Rnd 6 Match Day Thread. Brisbane Lions V Sydney Swans. 1.10pm at The Gabba

[dejavoodoo44]

I thought Rampe was BOG for mine today. Agree re Robbo's development, he is coming along nicely.

AA did well, he did not look out of place. Two or three games then back to the NEAFL to work some more on the basics, I can really see him being that rebounding flanker we need, his athleticism is amazing and in football terms he is still learning a lot due to his late start in the game. Definitely work staying with.

I think they'll stick with Papley as he just gives us something a bit different up front in what was quite a predictable forward line. His disposal is a concern though but overall I think he has done well.

Again, today made me realise how important Ben McGlynn is to us, he just makes the big plays and he is always so hard at the footy

Yes, Rampe also really impressed me yesterday. And a few stats from the AFL Record that caught my eye, suggests how good he's been this year. For metres gained, the AFL average for defenders is 258.7 per game: Rampe is going at 424.3. For rebounds out of the defensive 50, for other defenders the average is 2.9: for Rampe, it's 7.0. And for spoils: others 3.3, Rampe 7.4.

[ScottH]

It seemed to me that initially Sinclair fell over (possibly because of cramp) while leading the chase for the ball in front of two Brisbane players, running into an open goal. Then as he was trying to get to his feet one of the two Lions players bumped him causing him to again fall, this time awkwardly. And it was that second fall that resulted in him twisting and hurting his knee.

Can anyone confirm if that is what happened?

He certainly looked to be in considerable pain, clutching his knee and grimacing. I feared an ACL or other long-term injury. And given he was lying on the ground right in front of the goals I can understand that the Swans staff wanted to get him off the ground ASAP before a stampede of players came charging back.

The truncated video coverage of this incident starts about 5mins. 10 sec. into the highlights package.

Highlights: Brisbane Lions v Sydney Swans - AFL.com.au

Live, I only saw the initial stumble over his own feet.
I only saw the second bump on the crappy replay screens at the ground, and it look like it was the 2nd bump that caused the injury.

[Doctor J.]

Thought Lloyd had a poor game. He had 10 x 10 at 50%. Was very tentative at the close in stuff.
Thought Mills was again consistent across 4 quarters and had some deft spoils in the close in contests. He was wearing his player like glue.
Still not convinced of Robinson, who had a similar game to Lloyd.
Those hard contests need everyone hard at it. Brisbane seemed to have more players in and under and running to contests. KJ probably should put that down as one to forget.
Tippett, you star, from the first bounce.

Lloyd was a witches hat. Brisbane players just walked around him time after time and made what appeared to be some very half hearted attempts at the footy. One of the few times I've ever wished for the sub rule, to get him off the ground. Agree on KJ it certainly wasn't one of his best, why I don't know. I guess you just have off days, and Tippett proves yet again how much of a gun he is.

Can't forget Buddy, we tend to take him for granted and pretty much expect a performance like that every day, but without him we lose. BOG by a long way in my opinion.

[Doctor J.]

Glad to get the 4 points, but we have a long way to go to match the top teams on that effort.

Who are these top teams you speak of. Surely not Norf!!! The top team of the past 3 years just got belted by GWS.

[barry]

I think KJ is a bit overrated. He's a good solid midfielder, not a star.
If you rate his performances against that benchmark, he's ok.

[RogueSwan]

I gotta agree with Mug and Deja, Rampe had a great game. I will have to watch a replay before my TLM votes though.
This was the second week in a row where our backline has kept us in the game. So much for it being our weakest (or least strongest) part of the team.

Lloyd was a witches hat...

He seemed to not recover from a hard hit early in the third(?) quarter. After that he just couldn't keep up with the game. BRING BACK THE SUBSTITUTE RULE!

[Meg]

Live, I only saw the initial stumble over his own feet.
I only saw the second bump on the crappy replay screens at the ground, and it look like it was the 2nd bump that caused the injury.

Thanks. I've now read enough people say that to believe that is correct. I was watching on TV and as far as I'm aware only Sinclair's first fall was shown. And I suspect Leppitsch only saw the first fall as well as he had the facts wrong in his ill-disciplined and inflammatory outburst in his media conference.

From what you (or anyone else) saw, did you think the bump that caused the second fall was legal? Some are saying it should have resulted in a free for Sinclair. (I realise this might be a very biased view however.)

[dejavoodoo44]

Thanks. I've now read enough people say that to believe that is correct. I was watching on TV and as far as I'm aware only Sinclair's first fall was shown. And I suspect Leppitsch only saw the first fall as well as he had the facts wrong in his ill-disciplined and inflammatory outburst in his media conference.

From what you (or anyone else) saw, did you think the bump that caused the second fall was legal? Some are saying it should have resulted in a free for Sinclair. (I realise this might be a very biased view however.)

I thought that it was a legal shepherd. And if my biased perspective came up with that decision, then it probably was legal.
Though I do think that Leppitsch's spray is way off the mark.

[longmile]

Strange old game. Had alot of star players and alot of passengers. Brisbane had sensational pressure. We barely rarely got any space with the ball and some players like Lloyd and Robinson couldn't handle it. Rampe and Reg were probably best on ground with Franklin following. Kennedy who I thought looked shakey at the start of the year found his amazing consistent form. Aliir had a sensational first quarter then went missing afterwards and seemed to always be looking to infringe as a defender, so I'm not sold yet but I'd like to see him again next week.

