This week, it’s your chance to be part of our match preview for the game vs Brisbane Lions.

Tell us in your own words, who will win and why?

It can be short or long and the best entries make it into our match preview *

We will also consider including posts in the pre game thread.

Give it a try - you might even influence the result?

* subject to editing if necessary

This is Melbourne’s first crack against one of last year’s Grand Finalists. To everyone’s surprise, both Collingwood and Brisbane aren’t in the top eight at the moment and the signs aren’t promising for either of them. 

The Lions have struggled to win games at the MCG of late. They had a great record at home last year but this year, they can’t even win at the Gabba. There’s not much comfort in beating North Melbourne on neutral territory at Norwood Oval in Adelaide on a ground that has dimensions of 165m x 110m compared with the MCG’s 173.6m x 148.4m.  Fagan reckons they got their energy back but I would argue that it doesn’t take much energy to play against a bunch of kids on a postage stamp sized footy ground. That’s where the Lions will hit a wall on Thursday night.

The Demons are in great form, their team defence is elite and the midfield is pretty flash too. Brisbane will find it tough adapting to playing on the wide wings at the best stadium in the country against one of the most focused teams in the country. Melbourne will take the game and go into the break with the four points.

1 hour ago, Demon Head said:

This is Melbourne’s first crack against one of last year’s Grand Finalists. To everyone’s surprise, both Collingwood and Brisbane aren’t in the top eight at the moment and the signs aren’t promising for either of them. 

The Lions have struggled to win games at the MCG of late. They had a great record at home last year but this year, they can’t even win at the Gabba. There’s not much comfort in beating North Melbourne on neutral territory at Norwood Oval in Adelaide on a ground that has dimensions of 165m x 110m compared with the MCG’s 173.6m x 148.4m.  Fagan reckons they got their energy back but I would argue that it doesn’t take much energy to play against a bunch of kids on a postage stamp sized footy ground. That’s where the Lions will hit a wall on Thursday night.

The Demons are in great form, their team defence is elite and the midfield is pretty flash too. Brisbane will find it tough adapting to playing on the wide wings at the best stadium in the country against one of the most focused teams in the country. Melbourne will take the game and go into the break with the four points. 

Good start … and the clubhouse leader. Where are all of our expert commentators?

If you look at the teams on an individual basis they’re pretty evenly matched.

Who will dominate?

Petracca (in game #182) or Neale (in game #250)?

Love Steven May’s courage!

Can the Lions stop Max?

Will Melbourne kick straight for goal?

How will Brisbane cope without the loudspeakers playing their favourite songs when they kick a goal (I anticipate they won’t kick many anyway)?

Demons win because the Lions will simply suffer stage fright on the G.

PREVIEW - why not??? I have the time at the moment.

Melbourne Vs Brisbane

Thursday 11^th April. 11.30am (my time)

Been a while since I have had a stab at a preview, but why not have a crack?

Brisbane fluffed their chance in the grand final against the Pies last year and it appears that both of the teams have a bit of a hangover in the early stages of season ’24. Here we are staring down the barrel of Round 5 and the Lions have just one win on the board against lowly North while we, after dropping the first game in the round that has no number, have won the last 4 on the trot against some reasonable opposition and having travelled to Adelaide for two games in 5 days against home sides and come away with 2 wins.

That sort of from indicates the punters have it right installing the Dees as favorites.

We have an extra day of rest and one less flight than the Lions with them having to fly back home and then down to Melbourne for the game.

However….. there is always a However. However, Footy’s a funny game as they say and I hope that the team prepares and realises that this is going to be a tough game. The Lions have a good mix of talent in all areas of the ground, and we will need to have a few ideas up our sleeves to ensure we are ready to react if and when required.

I do believe that the coaching panel have been good at working out and reacting to what is happening around the ground so far this season.

DEFENCE:

This section of our team is recognised as our great strength and as the best in the league. May, Lever, Tmac, Mcvee, Rivers, Howe and Salem can mix and match with the best of them and against the Brisbane forward pack they will need to be at their best. The Brisbane forward setup has good individual players but so far this season they have not clicked together. Against North last round their forwards kicked 15 of their 16 goals while against the Pies the week before at the Gabba the forwards only kicked 5 of the total of 10. Very inconsistent. It will be interesting to see how and who we match up on in the defence.

I think we have them covered at this end of the ground.

MIDFIELD:

As they say… “This is where the game is won.” I think that will be the case in this match. Gawn and Petracca are our leading lights so far this season with good support from Viney and, in the last game, Sparrow. Oliver with his hand injury is down on his usual standards and statistics but I feel he can only get better and will take a few steps forward in this game.

We will need to respect the Brisbane midfield with Neale, Mcluggage and Dunkley looking to be the main drivers out of stoppages with their clearance rate. Against Adelaide Petracca, Oliver and Sparrow dominated the clearances and gave us some good drive.

Gawn against The Big O will be interesting. Not because I think McInerney will dominate or even challenge Max but because it will be interesting to see what tactics they adopt to try and control Max’s influence around the ground. It is a tough job for any team.

Langdon the Windsor winging their way around the G will also be good to watch. Brisbane named Fletcher and Berry on the wings for the North game and, according to the stats, both had reasonable games. Berry looked to be used more in the middle and managed 5 clearances along with 24 possessions. Fletcher might run on the wing with Langdon and Windsor to have a few rotating opponents.

FORWARDS:

This is where it gets interesting.

