Brisbane Lions V Western Bulldogs R19, Friday 18/7/25 at the Gabba at 7:40pm

[jeemak]

Agree with you. It's too easy to look at the wins and losses. We are better than our record suggests. Collingwood we would have beaten if not for the umpiring, Brisbane earlier in the year we went to sleep with the lead but looked the better team, Gold Coast and Geelong those games were on a knife's edge.

HOWEVER tonight we were totally off the pace, same as last week. We are getting worse not better. Our biggest weapon is our midfield and scoring from clearance, but that's faded in recent times. Need to get the right mix in there and get that firepower back if we're still to challenge this year.

Some of the young or inexperienced players aren't defending like they need to at AFL level - looking at Freijah in particular - but that's what you get with kids. Our backline isn't fixable on the run, clearly a personnel problem.

I think given the early efforts of the season many of our younger/inexperienced players are fatigued. They're just not sharp enough right now.

Our wins and losses are pretty much where they should be given our personnel. Can't say it enough, we don't have experience elite talls in defence and quality outside forward of centre. Brisbane are frightfully good in the latter.

At the same time we were absolutely ****ed by injury in the first half of the year. Our two best mids and our best taller and smaller forward out, plus Jones and Naughton cooked by injury and illness malaise. It's forgotten now, but shit we were up against it early in the season.

[whythelongface]

We simply don’t deserve finals.

also starting to question if we went early on re-signing Bevo…

why don’t we deserve finals? That is just ridiculous. You may as well say any team finishing 8th doesn’t deserve to be there. It is hard making finals, let alone consistently. If you make it you deserve it.

[G-Mo77]

Just not good enough. We were still in the game but was it because of what we did or what they didn't do? I thought they were so much better than us all game and kept us in it with bad kicking. We turned the ball over far too much, even our coach said the same thing. We're a decent team but not one that is going to contend for a flag anytime soon.

[jeemak]

Just not good enough. We were still in the game but was it because of what we did or what they didn't do? I thought they were so much better than us all game and kept us in it with bad kicking. We turned the ball over far too much, even our coach said the same thing. We're a decent team but not one that is going to contend for a flag anytime soon.

Beveridge's presser was interesting wasn't it. He could have been a smart arse when asked the difference between us and the best sides and Brisbane tonight like Ross Lyon would have been, and just said a few goals.......

However clearly he acknowledges it's personnel, defensive efforts and giving up the corridor. It's clear it's being coached, and is frustrating.

[kruder]

One thing we do know is where we are at and the answer sucks unfortunately.

I feel like we have been more consistent as a collective this year which has been a real positive but whenever a side brings real heat we are exposed.

Sammy Power better be working the phones the back half needs some serious attention.

Im flat after that one.....

[kickit2Koly]

Completely disagree. Making finals has been ridiculously hard because we've never had continuity in quality key positions forward or back at the same time since he walked in the door (possibly 2021 notwithstanding although Bruce went down - compare ourselves to Geelong) and have relied on cobbled together forward lines, all supported by elite midfielders.

It's a midfielders game in the eyes of the umpires and media alike. We've been blessed with quality in that area, and in recent times lucky enough to have some genuine A-grade talls at our disposal forward.

But imagine throughout Beveridge's tenure we had the quality of Tom Stewart, Jeremy Cameron and Tom Hawkins to build a structure around. Or in recent times Harris Andrews and his defensive mates, plus Raynor, Cameron, Bailey, Berry, McCluggage etc. etc. etc. delivering quality on the outside.

We've never had either at once.

couldn’t agree more with this. I think we have a similar problem to Carlton, we have a really good top end and then thin out very quickly. The fact we’re playing 8 - 9 guy every week under 50 games says everything we need to know.

We’re a year or 2 plus a gun pressure small forward and an old school stopper fullback away from being very good.

[Bornadog]

Disappointing players tonight were:

* McNeil, who I thought was lucky to get a call up when he had played a shocking game, then a sub that didn't come on and then dropped. Why we picked him I will never know. He had two touches in three quarters and not one kick.
* Davidson - not getting the ball like he has in the past - a couple of good things in the last but quiet for the rest of the match
* VDM before he went off
* Freijah - being played out of position
* Poulter - zero impact - should not have been picked.

I thought Cleary was good as was Bramble. Garcia a lot better than the last few weeks, but still not good at decision making.