[111431]

I thought Allir did well. McStay threatened to run riot in first 5 mins and was leading Reggie on a merry dance. Putting Allir in to him certainly quietened him down. A solid debut in my eyes.

[mcs]

I gotta agree with Mug and Deja, Rampe had a great game. I will have to watch a replay before my TLM votes though.
This was the second week in a row where our backline has kept us in the game. So much for it being our weakest (or least strongest) part of the team.

He seemed to not recover from a hard hit early in the third(?) quarter. After that he just couldn't keep up with the game. BRING BACK THE SUBSTITUTE RULE!

I thought Laidler and Rampe in particular stood up superbly late on when the game was on the line. They both struggle with their disposals sometimes, but both are rapidly becoming the next cogs in the seemingly endless line of 'solid dependable defenders' that we've been lucky to have for the good part of two decades now. Rampe in particular was brilliant in a few key 1 on 1 plays late.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, my throat is still a bit sore from yelling similar things at the ground.
And Christensen really is a shocker. It's probably about time that the Tribunal has a look at his constant staging and starts to issue some appropriate fines. One of his goals came from a decision where our player's contact was so low his arm was actually scraping the ground. While if there was any contact with Christensen's head, it may have come from clipping his team mate's knee. But of course, he was already throwing his head back before that contact.

Its always been part of Christensen's game, it was when he was at the Cats, and still is now at the Lions. There are a handful of players around the competition that do this sort of thing week after week, and it is so frustrating.

[mcs]

Apparently Security were concerned the Wet Crepe Paper would ruin the ground in the rain.

I should attend more I/S matches. Since I started attending matches away from Melbourne in 2009, I haven't seen us lose. We've been damn close a couple of times.
Yesterday was shocking.
Moments of brilliance, and a few moments of hard work and pressure.
But most of the time we were slack.
Brisbane nearly always ran in packs. On turn overs they seemed to have many numbers running hard and free.
We were also very wasteful with disposals just missing targets far too often, even from close range under very little pressure.
Also trying to mark like dry weather rather than wet weather.
We were just lucky that their long range goal kicking was off.
Took 2 free kicks, a "Stretcher" break, Parker, and a couple of great marks from Laidler in defence to get us across the line.

Sinclair is a very average player. Mike Pyke was far superior to this bloke.
Rampe was pretty average yesterday as well. For all his good work his turnovers are far too costly.
Poor Allir. Not the best of debuts. At least his first few touches were alright.

No Smith or Ted left huge holes in our back line.

Glad to get the 4 points, but we have a long way to go to match the top teams on that effort.

That is quite amusing if that is the reason ScottH about the banner. We did wonder why the Lions banner was all cut up like it was when they run out.

Allir looked a bit lost out there for large chunks - but there were a moment or two where he did a couple of decent things. I hope he gets a couple of more games to get some more experience and to highlight just how much more he needs to achieve before he reaches AFL level.

I disagree on Rampe - he had his brain fart moments, but I thought (as I posted a bit earlier) that he really stood up when needed towards the end of the game.

[Go Swannies]

I wonder if we should set up a complete forward line without Buddy - and play him permanently just outside the 50 and let him kick all our goals from there?

It must be so discouraging to the opposition when he just keeps doing it.

One of his kicks yesterday with a wet ball from outside 50 had us just looking at each other in awe and amazement - we couldn't think of anything to say.

[Ludwig]

I thought Aliir did well for a first game. I'm sure he was instructed to just play his role and not try anything spectacular. He gave up that free kick that resulted in a goal, but it was the kind of mistake you see from experienced defenders as well. Walker got into space on him to take the final mark and goal of the game, but that was nearly impossible to stop by someone playing from behind. I suppose we should have had someone guarding the space to stop the lead. As for the rest of the game, he did a pretty good job. The tv commentators were quite complimentary on his performance.

Even after viewing the replay I found it hard to assess our performance, but would lean toward the views expressed by many that Brisbane played a great game rather than being critical of our play. The wet conditions tend to produce a game that turns on making the most of opportunities. I was surprised by the stats showing that we had a sizable margin in both contested and uncontested possession. Brisbane were able to close down space effectively on those half seconds lost due to those little ball handling errors that happen in wet conditions. They produced some very strong marks and we seemed to just lose drop a few too many off our fingertips.

I also thought Rampe was our BOG.

I don't like to the expression 'we'll take the 4 points', but this time is an exception.

[Go Swannies]

Also I don't know if any here go to BigFooty's The Squiggle (Squiggle 2016) but it's a remarkable tool - and it shows us as consistently the strongest in defence. That's a good thing because the unpredictability we showed at the start of the season going forward seems to have disappeared and we're really relying on our defence. Rampe is a revelation. The way the Brions played yesterday - with Nick and Ted out - should have given them a win. Enter Super Dane and they are quelled.

It's also time we rated Luke and Hanners as the great players they are - both are our Energiser bunnies coming out supercharged each week.

AA struggled a little bit and dropped marks and the like. But his head never dropped and he provided constant defence throughout the day. He'll be better for the run so I hope he plays this weekend, too.