binman

1 hour ago, Adam The God said:

And I should say, what impressed me most wasnt his frame or contested work, but his poised ball use under pressure.

How good was that slight jink to the left suggesting he was going corridor, and instead squaring up and kicked to a free player (can't recall who) inside 50

1 minute ago, Dees_In_October said:

I noticed this too, it was like he stopped for a split-second to spread his fingers and steady himself to make 100% sure he'd be clean with the pickup, able to retain it through any oncoming pressure and ready to move to the right space to execute the kick. To know he had time and to make the conscious decision not to rush it was impressive.

Yep.

If Kolt had fumbled that we'd almost certainly have given up a goal, and likely have lost the game.

46 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

And before that kick he had great composure with a ground ball get at full back.

Incredible that he's gone from fringe player, to tagger, to potentially genuine defender in 6 weeks.

What was really good about that ground ball get was he seemed to pause a little bit and take his time to make 100% sure he picked up the ball.

Impressive composure, not to mention smart, from a young player cconsidering the game was in.the balance

9 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Gday team.

Would love to know if any of the assistant coaches may change for next year or do you think they’ll stay the same?

I feel Kingy had not much time to organise them and we have part timers.

Cheers.

We'll def answer that next week layzie

59 minutes ago, Deestar9 said:

I was thinking about that today . 3.15 was the “graveyard” game but it’s also a perfect tv viewing time & as the weather gets colder ..it becomes more so. With the type of game we are playing we are getting lots of neutral supporters watching. A lot of talkback which was positive was from neutral supporters. The AFL had done us no favours but if we keep playing like this..it elevates our profile ..hopefully gets a few more supporters to sign up & maybe attract some new ones ..,

I thought something similar when i heard two different commentators mention how exciting we are to watch atm and that we are making the Sunday 3:15 slot our own.

The Sunday games we've played thus far have been box office - and that has to be great for the club and sponsors.

With the Sat night game no longer on free to air (an unbelievably stupid decision by the AFL i reckon given that for many footy fans who are not fanatics and/or can't afford kayo - or simply don't want it - watching a game of footy on a Saturday night part of their weekly routine) the late Sunday arvo game is a more valuable free to air slot than in previous years.

And this year neutrals, including many kids, will often watch us play an exciting brand of footy.

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

Raynor's mark that hit the ground?

Did it hit the ground - i wasn't sure

19 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Have a look at our first goal. Langford almost hit the post from 6m out!

I almost had a conniption fit with that kick. It was sort of weird - instead of just running straight at the goals and kicking straight he angled the opposite direction and kicked it across his body. It must have come pretty close to hitting the post.

Fitter also caused me some heartburn when he played on in the goal square and kicked it on the outside of his boot.

I didn't mind Healy's criticisms of Langford.

I do mind his commentary - whether it's one of our games or two other teams playing. He's woeful - and like so many of the ex-footballers doing so called 'expert commentary' seemingly dead lazy in terms of doing their own research and keeping up with where the games is at.

And i don't say this lightly or flippantly, but like many ex-footballers calling footy i often find myself wondering if CTE is an issue as his calls are full of muddled phrasing and basic errors.

20 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

He was average at Casey imho…. Not to be considered unless it is desperately needed….

I thought he was pretty good actually. 23 disposals (18 kicks, 5 handballs), 8 marks, 10 intercept and third most fantasy points (though admittedly that's a rubbish measure) is a pretty good game for a key defender. As noted in the match report:

'Tom McDonald stood tall in defence and across the ground, using his experience to intercept strongly and provide a steady presence behind the ball. He collected 23 disposals, 10 intercept possessions and eight marks'

30 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

Lions fans really are nuffies. Claiming the umpiring was totally against them. Must expect the glazing they get at the Gabba to apply everywhere.

Agree, if Demonland is any guide dees fans would never claim the umpiring was totally against them.

But seriously, we did ok with the umpires. The two critical decisions were the 50 to Fritter and of course the block to Harvey. IMO both were 100% there, and good on the umps for paying them.

But those types of decisions are routinely not paid, particularly late in games (which is SOO frustrating -i mean if it's there pay it for god's sake). And whilst it was there, Harvey milked the block, which often leads the umps to not pay the free.

