binman

Agree. I'd also add that we have also struggled their other excellent medium half forwards/mids/utilises in particular mcluggage and McCarty. Defensively it's been our Achilles heel for years. Part of the issue against the lions is we have to send one of our best mid sized defenders to Cameron - and basically play him man on man (ie not much zoning off). But it's also a personnel issue. Nev was brilliant as a small/medium defender in 2018, just about the best. But since then we've struggled in that space. The juddster was brilliant last year and has become our go to player for the opposition's best medium forward. But the lions have four excellent medium forwards to cover. I think Howes was brought in to strengthen our ability to cover such players and thus far had been terrific at doing so. He'sslotted in down back like a 200 gamer and gives us so much more flexibility. So, I'm more confident than I have been for ages that we have the tools to cover the lions' dangerous medium forwards.

I don't get the whole you can't start a debutant as a sub. Particularly now that it is not a medical one. It's a team sport, and it's never been more important that players play their assigned role. If the best thing for the team is for a debutant to start ad sub then so be it. The alternative is what? Selecting them in the starting 22, even though that's not in the best interest of the team? Or not picking them at all, even if Goody has been criticised for playing favourites with selection, with the implication being it comes at the expense of the team I think those criticisms are plain silly. But I understand why people would have an issue with it if he was selectiing favourites, not the best option. Team has to come first. Same argument applies to the selection of a debutant.

I see the low impact argument, but I'm OK with koz getting a week, not for the bump, but for raising his elbow. Yes he only glanced his head, but I'm in the factor in the risk of injury camp. If his elbow had, say flushed his temple then some real damage could have been done. But I'm not ok with the hypocrisy of the coverage of what was really an incidental incident compared to the can't miss a grand final for a 'football action' vibe that dominated the coverage of Maynard's hit on Gus. And even more frustratingly, there is zero reflection by the media about that blatant hypocrisy. For god's sake one action ended the football career of a bloke in his mid 20s (at all levels - and I presume Gus can no longer play ANY contact sport, eg basketball). And the other caused NO injury, with the player 'hit' going on to be his team's best player, even getting coached votes. And why? Because whilst koz was silly to put his elbow out, it was fleeting and he realised immediately wrong, and pulled it back. That's to say successfully tried to minimise impact. Maynard did the opposite. No thought at at all to minimise the impact on Gus. His instinct was 100% solely to protect himself. The media should be ashamed of the coverage of the Maynard hit. And ashamed about the white noise it is creating painting koz as a sniper with form.

In lots of ways. Being completely nuts being one.

One of tbe most annoying footballers of all time.

Fair comment. I'm the time bandit. I appreciate the feedback and will take on board (genuinely, ie not being facetious).

No you're right -i'm the one mixing things up. Bears merged with the lions in 1996. From wiki: 'At the end of the 1996 season, the AFL helped negotiate a deal with the Fitzroy Football Club administrator whereby the Bears took over Fitzroy's AFL license and as a condition of that deal, on November 1, 1996, Brisbane Bears members voted to change the club's name to the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (BBFFC or Brisbane Lions), who participate in the AFL today. The Bears played in 220 VFL/AFL matches over ten seasons, with 70 wins, 148 losses and 2 draws.' My Fitzroy supporting mate didn't barrack for the Brisbane Lions in their first year, or their second. Was on board by their third season. Good timing too given their success a few years later.

Ta. That's more than I would have guessed in 90 odd minutes of game time.

I suspect DeeBlood is actually dermie. Took umbrage at me calling him a clown and joking about his inability to string words together (a joke i rather embarrassingly mangled).

Really? . I can't recall how he went in his second game, but ny recollection is he was terrific in his first game until he had his jaw broken just before half time. I think he will be a gun. Smart, quick off the mark, competitive and zones off well. And whilst I agree he can play an intercept role now, ultimately i think he will become a key position defender. He's 6.5 in the old and given he is only 22 will fill out in the next few years.

On spotify the sound will be better as Andy cleans it up before loading it up. But I doesn't make any difference to the DL site as such (I assume you mean traffic). I like that it goes out live. Feels old school.

And don't forget to leave a 5 umm review.

