Now that was enjoyable to watch even if I only watched the first quarter live streamed and then had to wait until after lunch to watch the rest. In-laws……

There is a lot to unpack from that performance.

A few observations:

• great pressure team wide. Forced turnovers and did not let up.

• Having said that we made a lot of unforced skill errors that allowed the Lions to score, particularly in the first quarter. Skill errors by both hand and foot.

• Loved Melksham’s game. Lead Andrews a merry dance and rubbed it in.

• Max. What more can be said. Remember years ago John Eales, the Australian Rugby Captain was nicknamed ‘Nobody’. When asked about it, one of his team mates said, “Well, Nobody’s perfect”. Nobody Gawn.

• Loved the balance in the forwards. All contributed but we still missed, what appeared to be, some straight forward shots on goal. Ok, I admit that it was me watching on a screen half a world away….. but still.

• Lever available, Viney back, going to be some discussions during the week re selection.

• Defence looked very organised and settled. Does Lever get a look in?

• Good coaching today, Fristch as sub worked well and we managed to get the matchups we wanted to play the game on our terms.

Sydney next week and I am happy with the way we are playing. I do not see any complacency setting given the position we are on ladder. Every game from here on in for the rest of the season will generate pressure to perform.

Onward and upward…. Go Dees!

12 minutes ago, Dee in a Kilt said:

I enjoyed listening to SEN's call of the game with Dean Solomon. He played for Essendon and Fremantle and was interim head coach of Gold Coast for 3 games. Here are some of Dean's observations over the course of the game:

• Goodwin clearly out coached Fagan. It was a brilliant coaching game by Goodwin

• Melbourne has given the competition a blueprint on how to beat Brisbane:

  • In the 2nd half, Melbourne set up their defensive structure to take away Brisbane's passing into their half forwards. Solomon said it was almost as if Melbourne was inviting this pass, then causing the turnover and rebound

  • After half time and in their half of the ground, Melbourne brought 2 of its forwards up towards the stoppage, bringing their Lions defenders with them, which opened up Melbourne's inside 50.

  • Make Harris Andrews ineffective, reduce Neale's and Zorko's impact - does this make Brisbane beatable?

• Fort is a very good ruckman, but Gawn is currently playing at another level

• When you see Gawn live, it's amazing the power running he does that's not captured on the screen

• This was one of the very best games of the season

• This was Petracca's best game since returning from injury

• Aidan Johnson is madder than a cut snake

• Melksham is at his best when he looks like he is playing angry

You a hibee or a jambo, Kiltie?

5 hours ago, hardtack said:

How could you leave Max out of that list (he’d probably be my second picked after Melksham)?

Because Max plays like that every week. This week we had a more even contribution across the board and that was the difference in my view.

I didn't say those 5 were best on ground. Different conversation.

Those people who thought Melksham was a filler on the list well he played probably his best game for us ever.

Don't write him off for 2026.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by durango1946

10 hours ago, Deestar9 said:

Sometimes you just play these players to get form

And sometimes you look at there form and realise they just arent that good.

I'd love to see some others get the same sort of run as he has had.

10 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

But there’s lots of little things with positioning at front and centres, leading to create space, not fumbling, halving a contest, tackling of which plenty don’t show up in the stats sheet and Spargo does that way better.

Spargo has to nail a good percentage of inside 50 kicks and set shots and he did neither of those today but since the Freo game he’s been a positive. Sharp has made no progress

Spargo fumbled plenty yesterday and missed simple handballs and kicks, I'm not saying Sharp is the answer but he deserved to stay on yesterday more than Spargo did.

7 hours ago, 58er said:

Agree Langford is a Bont in the making. Should be moved forward at times iMO to see how he can change our line up especially if not successfully scoring. His marking looks very useful and a straight kick to boot.

Lindsay is nothing like Angus and I am having trouble comparing him with a player today or even yesteryear. I Know he is good and am wondering if he could play half forward also part time where his height class and disposal would assist scoring and passing to teammates.

Having casually suggested our 2 wingers could/ should play forward at times I have no idea who we move there in place.

Perhaps Lingers of course and maybe Salo who might appreciate the usual issue of height when at half back.

Interesting isn’t it when you have 2 guns no Matter how raw and inexperienced they are you can still see creatively the talent they possess.

No wonder I still would like The Duke in the centre to capitalise on our new aggressive approach.