[jeemak]

Disappointing players tonight were:

* McNeil, who I thought was lucky to get a call up when he had played a shocking game, then a sub that didn't come on and then dropped. Why we picked him I will never know. He had two touches in three quarters and not one kick.
* Davidson - not getting the ball like he has in the past - a couple of good things in the last but quiet for the rest of the match
* VDM before he went off
* Freijah - being played out of position
* Poulter - zero impact - should not have been picked.

I thought Cleary was good as was Bramble. Garcia a lot better than the last few weeks, but still not good at decision making.

McNeil was OK early in some linking efforts but faded really badly.

Was happy JF tried to fight his way back in it in the last. Poulter was on a hiding to nothing as the sub in such a tight game. Davidson is showing the disadvantages of not being in the system prior to this year and will continue to fade, he needs a bit more size and more miles in the legs.

Agree, Garcia is working into things and I'm usually super critical of him.

Brisbane's peripheral players looked like monsters compared to ours, much like Adelaide's last week.

[FrediKanoute]

Actually quite the opposite. They know that we are unknown quantity with a huge X factor. Unpredictably is often your biggest asset. That is what we are.

That is my view. Any game where it is 3 goals in it at the end suggests that it wouldn't take much to reverse. Take Brisbane. We improved against them by 2 goals since the encounter earlier this year.

Yeah it's been disappointing no to sneak a win here or there, but I still have faith. Winning in the home and away counts for nothing unless you win when it matters. We learnt this last year!

[Eastdog]

I cannot fault our effort tonight it was very good.

The Lions were just better than we were over the course of the game and could have won it by more had they taken their chances.

To our credit the last quarter was really good and we pushed them right to the end but fell short once again.

I can take losing some of those games to top 8 sides but nearly losing all of them for where we want to be is just really disheartening. A win tonight would have been massive knocking off the premiers and giving ourselves confidence that we can win against the best but the reality is that it didn't happen and we are where we are just a mid table team at best fighting to make the 8 once again.

We just now need to focus on making the finals and hopefully aim to win a final which would be an improvement on last season. If we miss the finals that is a step backwards in my book. 9th is just about the worst position to finish in.

[jeemak]

That is my view. Any game where it is 3 goals in it at the end suggests that it wouldn't take much to reverse. Take Brisbane. We improved against them by 2 goals since the encounter earlier this year.

Yeah it's been disappointing no to sneak a win here or there, but I still have faith. Winning in the home and away counts for nothing unless you win when it matters. We learnt this last year!

I'm not sure we have the personnel/class, however, you can't not try and make finals and then see how far you can run.

Make it, win one or two and make a prelim whether by arse or otherwise and it's great for everyone at the club, supporters, and makes us more attractive for role players to join. Money and draft capital gets the star players, all of the above gets the depth.

[BontlowSzn]

Our better ball users just butchered it all night. By hand and foot. Libba lately has a horrible habit of just slaming it on the boot, whether he's under pressure or clear by 10 metres. Same result, dump kicks.

Our tackling was atleast much better. Should've been rewarded more. Some very questionable disposals.

The one thing that really annoyed me was Rory Lobb trying to take an intercept mark instead of killing the ball with under 30 seconds to go before HT. Dumbest decision. He did it a few times throughout the night.

It's quite funny our set shot kicking has suddenly become elite, yet now other parts of our game are now failing.

[Rocket Science]

Nobody learned anything new this eve and that's entirely where where we're at.

[jeemak]

Nobody learned anything new this eve and that's entirely where where we're at.

Overly verbose as usual.

[Eastdog]

Our better ball users just butchered it all night. By hand and foot. Libba lately has a horrible habit of just slaming it on the boot, whether he's under pressure or clear by 10 metres. Same result, dump kicks.

Our tackling was atleast much better. Should've been rewarded more. Some very questionable disposals.

The one thing that really annoyed me was Rory Lobb trying to take an intercept mark instead of killing the ball with under 30 seconds to go before HT. Dumbest decision. He did it a few times throughout the night.

It's quite funny our set shot kicking has suddenly become elite, yet now other parts of our game are now failing.

Yeah really frustrated with Lobbs game tonight. There are situation where it is much better to spoil rather than go for the intercept mark.

The tackling was better than it was last week. We turn the ball a lot and when that happens you feel the opposition will score very time.

We would have to be the worst team at conceding red time goals. That just happens far too often and is a confidence killer for the team.