had on us defensively and collective-defensively is an issue we will only be able to assess over the next few months. And tbh I look forward to it. Rance went down and Grimes stepped in. May goes down, and no one steps up, we lose 3 games. But If May comes back in, and we instantly click back into gear and win the premiership over the next few months, then it won't be a slight on us, but a recognition that we are truly living in the time of a great CHB, the likes of which a player can be compared to a Wayne Carey on the defensive end. If you told a North supporter in the 90's, No Carey no North, they'd answer with "No [censored] Sherlock" - I really don't mind if this was us, for May. Long way to go yet. Obviously.

Edited June 13, 20222 yr by John Demonic

We've all acknowledged our work rate around the ground isn't where it was / needs to be. But what about marking? Why are we getting outmarked all around the ground again? I realise May, TMac are solid markers, but surely that can't account for it...is it just the lack of confidence and belief that we can also see with the fumbling?

I went along yesterday, which I rarely do.

I don't know that Collingwood could have played any better than that, as is typical of the QB game, that was their Grand Final. They are not yet a side that will do any damage in September. They had us for height with Disco off and Max out of the game for long periods of time and their talls had a day they won't replicate again. Cox & Mihocek wouldn't get off the chain like that with May, Lever and Petty in our backline.

It felt like had the game well under control until Max's long stint in the rooms, typical of many of our games over the last 18 months, absorb the best they had and be patient and it will eventually turn. In this instance it didn't but I don't have any concerns heading into the second half of the year.

We are running on fumes at the moment and still had the game on our terms for long periods of time. Bit of a freshen up over the bye and some from turning for key players and we will hit September at full steam.

 

 

Edited June 14, 20222 yr by BW511

Our biggest problem has been and still is connecting with our forwards.

The delivery is woeful.

3 times yesterday in a 5 minute period we kicked straight to Cox (twice), and Darcy Moore.

This has been a common thread in all 3 of our losses.

Long bomb panicked kicks and ignorance of shorter options.

At one stage Sparrow had Langdon 30 meters ahead of him , but he chose a long kick to a 3 on one where we were easily out marked.

1 hour ago, Nelo said:

Gee what a disappointing day. First game in years and the same for my two young sons. The game was a real let down. The 3rd quarter was extremely hard to watch. There must have been 8 occasions of bombing it into the F50 and being marked by Moore or Cox. No connection at all with the forwards and seemed to lack any line breaking run through the middle. Petty, Gawn and Petracca seem injured. 

The actual gameday experience was also a disappointment. Trying to talk to my kids and the breaks was near impossible because of the music and the expletives going all day was disgusting. I told one person to stop saying the F bomb and was looked at and told what's the problem. My 12 year old actually said after the game he doesn't want to go back again. That's how horrified he was of the behavior.  

Sorry to hear mate that's a horrible experience. Hope you and your sons get another chance to see us much better and in a much better environment.

Oliver, Brayshaw and Jordan very good yesterday.  Oiver and Brayshaw, well, we all know how good they are, but Jordan has really stepped it up and is now a very good player.

 

I'm sure many here are commited to doom and gloom, and are currently kicking the can down the road while almost tripping over their bottom lips.  That's your choice.  I actually have very few concerns about where we're at.  Given key players missing (May and TMac to a lesser extent), injuries during the game and the quality of Collingwood this year compared to last, I actually think were better yesterday than last year.

 

There's every chance we go 2-3 or 3-2 over the next 5 games (and won't Demonland be a happy place 😂😂😂), but I am still very confident that we will still be the team to beat in September.  Burgess may have left, but we are still preparing ourselves exactly the same way.  It of course doens't guarantee success, but it gives us the very best chance. 

1 hour ago, Nelo said:

Gee what a disappointing day. First game in years and the same for my two young sons. The game was a real let down. The 3rd quarter was extremely hard to watch. There must have been 8 occasions of bombing it into the F50 and being marked by Moore or Cox. No connection at all with the forwards and seemed to lack any line breaking run through the middle. Petty, Gawn and Petracca seem injured. 

The actual gameday experience was also a disappointment. Trying to talk to my kids and the breaks was near impossible because of the music and the expletives going all day was disgusting. I told one person to stop saying the F bomb and was looked at and told what's the problem. My 12 year old actually said after the game he doesn't want to go back again. That's how horrified he was of the behavior.  

My kids are the same, don't really enjoy going to the games either. The AFL has a massive problem with future generations I think but by the time they realise I reckon it will be too late.

13 hours ago, picket fence said:

If you think Weeds is the answer, can I have some of what ur smoking?? Nup,, Play Van Rooyen for the rest of the year come hell or high water!!!

So many people just don't get it.

That has to have been James Jordons best game. 829 metres gained is huge

7 minutes ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

That has to have been James Jordons best game. 829 metres gained is huge

He's done a great job replacing Gus' role on that wing. He makes great decisions with the ball in hand and always provides a contest either to win of halve it.

Hopefully he can build on this for the second half of the year. I'd like to see him get more creative and damaging with his kicking as he kicks so well. 

16 minutes ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

That has to have been James Jordons best game. 829 metres gained is huge

He was very good. Lot of link up play very deep in the backline at times too.

53 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Our biggest problem has been and still is connecting with our forwards.

The delivery is woeful.

3 times yesterday in a 5 minute period we kicked straight to Cox (twice), and Darcy Moore.

This has been a common thread in all 3 of our losses.

Long bomb panicked kicks and ignorance of shorter options.

At one stage Sparrow had Langdon 30 meters ahead of him , but he chose a long kick to a 3 on one where we were easily out marked.

This has been a problem for  a few seasons now, whenever we have a bad patch forward entries are always part of the problem. Surely it's time our forward coach comes under much more scrutiny it's a recurring problem.

For those who doubt the loading explanation, Freo game it was noted the club had several ill players, maybe still impacting because we still look sluggish.