I honestly think we have enough defenders in our Club talls and mediums and even smalls ( Bowey and AMZ when fit ) and maybe Sharp could be added see if he could gain some confidence. I feel he has ability but is not the real deal up forward or on a wing or even as a mid other than a change during a game.

BTW Rooy should now be given the opportunity to gain confidence at CHB or FB at Casey. Adams should also be nearer AFL selection if the situation arises.

Lindsay to me is like Scott Pendlebury. Has class, time seems to slow down when he has the ball, is very skilful, and is a smooth mover across the turf.

The biggest thing that stands out for me with Lindsay is how low and flat his kicks come off the boot, makes it much harder to smother and moves quite fast.

For those interested,

Maxy (alongside Jordan Dawson) is currently leading the AFL's Brownlow predictor with 14 votes...

He's put together an unreal 5-6 weeks of footy after a patchy start.

[censored] went to the game with my family and based on this season we expected to kick more points than goals, be competitive and fade out in the last quarter.

Well I am so glad I was wrong.

What a comeback and what a win. It was a great team effort with a few standouts.

Watching this game more in particular the last quarter brought joy back to the game for me and my family which we haven’t felt in a long time.

So proud of the club. Go Dees

On a side note meet Ryan in the cheer squad and just want to thank him for all his time and efforts he puts into the dees. Great bloke.

GO THE MIGHTY DEES.

Thought Melksham had a great game. The commentators on fox said we were using an extra forward which meant Brisbane didn’t have a spare interceptor.

For those who are more across the tactical side of things than me( probably most), it’s this a new tactic and if so how did we manage to do it while still winning the clearances?

I think so mentioned this before but in the game day thread.

Up untill three quarter time I thought Max was down in form

I keep an eye on his marking stats because his form and this stat in particular is often a fair gauge of how the whole team is performing.

I think at the three quarter time break he had two or three marks.

Took about five more in the last ( would average out at 20 at that rate)

But it's when and where... mostly the last five minutes of the game when he was taking them and was pivotal in winning it for us.

That's what makes him a champion. You can never write them off even if their form wasn't good for three quarters.

1 minute ago, leave it to deever said:

I think so mentioned this before but in the game day thread.

Up untill three quarter time I thought Max was down in form

I keep an eye on his marking stats because his form and this stat in particular is often a fair gauge of how the whole team is performing.

I think at the three quarter time break he had two or three marks.

Took about five more in the last ( would average out at 20 at that rate)

But it's when and where... mostly the last five minutes of the game when he was taking them and was pivotal in winning it for us.

That's what makes him a champion. You can never write them off even if their form wasn't good for three quarters.

I said to my partner I thought they were using Maxy sparingly and saving him for a Herculean effort in the last quarter as it has been a weakness. Have no idea if this was right but he certainly had an incredible last quarter .

11 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

Windsor 6 touches at 17% DE what the hell’s going on there ? 😂

He had a mare. Thought he might be subbed off at one point

1 minute ago, Deestar9 said:

I said to my partner I thought they were using Maxy sparingly and saving him for a Herculean effort in the last quarter as it has been a weakness. Have no idea if this was right but he certainly had an incredible last quarter .

Thanks Deestar9.

Perhaps you were correct.

It certainly seemed to work. And a Herculean effort it certainly was.

Such a star of the game.

Just now, jnrmac said:

He had a mare. Thought he might be subbed off at one point

he was average yesterday :(

2 hours ago, Dee in a Kilt said:

I enjoyed listening to SEN's call of the game with Dean Solomon. He played for Essendon and Fremantle and was interim head coach of Gold Coast for 3 games. Here are some of Dean's observations over the course of the game:

• Goodwin clearly out coached Fagan. It was a brilliant coaching game by Goodwin

• Melbourne has given the competition a blueprint on how to beat Brisbane:

  • In the 2nd half, Melbourne set up their defensive structure to take away Brisbane's passing into their half forwards. Solomon said it was almost as if Melbourne was inviting this pass, then causing the turnover and rebound

  • After half time and in their half of the ground, Melbourne brought 2 of its forwards up towards the stoppage, bringing their Lions defenders with them, which opened up Melbourne's inside 50.

  • Make Harris Andrews ineffective, reduce Neale's and Zorko's impact - does this make Brisbane beatable?

• Fort is a very good ruckman, but Gawn is currently playing at another level

• When you see Gawn live, it's amazing the power running he does that's not captured on the screen

• This was one of the very best games of the season

• This was Petracca's best game since returning from injury

• Aidan Johnson is madder than a cut snake

• Melksham is at his best when he looks like he is playing angry

Can you please post this in the Time to go Goody thread?