So far this season we have managed to have a good even spread of goal kickers in the games. Fritsch has been a standout. He is second in the Coleman behind Hogan at the moment. We will present a few problems for the Lions at the pointy end. Brown and Petty will need to be covered because of their potential to cause problems with JVR and Fritsch also needing to be contained. We have a lot of flexibility with our talls at the moment and I can imagine a bit of a chess game with moves and counter moves in our forward 50. I hope that Kossie gets to play as he is such a livewire. If he is not there, we have Chandler and ANB and a rotating mid to cover there.

The Brisbane defence,  as with their forwards do not seem to have clicked as yet this season. Last outing against North they looked to have an easy time of it and will find the going tougher on Thursday evening.

Our small forwards look a bit thin on the ground if Kossie spends a week on the sidelines. Chandler must be in some doubt so if either or both of these miss it will open the door for a couple of others to get a run.

Tough opening quarter but I expect that we will get better as the game goes on and run out winners by a fair bit. Say 5 goals.

And then on to a week off.

8 hours ago, CHF said:

PREVIEW - why not??? I have the time at the moment.

Melbourne Vs Brisbane

Thursday 11^th April. 11.30am (my time)

Been a while since I have had a stab at a preview, but why not have a crack?

Brisbane fluffed their chance in the grand final against the Pies last year and it appears that both of the teams have a bit of a hangover in the early stages of season ’24. Here we are staring down the barrel of Round 5 and the Lions have just one win on the board against lowly North while we, after dropping the first game in the round that has no number, have won the last 4 on the trot against some reasonable opposition and having travelled to Adelaide for two games in 5 days against home sides and come away with 2 wins.

That sort of from indicates the punters have it right installing the Dees as favorites.

We have an extra day of rest and one less flight than the Lions with them having to fly back home and then down to Melbourne for the game.

However….. there is always a However. However, Footy’s a funny game as they say and I hope that the team prepares and realises that this is going to be a tough game. The Lions have a good mix of talent in all areas of the ground, and we will need to have a few ideas up our sleeves to ensure we are ready to react if and when required.

I do believe that the coaching panel have been good at working out and reacting to what is happening around the ground so far this season.

DEFENCE:

This section of our team is recognised as our great strength and as the best in the league. May, Lever, Tmac, Mcvee, Rivers, Howe and Salem can mix and match with the best of them and against the Brisbane forward pack they will need to be at their best. The Brisbane forward setup has good individual players but so far this season they have not clicked together. Against North last round their forwards kicked 15 of their 16 goals while against the Pies the week before at the Gabba the forwards only kicked 5 of the total of 10. Very inconsistent. It will be interesting to see how and who we match up on in the defence.

I think we have them covered at this end of the ground.

MIDFIELD:

As they say… “This is where the game is won.” I think that will be the case in this match. Gawn and Petracca are our leading lights so far this season with good support from Viney and, in the last game, Sparrow. Oliver with his hand injury is down on his usual standards and statistics but I feel he can only get better and will take a few steps forward in this game.

We will need to respect the Brisbane midfield with Neale, Mcluggage and Dunkley looking to be the main drivers out of stoppages with their clearance rate. Against Adelaide Petracca, Oliver and Sparrow dominated the clearances and gave us some good drive.

Gawn against The Big O will be interesting. Not because I think McInerney will dominate or even challenge Max but because it will be interesting to see what tactics they adopt to try and control Max’s influence around the ground. It is a tough job for any team.

Langdon the Windsor winging their way around the G will also be good to watch. Brisbane named Fletcher and Berry on the wings for the North game and, according to the stats, both had reasonable games. Berry looked to be used more in the middle and managed 5 clearances along with 24 possessions. Fletcher might run on the wing with Langdon and Windsor to have a few rotating opponents.

FORWARDS:

This is where it gets interesting.

So far this season we have managed to have a good even spread of goal kickers in the games. Fritsch has been a standout. He is second in the Coleman behind Hogan at the moment. We will present a few problems for the Lions at the pointy end. Brown and Petty will need to be covered because of their potential to cause problems with JVR and Fritsch also needing to be contained. We have a lot of flexibility with our talls at the moment and I can imagine a bit of a chess game with moves and counter moves in our forward 50. I hope that Kossie gets to play as he is such a livewire. If he is not there, we have Chandler and ANB and a rotating mid to cover there.

The Brisbane defence,  as with their forwards do not seem to have clicked as yet this season. Last outing against North they looked to have an easy time of it and will find the going tougher on Thursday evening.

Our small forwards look a bit thin on the ground if Kossie spends a week on the sidelines. Chandler must be in some doubt so if either or both of these miss it will open the door for a couple of others to get a run.

Tough opening quarter but I expect that we will get better as the game goes on and run out winners by a fair bit. Say 5 goals.

And then on to a week off.

Paris? Rome? 

11:30am is a great time to follow a game of footy.

Great preview!
 

 

The Tribunal decision on Kossy Pickett will play a part in how the game unfolds. I remember how he destroyed Brisbane one night a couple of years ago.

I think we have this.

Lions are a quality side just down in form. Plus they don't play well at the G.

We should relish being on our home turf again.

We will miss Kozzie but I'm feeling we still have enough fire power to kick over 100 points while strangling the Lions to around 75 points.

Some big match ups in this game.

I'm also hoping our midfield rallies and wins the cc count.

And the umps give us a fair shake.

We win this and it's a pretty safe bet to say we will finish top four come September.

To go into the bye at 5 and 1 will be awesome given that half of those games were interstate.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. We have a full match preview ready but now await the tribunal verdict on Kozzie to enable the final edit to be done. 
 

3 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Thanks to everyone who contributed. We have a full match preview ready but now await the tribunal verdict on Kozzie to enable the final edit to be done. 
 

Sorry I accidentally clicked the vomit emoji before....fat fingers