Pates

I find this equally amusing, we have looked a clearly better team since Weids came in. He missed those chances, they were all kickable and he squandered them. But he has given so much more than Tommy Mac in the few games he’s played, let’s not sure d ourselves TMac into was in awful form and somehow managed to escape he chop. Weid has given us a lot more than Tom’s efforts.

Tough selection, Weids and Jackson do enough again to stay in the team but I do wonder if they might bring Tom in for Hannan or Fritta. Jones keeps his spot but he needs to do more defensively, that’s something AvB which is well underestimated. I think Jetta on the back of two knocks and a poor game may be given a rest. In: Rivers, TMac Out: Jetta, Hannan/Fritch(/maybe Jones)

A quick second positive, no time to dwell on the result. They’ll review and look to bounce back quickly on Thursday. Selection this week will be interesting.

The old premiership quarter returns! I just look at our opportunities and it really hurts me. The lions has “chances” to ice the game but none we easy, a lot of the opportunities we missed were ones you’d expect the player to kick. Harley has a bit of an off night with his final touch, you’d normally back him in for the two opportunities he had, while Kozzie’s night was definitely made worse by his miss (even more so that he burned a teammate for an easy goal). I guess there’s no point harping on about it. They’ll know this was a golden chance miss, the Lions get away with this one, we need to make it up elsewhere. I remember the Geelong loss in 2018 ended up being used as motivation for bigger things. This has to happen here.

Close to it, he had a poor game and that cost us any chance we had of winning. Tempted to bring TMac in for him off that effort.

This one stings, the proof is that we can match it with the best teams in the competition. The frustration is that when the time comes we seem to be our own worst enemies. I like what Weid is bringing to the team but if he is going to be our long term FF prospect he can’t be spraying 20m slight angle kicks out on the full. It’s a gut punch to the entire team that works hard to get him in that position. We could (should) be sitting here saying his 3 goals won us the game instead we sit here saying his misses may have cost us the game (he wasn’t on his own). What really concerns me is that in the two close games we were pushing for the winning goal we seem to completely lose our heads and do silly things. That final forward thrust should have resulted in a shot on goal instead it ended up with an out on the full and Fritta giving away a stupid 50m penalty. Inexcusable. There are positives to take from the game, Jackson’s continued good form being one of them, but I hope the players are absolutely filthy with themselves right now.

Two games we’ve had chances to snatch the win at the end and both times poor kicks/decision making have cost us. We are our own worst enemies and this loss and the Cats loss is going to cost us.

We’ve kicked ourselves out of the game, every one of Weids kicks were very gettable. Bennell should’ve nailed his. We kick half of those and it’s a goal in it. Our own worst enemies, hard to watch when that happens. Gerrard Healy is one of the most insufferable people to listen to, I could list a dozen examples but it’s just constant.

That hurts, Bennell could’ve walked the ball over the line. We miss, they goal. Going to be very hard from here.

Negatives: Destroying us in the middle, our clearance winners are being given a football lesson. They’ve clearly done their homework on Max and his tapping, despite having easily the best ruckman on the ground we’re getting no reward for it. Ae lost our heads early in the quarter, started doing more hack kicks to nothing and our disposal became atrocious. Pulled it back a little but they were bringing a much higher intensity. Some good inside 50s ruined with poor kicking and decision making. I really wish Langdon had left his mark to Melksham, much better kick, I had very little confidence in him nailing it. The umpiring has been abysmal, marks not given, plucked free kicks out of nothing that cost us. And the Lions do 3 short kicks in a row in our forward line that should’ve been play on to put the pressure on them allowed to be called a mark. Positives: Not many, but their dominance didn’t cost us as high as it should’ve. They were all over us and had some great chances, I’d put the margin at at least 30+ if they had taken their chances. Our midfield needs to lift. By the way, the commentators continue to blame Nev for putting his head over the ball. He was picking the ball up, even if he had done what Dal Santo was saying there wouldn’t have been time to turn the body. For them to keep saying that Jetta basically created the contact is completely ignoring that the Lions player chose to bump.

Both teams had chances and both would feel like they could’ve got better reward for opportunities. Weid is taking grabs which is a plus but bugger me that miss was god awful. I hope there’s someone giving him pointers on what he’s doing wrong. Can’t be coughing up opportunities like that. Clayton’s kicking is becoming a liability. Twice he butchered it to give them an inside 50.

Poor Spargs! ?

If we’re to play finals we need to pull out wins against quality opposition, we lost to West Coast, Geelong, and Richmond albeit the cats one was close and I great chance to snatch it. We simply have to win one of this week or next week. I think we face Brisbane in an interesting time because they are in form and we are just starting to find some confidence. The Lions fans aren’t wrong about a couple of things, Gawn and Petracca are a large reason for our form but also the way we’re playing around the ground is a lot more reminiscent of 2018.

I think we would’ve been a team that benefited had they extended the bench, we have a healthy list a would’ve been able to rotate players through the game. But I’m fine with the decision not to, there’s been plenty of tinkering already this year.

I’m happy to see Jones back, I think he’ll be hungry to make this shot count. Pretty similar types of players, Jones needs to bring that pressure and tackling to his game. Hopefully he snag a goal or two as well.

This is the really screwed up thing with the Essendon game, we miss out on being able to have a rest when the whole competition gets to recover. I know it could just be seen as “one of those things” but it still feels like we’ve got the raw end of the stick.

If I’m not mistake Richmond somehow got a free kick from this even though he flew over a Melbourne player.

Ah good old Bruise Free Footy, still would enjoy seeing Viney smash him into the ground (fairly of course ?).

I hope Viney smashes him into the ground this week!

I can’t see Harley playing all the games, he above anyone will probably be one that gets “managed”. Given that our tough couple of games in a row is in the same state he could back up those two but we might have to rest him for Adelaide and then bring him to Tassie vs the Roos. Good to hear the confidence in the playing group though, this is hopefully where that monster pre-season on Hell and Back starts to bear fruit.

Harmes may have his hands busy with Neale.

I’d like to see us trial 3 talls but I’m not sure this is the week to do it. With it meant to be damp on the weekend I think a ground level player like AvB is probably the better choice, for me that’s Jones. I back Weid and LJ in to play with confidence this week, Tom’s got a fight on his hands.

Personally I’m pretty happy with those times, living in the UK it means I do t have to wake up at 4am to watch the games!

Hate to say it Saty but the health of AFL players is always up for speculation and release of information. What reaction do you think people would have if someone got injured in the game and afterwards the media chose not to report it or ask about it? If it's a disease or mental health issue that's different, but if it happens on the footy field then chances are the information will get out at some stage whether it's through the club, media, or leak. I say well done to Goodwindees for having the scoop. As for AvB, I'm gutted that he'll miss a few matches but on the plus side when others may be tiring from the crammed fixture he will hopefully be fresher and able to have an impact.

Bugger! Crap time for it to happen as well, credit to @goodwindees for the scoop! I think they will try to squeeze TMac into the team because of this, rotate Weid and Tom as FF/CHF. LJ can play as a bit of jack of all trades role, start him in the forward pocket, give him all ruck time when it’s not Stef Martin, possibly even play him as a midfielder. Really not ideal for AvB, bloke can’t take a trick. Jones and ANB probably in the mix as well.