8 hours ago, rpfc said:

Langford does need to fix up his kicking.

I don’t know why people are so butthurt. He was constantly talking about the kid because he was playing so well off the wing for an inside mid.

But he needs to work on his craft lest he turn into a mid that can’t be damaging with their disposal - and doesn’t that sound familiar??

Playing so well as a wing - and that's his role for the foreseeable future. And by foreseeable future i mean at least this season and next.

As i've noted before, King is using Langford in the exact same role he used Dempsey at the Cats - a winger who is key to transition, kicks goals, and on offence pushes deep forward, often all the way to the goal square (where like Dempsey, Langford is scoring goals from) creating a match up problem inside 50.

With 70% of scoring now coming from turnover, having gun inside mids to win clearances is simply not as important as it was 4-5 season ago when scores from stoppages generated the majority of scoring.

Consequently, teams usually only use one inside mid at centre square clearances and atm that's Steele and Sparrow waxing, with Viney in the mix when back in the side.

There's simply no spot for Langford as an inside mid atm, and as i say not for the foreseeable future. Which is not to say he won't get involved in stoppages around the ground - he is already - just that he won't be a starting centre bounce mid.

Mids now need breakaway acceleration and speed, which is why Koz has become one of the very best mids in the AFL and why Windsor is one of our starting mids and is running at aprox 80% CBAs.

Langford has an ok cruising speed, but acceleration will never be his go - and it's not like he has elite hands and kicking skills that very best mids have.

Clearly the tall winger that supports transition and pushes deep forward role is a critical part of King's game plan and as such he needs a player who can execute it to a high level - which is precisely what Langford is doing (with his game on the weekend being the exemplar - the 9th highest rated player for the whole round).

Here's my tip - at some point in the next few weeks it's going to dawn on the media how effective Langford is in the wing role. It would be robbing Peter to pay Paul to move him from that spot and into the middle where we have a surfeit of players who can play an inside mid role.

30 minutes ago, WheeloRatings said:

We have only conceded 80+ points on turnover seven times since 2017:

14.6.90: R12 2024 v Frem
14.4.88: R2 2019 v Geel
13.7.85: R19 2024 v Frem
13.7.85: R19 2019 v St K
12.9.81: PF 2018 v WC
12.8.80: R6 2026 v Bris
12.8.80: R15 2018 v St K

Brisbane's xChainScore from turnovers was 47.4 points meaning they scored well above expectation based on the location and type of turnover.

The disposal clangers were 32 for Brisbane and 29 for Melbourne, with the other clangers being frees against and other errors. Melbourne had 20 kick clangers and 9 handball clangers, Brisbane had 24 kick clangers and 8 handball clangers.

Many thanks - am i right to assume we lost all of those games?

Thanks for adding clangers @WheeloRatings . And i love the quarter by quarter breakdown

Interesting we had 8 less clangers than them given their kicking skills. Notable too that the 48 clangers we had is well under the AFL average of 57.9 clangers per game.

Given we had fewer clangers than them, it's really curious they scored 80 points on turnover. That's crazy high number any way - 80% of their total score from turnovers - that's nuts.

From memory Freo smashed us on turnover last year, but outside of that i can't recall the last time we gave up as many as 80 points on turnover - and never anywhere near that close in win (normally, giving up 80 points on turnover would be recipe for a smashing).

That seems a really anomalous number - i wonder if King's tactics played a part and if yes what tactic?

On 03/03/2026 at 20:13, sisso said:

Given Simmos recent track record coaching at West Coast l’ll take that as a sign we will start 5-1

You weren't far off!

4 hours ago, dees189227 said:

Steven king has got us playing enjoyable footy & has installed belief in us

True dat.

6 hours ago, Redleg said:

Yes Rhoden’s drop kicks were huge.

Is that a euphemism?

2 hours ago, manny100 said:

With Riv, Bowey, CJ injured and AMW still finding his 'footy feet' we are pretty light on down back.

Big Moose was starring at VFL and will be a good foil for Gawny. Both can run forward.

Jeffo deserves a game showing good VFL form and is mobile enough to play high half forward as well as kick goals.

It's Jeffo time.