Agree. As a dees fan in the 70s and 80s, lions fans were kindred spirits. Ditto saints fans. I played for Beverly Hills junior footy club (Paul roos' team). We wore the Fitzroy jumper and sing the Fitzroy song. One of my best mates was a huge lions fan, and I lived in North Fitzroy and kicked around Fitzroy, for over a decade. The Newry was my local - directly opposite Brunswick oval, the roy boys original home ground. And they had some of my favourite non dees players - roos, pert, Wilson and Quinlan (one of the most consistently excellent kicks I've seen). So I always had a soft spot for the lions. It was wrenching, even as a dees fan, when they folded. Just awful. My mate was in shock, and without being flippant, experienced real grief. And I was beside myself the dees would also disappear. When tne roys folded, he became a dees fan. A fully committed, passionate one too. I saw heaps of games with him. But when they became the Brisbane lions, which they should have done from the get go, after a couple of seasons he felt compelled to support them - . A knowledgeable and clued in footy supporter, who still has a soft spot for the dees.

Great point. I had forgotten how banged up tracc was. He was interviewed on the ground at half time and was struggling to catch his breath (he must he must have just sprinted or something, but still he looked completely knackered). An amazing performance from tracc - BOG and hard at it all hame Credit to Selwyn and his team, but huge props to tracc for being in such good shape. Ditto for maxy, who was also huge. Outof interest, does anyone know aprox how far EPL players would run in a game?

It's umbelievable

Thanks for the feedback. I worry i don't talk enough, so throw in lots of umms to get my word count up. For the same reason i often repeat words, like brilliant, curious and incredible. A heads up. If I'm honest I'm unlikely to fix my speech patterns or affectations by next week. In fact I'm unlikely to fix them full stop. By the by, in the spirit of mutual constructive criticism, you don’t capitalise the word um. And, for future reference, binman is not capitalised either. Cheers

Agree. It's the lifting of the elbow that is the problem, not so much the bracing.

Snap. I just checked that (who blues play). That's a pretty big upside as the pies blues game will be hyped all week in the lead up and both teams will smash each other. The other upside is we have a two week bye break a fortnight before the blues game (lions, two week break, tigers, cats, blues). And we do t do any travel from now till after the blues game (travel caj be a factor in terms of messing with the recovery and preparation program). So there won't be the same level of accumulative fatigue there otherwise would be. The blues by comparison had their bye after round two (but also do not travel before our game). And in the lead up to the dees clash they play, the crows, giants (at marvel), cats and pies. That's a tough run - four physical and intense games - particularly the last two.

Billings would be the obvious one, but having watched the replay he was much better than many suggested i thought. He was knocked for not being strong enough in the contest, but that's not his go (as the club was well aware when trading him in) and made a couple of strong tackles. I think it can be hard to assess pperformance n the role billings is playing, given it it involves so much unrewarded running and the chance if being stuck on the dead side of the ground.

No, particularly given we play the cats in the previous round, a game likely to be pretty fierce. Luckily we have a 10 day break before our next game - the Eagles.

Spot on. The football media is dominated by these boneheads. And what happens when one shuffles of to ABC special comments (eg McClure)? They get replaced by recently retired boneheads, who have zero public speaking skills, like hodge. Selwood is the latest. Just like Jonesy, he has been ok. But low bar. The recently retired players bring current knowledge about the game, which often makes them interesting. But the pattern is none continue to do any work to update their knowledge, so after 2-3 years they lose their value as people who are up with current trends eyc. But remain terrible public speakers.

There's another difference. Koz copped a week.

I agree to a point. But with the way we play, in particular our incredibly aerobically taxing all team defence and the distances all players have to cover (10 plus ks minimum) backing up after only 5 days is very difficult. It's all about recovery, and even one less day than the oppo makes a big difference. They were clearly paddling in the last quarter, so were the crows, but I think we are fitter, which made a difference. Tracc talked post game about how hard they found it. I've been tracking the impact of the break between games for almost a decade for punting purposes. And there is no doubt when a team has to back up inside 7 days, and the oppo has an extra day break its a huge factor. It's something i always factor in.

That's very true. So def a factor. And if we lose a contest, we back ourselves in to win the next contest.

I've been curious about losing ground ball gets too. I said on the pod that the numbers are so anomalous (eg our cp and pressure numbers have been strong) that there must be an explanation. Your explanation makes sense, and us supported by the fact our post clearance possession numbers, one of the most important stats for coaches, have been strong.