4 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

Can you please post this in the Time to go Goody thread?

i love all the goody haters. its funny!

As much as I dislike him, I’d luv to take off Zorko’s right leg and attach it to either Clarry or Tracc. What weapons would they be then!

I’m feeling very chipper this morning. The world is a better place when the dees are up and about.

17 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

He had a mare. Thought he might be subbed off at one point

Offensively maybe so but he toweled up Lohmann. He’s a dangerous forward and I barely noticed he was playing until he got subbed out

2 hours ago, Dee in a Kilt said:

I enjoyed listening to SEN's call of the game with Dean Solomon. He played for Essendon and Fremantle and was interim head coach of Gold Coast for 3 games. Here are some of Dean's observations over the course of the game:

• Goodwin clearly out coached Fagan. It was a brilliant coaching game by Goodwin

• Melbourne has given the competition a blueprint on how to beat Brisbane:

  • In the 2nd half, Melbourne set up their defensive structure to take away Brisbane's passing into their half forwards. Solomon said it was almost as if Melbourne was inviting this pass, then causing the turnover and rebound

  • After half time and in their half of the ground, Melbourne brought 2 of its forwards up towards the stoppage, bringing their Lions defenders with them, which opened up Melbourne's inside 50.

  • Make Harris Andrews ineffective, reduce Neale's and Zorko's impact - does this make Brisbane beatable?

• Fort is a very good ruckman, but Gawn is currently playing at another level

• When you see Gawn live, it's amazing the power running he does that's not captured on the screen

• This was one of the very best games of the season

• This was Petracca's best game since returning from injury

• Aidan Johnson is madder than a cut snake

• Melksham is at his best when he looks like he is playing angry

LOL - "Aidan Johnson is madder than a cut snake" - we need players like that.

And completely agree re Melk.

How much better is winning, than losing? 🤣

14 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Bowey has become elite. What a great game. He missed that target on the wing, otherwise he was superb. Won so many clutch moments.

A game high 10 intercept possessions, 5 score involvements and 1 goal assist at 86% DE.

A+ Bowser! 👏👏👏

I think he's in AA form personally. His 1 on 1 game has gone to a new level as well.

8 minutes ago, Colm said:

Thought Melksham had a great game. The commentators on fox said we were using an extra forward which meant Brisbane didn’t have a spare interceptor.

For those who are more across the tactical side of things than me( probably most), it’s this a new tactic and if so how did we manage to do it while still winning the clearances?

Not an extra forward, we just kept all our forwards forward instead of bringing say a half forward flank up to stoppages.

At least we were in the first 3 quarters - they mentioned we brought extras to tge stoppages in the last, perhaps to take advantage of maxy's dominance, which we hadn't for the first 3 quarters.

By the by I'm just going off a couple of random comments from thecommentary team. Irs all but impossible to work that stuff out watching on TV.

It infuriates me how ridiculously basic the coverage of the game is. I mean they have a special comments person, a boundary rider and access to al thr data and vision they could possibly need and they can't do things like:

• show the set ups at each centre bounces (eg a box in the corner with visuals and names the way they do in cricket to show the field),

• analyse the stoppages and use vision to explain things like what bringing an extra to a stoppage look like and why clubs might do so

• Show vision of individual players and their running patterns

• Use drone shots to show how zones are set up structurally and maintained, and how they work (or not as the case may be)

• Provide analysis, with accompanying vision, to explain things like how pressure impacts thegame, what transtion football involves, key stats coaches would be focused ok in game (eg post clearance possessions), provide vision to explain how individual stats are defined (eg what a contested possession is - it's flat out ridiculous how even commentators confuse disposals and possessions - what hipe do fans have) etc etc etc

• Unpack the tactics of each side

• Use the down the ground, behind the goals shot more often to show running patterns and structures

• Anything else that helps fans understand the game, one of the most complex elite sports in the world

Its ridiculous the coverage of the game on TV has basically been unchanged for 30 years.

Compare the coverage to test match cricket, NFL, NBL and MBL. Chalk and cheese.

Tame cricket- I consider myself very knowledgeable about test cricket, behind footy irs my great sporting passion. But every time I watch it I learn something new. And the use of stats really adds value - particularly the granular stats like say a player's average against a particular bowler or bowling type (wg left hand wrist spinners).