31 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

I'm giving up guessing selections.

1 hour ago, godees said:

We have really hit a tipping point with our injuries, especially the small/med backman cluster. Will make it tough to even get close this week. So important to bring intensity from the first bounce.

Yep. Great test of character.

4 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Who cares if he’s confident and arrogant, he’ll find balance in time. Try to knock it out of him too early, you’ll lose him.

Noone cares about confidence and arrogance. Good on him.

What worried me when I went and watched him against the Dogs at Whitten Oval was his body language was poor, as was his intensity amd second efforts.

It looked much better against the Box Hill Hawk, and no coincidence he was one of the best thst day.

10 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

The offensive power of Brisbane is an obvious problem

But they also bring a very tricky control based game style, similar to Essendon. Brisbane will work the ball up the ground with precise kicking, hopefully we have some plans to counter it but I am not too sure.

In the fight game, they say styles make fights. Our contest and movement focused style was usable against Blues, Freo and GC since they were happy to go toe-to-toe and scrap it out with us.

Brisbane's style/system will likely be too match to handle.

Agree,

The lions game plan is more aggressive than the Bombers in that yes, they use lots of short kick mark plays but they usually go forward, and once an opportunity to go quick appears go quick (or long) whereas the Bombers go sideways and back heaps. The lions have the skill to hit those forward 20-30 metres kicks whereas the bombers don't.

The only way to beat the Lins method is to pressure the kicker and press right up on the receiver and either spoil, intercept or at the very least hold them up so they cant quick and/or long.

Much will depend on whether we have the gas in the tank.

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

This was my reading from afar when he was drafted and comments he made in pre-season.

There's a fine line between confidence, arrogance and respect. My feel is that holding him back a few weeks to 'work on things' will hold him in really good stead.

Go well young man

Spot on.

My use of the word attitude was probably ill advised in this context as it might be read as a perjorative - ie XL has a 'bad attitude'.

How you've described it above jnr reflects perfectly what I meant - a young, super competitive fella, used to being one of the best players in every team he lines up with itching to live his dream and get selected in the senoirs and like any uber competitive person frustrated not to have got the call up.

9 minutes ago, layzie said:

Yeah that Crows and Dogs game was a good watch.

I didn't see it but the Dogs comeback against the Lions in opening round, was that a good game?

Yep, that was a good game

20 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Opening round - fail

Thursday and Friday night fixturing - fail.

Limited highlighting of the WA Derbies and the SA Showdown - fail.

And the AFL would be devastated that none of Blues, Bombers or Tigers will make the finals. It also looks possible that Collingwood might not either. A lot of AFL fixturing emphasizes these teams being promoted and favoured due to $ and crowd size.

A lot of games have been strange - high scoring and free flowing accompanied with a definite reduction in skills.

I am now going to confess something that I hope does not earn me Demonland suspension - I might actually be hoping Carlton win tonight...

I reckon the Blues will win as their weakness is their leg speed and ability to spread defensively, particularly as the games goes on.

The Pies are also dead slow running wise, and are not playing fast, instead using lots of the sort of chip kicks that the bombers used against us, which both mitigates their weaknesses and helps them defend (eg the bombers had an extra in defence, meaning when we did finally get the ball of them and go forward they had an outnumber, which was no doubt a big factor why we couldn't score from our back half the way we have done in other games).

Short version - the Pies won't exploit the Blues weaknesses and will do well to match their key strengths, their contest, clearance and stoppage work. And i suspect the likely wet weather will suit the blues given their strength in the contest.

And whilst the Blus are under the pump, like us last year they are playing better than the result suggest - again like us they are running out puff late in games. Conversely the Pies form is flattered by the results - thy don't look like a team that made prelim last year.

The 2.40 for a Blues win looks great value, with the safer bet being they make their 8 point line.

3 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Awful mate.

Most games have been shocking to watch as well.

Feels very one sided this year so far.

So many rubbish games, including most of the Gather round games (not helped by the weather of course, but still).

For neutrals, i can only think of two great games this season - for the drama, our comeback win against the blues (but not a great game skill wise) and the Cats hawks Easter Monday game.

I might be missing some, but geez that's a pretty poor return for box office games after 5 rounds and OR.