yeah mate, exactly. there's so much respect and at times love in the room at the fights. i've never encountered bad vibes there, yet!

So…. Given that Brisbane started the season 0-4, Sydney started on fire, most of the top teams had good streaks and terrible streaks.
Given all that, how are we going to react if we start the year badly? Say, we’re 1-2 or 3-5 a few weeks later?
How will we all be feeling about Vossy and the boys?

At different stages this season, Fagan was going to be sacked, Beveridge was on his way out the door, and Hinkley was not going to make it to the next weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

don't discount the intangibles of footy here mate.

the lions were in disarray on the footy field, bcos last summer they went drinking in vegas ... and a couple of guys cheated on their wives - one guy told his wife back home what they did, and she went and told the gf's who were cheated on. and boom! the playing group was fractured.

they finally mended those bridges after their bye, with a big sit down and apology session. and then, they what? win 14 from their next 17?




*camp curnow enters the chat*

The current 2025 premiership odds are as follows:
$6 - Lions
$7 - Hawks & Swans
$8 - Carlton, Collingwood & GWS

So obviously the betting markets believe that we are a chance next year.

I think internal improvement can come from the following:
Midfield - get Cerra fit and hopefully the Hollands brothers can improve further. Hopefully we can get more from Walsh following a full pre-season. Binns and Lord might surprise. A full season from TDK would be great.
Forwardline - Need Moir to become that medium forward option and hopefully Williams can stay fit for most of the season. I think Motlop can improve and likewise Durdin if he gets over his shoulder problems. Obviously need Charlie 100% fit.
Defence - Cowan should improve further however we still badly need a 2nd tall defensive option. The fact that we've told Young to look elsewhere maybe means we have something lined up? We can only hope.

_________________
There is no footy god

There needs to be fundamental changes from the coach or we’ll go backwards.

We need to be less reliant on the individual and play a more team based system.

I worry that we’re so heavily reliant on individual brilliance and that the drop off for some of our older players like Doc, Newman and Saad can come quickly and we could be exposed. We don’t develop young players very well and we rarely trust them.

I’d like to think we can make these changes but on evidence so far I have my doubts.

Kicking.

Watching Brisbane yesterday they sliced sydney up with high quality kicking from half back.

Hawthorn did it to us. They always have.

Brisbane did it to us in the final. Port did it to us at Marvel.

Fantastic ball movement from kick out and turnover, matched with elite contested footy when needed.

We have good kicks in our side. Mitch, Boyd, Newman, Saad. We need them given license to be bold and strong support behind them.

Our contested game stacks up but our kicking game presently is woeful.

_________________
Congratulations CK95

The Lions are about to get another generational player for the price of a bag of hot chips.

Oh the “romance” of the father-son rule.

No romance just a distorted comp.

Brisbane to get Levi Ashcroft should have to give up two first round draft picks not a selection of meaningless picks in the 40s.

Carlton may make the finals, but no one’s beating Brisbane next year. Improvement from Ah Chee etc.. got Harris Andrews.. etc.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/1225051/bri ... aight-flag

i'm even more convinced we should go after houston after watching yday. espesh if doc (i think he already has, tbh), saad and newman take a step back or decline or are injured.

need a 2nd tall, a pacey mid and an electric small forward.

watching the campo twins. one is worth the pick we give up, but possibly lucas isn't? ollie and binns would be miles ahead on the depth chart for wing.

Ball movement >>> leg speed. Yesterday showed this. Swans speedsters completely nullified.

I’m more convinced about recruiting Houston now because of this, but still not convinced enough.

Sign me up on Houston.

_________________
Congratulations CK95

I reckon this is possibly our biggest issue - we need to play a more team-based game plan that is less reliant on our stars having a day out. They should be the cherry on top.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

PS. I suspect if Joe Daniher retires, it will have a huge impact on the Lions prospects for next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is our system reliant on the stars or does it just end up that way?

_________________
░L░I░N░K░I░N░B░I░O ░

I thought he was oustanding yesterday

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Agreed. He was so influential in the first half

_________________
Congratulations CK95

I have been saying this for a while. Our transition game is not good enough.

Lack speed, quality kicking skills and game plan. I don’t think we have the right mix of players on the list to change this quickly.

As a result we are disjointed and rely on individual brilliance. Compare this to Brisbane who play cohesively with run and dare.

Don’t think recruiting Houston will make a huge difference unless there are a further 3-4 additions over the summer with the attributes we lack.

I think we may have been more reliant on individual than team-based system play, because we could barely play the same team or our "best" team for any decent length of time.

The main factor with that of course was our injuries, which made it nigh on impossible to get consistent continuity of team play.

Anyway, on to my hopes for next season:

1. I said it before the start of this season, and it rings even more louder for 2025, we simply must finish top four at a minimum, preferably top 2 to guarantee home finals.

2. A well developed, targeted and smarter high-performance program tailored to each individual on the team. I would expect this should be well underway, with the recent recruitment of Innes. At a minimum, we simply cannot and should not accept anywhere near the volume of soft tissue injuries (especially repeat ones) that we had this season.

3. A more proactive gameplan. I agree we cannot continue this down the line setup rubbish.

4. We've seen glimpses from Binns and Moir to name just two. They have to be given more exposure to senior level footy. A big part of that will rely on point 2 above. Innes has his work cut out

5. Skills, skills and skills. Some focus should be applied on kicking, speed of ball movement, goal kicking, but most importantly TACKLING.

6. If it isn't always critical, its probably Moreso leading up to next season - DRAFTING. We simply have to get some players with speed and skill into our team.

7. Id like to see some sort of senior assistant brought in to assist Voss, especially someone who has good gameday strategy awareness (which I think most would agree isn't a Voss strength).

_________________
Cripps is the man

Injuries is one area where the Lions stabilised after some shocking blows early in the season. Losing guys like Coleman & Mcarthy hurt, but then after that they still had a good core of 15+ players play every game. They didn't have the revolving door we did, where making a couple of changes per week was pretty much our normal.

_________________
#DonTheStash

Strongly agree with this, recruiting a single player won’t change things, the entire team needs to change the way they play.

Point three or bust.