My observations

[rexy]

For what it is worth, aside from the intensity of the opposition I have seen two things in the last 2 weeks that have bothered me.

One is that we seem to have loosened the man on man style of press to more of a protect the space kind of a zone, possibly got freaked by Essendons pace last week and allowed it to carry over into this week. For mine to much finger pointing, zoning off, coralling etc in the last 7 quaters of footy.

Second is our run without the footy seems to have dropped off a bit. To often today I thought we were hand balling to stationary targets, not necessarily through poor decision making but because nobody around the ball winner was breaking to space, everyone flat footed waiting on the ball. Not only does this allow opposition sides to keep preassure on the ball but also means that our forwards have to come further up the ground to get it and our forward structure is not as good, Ie no crumbers.

Pleasing that we can win without playing our best footy.

[Milton66]

For what it is worth, aside from the intensity of the opposition I have seen two things in the last 2 weeks that have bothered me.

One is that we seem to have loosened the man on man style of press to more of a protect the space kind of a zone, possibly got freaked by Essendons pace last week and allowed it to carry over into this week. For mine to much finger pointing, zoning off, coralling etc in the last 7 quaters of footy.

Second is our run without the footy seems to have dropped off a bit. To often today I thought we were hand balling to stationary targets, not necessarily through poor decision making but because nobody around the ball winner was breaking to space, everyone flat footed waiting on the ball. Not only does this allow opposition sides to keep preassure on the ball but also means that our forwards have to come further up the ground to get it and our forward structure is not as good, Ie no crumbers.

Pleasing that we can win without playing our best footy.

As I stated to my mate when they hit the front: This is new territory.

I don't think we can honestly expect the same level of intesity as we did for the first 6 weeks.

It happens with all teams. As soon as you get on a roll, the opposition puts in extra work to figure out how to beat you.

It happened in the past, and we couldn't correct it.

The challenge now is to be able to adapt to opposition tactics, and evolve accordingly.

I'm alert, but not alarmed.

[CeilidhSaint]

Rexy - 100% correct.
Don't know why it has changed but it has and we won't win much the way we are playing except beating also rans like Bummers and Brians.

[nicko016]

Pretty spot on post. I think it was ineviatable that we would drop off a bit. I don't think we were ever going to completely drop off like some had been expecting but the last few weeks weve been playing pretty good footy, but its been too much in fits and spurts as Ross often says. No doubt there will be more times when this happens, but the challenge is to make sure we can still win when this happens and that it doesn't keep to drag on.

[Devilhead]

Is it possible that Ross has tweaked the gameplan in order to give himself a better idea as to how we adapt playing under different set ups

If so it is great that we now have a team that cannot only carry out Plan A but a Plan B, C and D and switch accordingly between them at short notice depending on the opposition and game situation

Is there a chance that we might be experimenting????

I might be getting ahead of myself but is it possible????

[rexy]

Is it possible that Ross has tweaked the gameplan in order to give himself a better idea as to how we adapt playing under different set ups

If so it is great that we now have a team that cannot only carry out Plan A but a Plan B, C and D and switch accordingly between them at short notice depending on the opposition and game situation

Is there a chance that we might be experimenting????

I might be getting ahead of myself but is it possible????

Anythings possible I suppose.

I wouldnt have thought it likely though, i would have thought its more likely we are starting to see thae answer to that question "can we maintain this intensity all year?" the answer is not for 4 quarters every week, no one can.

[MC Gusto]

Those handballs were annoying the crap out of me. Add to that the reluctance to kick long by many players really erkked me. Rooey and Kosi were grabbing pretty much everything that came their way yet players would chip it around...

[yipper]

We weren't as sharp as we have been - maybe due to half the team being crook all week with the flu!! Including Lenny, Roo, Dal, King and others. Pretty good effort to be able to go up another gear in the last Q when the younger Lions couldn't!!

[spert]

I notice Geelong just got over the line the other day -I don't hear a lot of bleating about that. We will have some games this season where we don't totally dominate. All it took was a couple of our key players to lift their workrate in the last quarter, and we won. This will be a point that RL will pass to the players, that they all have to be switched on regardless of how weak the opposition might be.

[rexy]

I notice Geelong just got over the line the other day -I don't hear a lot of bleating about that. We will have some games this season where we don't totally dominate. All it took was a couple of our key players to lift their workrate in the last quarter, and we won. This will be a point that RL will pass to the players, that they all have to be switched on regardless of how weak the opposition might be.

Agree with the second half of your post mate. Not sure of the relevance of your first point though. This is not a geelong forum, of course you dont hear much bleating about them, with all due respect to them the only time I give a stuff aboutthe cats is when they are playing the saints.

[roxanne]

While I wouldn't take anything away from such a great win ...

1. the last couple of games we will handball 'inside' to a runner under pressure instead of outside to someone free. it's obviously a drill but we have to get smarter .

2. Schneider was good yesterday - a very skillful player - but his 3rd quarter run around the the 50 metre arc to kick sideways to no- one in the pocket when two big strong marking forwards are in the goal square agrrrrrhhhhh!

3. Clinton Jones has to kick for goal when he's 40 metres out - he lacks confidence in his kicking - we all do- but he has to have a crack. He has the talent and guts to get some space, he has to capitalize on that (love him)

Positives: Zac Dawson - just keeps getting better. Luke Ball in the packs.
The strike rate of the big two forwards, they missed a couple but kicked some big crucial ones. The ability to rise above fatigue, heavy sniping,
and win for Lenny. The great signs outweigh the bad ones.

[saintly]

We weren't as sharp as we have been - maybe due to half the team being crook all week with the flu!! Including Lenny, Roo, Dal, King and others. Pretty good effort to be able to go up another gear in the last Q when the younger Lions couldn't!!

it had ben mentioned about Roo being sick. have not heard of anyone else being sick? were there?

[Milton66]

We weren't as sharp as we have been - maybe due to half the team being crook all week with the flu!! Including Lenny, Roo, Dal, King and others. Pretty good effort to be able to go up another gear in the last Q when the younger Lions couldn't!!

it had ben mentioned about Roo being sick. have not heard of anyone else being sick? were there?

I felt suddenly ill when they got 9 points up

[plugger66]

The big difference between yesterday and what we have done most of the year is that we pushing back in the forward line when Brisbane had the ball compared to what we have done previously when we pushed up on players. In the last quarter we started pushing up and that caused a few turnovers. Also Brisbane went through the middle where as that is what we usually do.

[Milton66]

While I wouldn't take anything away from such a great win ...

1. the last couple of games we will handball 'inside' to a runner under pressure instead of outside to someone free. it's obviously a drill but we have to get smarter .

2. Schneider was good yesterday - a very skillful player - but his 3rd quarter run around the the 50 metre arc to kick sideways to no- one in the pocket when two big strong marking forwards are in the goal square agrrrrrhhhhh!

3. Clinton Jones has to kick for goal when he's 40 metres out - he lacks confidence in his kicking - we all do- but he has to have a crack. He has the talent and guts to get some space, he has to capitalize on that (love him)

Positives: Zac Dawson - just keeps getting better. Luke Ball in the packs.
The strike rate of the big two forwards, they missed a couple but kicked some big crucial ones. The ability to rise above fatigue, heavy sniping,
and win for Lenny. The great signs outweigh the bad ones.

You should post more often. You read the game very well IMO.

[yipper]

We weren't as sharp as we have been - maybe due to half the team being crook all week with the flu!! Including Lenny, Roo, Dal, King and others. Pretty good effort to be able to go up another gear in the last Q when the younger Lions couldn't!!

it had ben mentioned about Roo being sick. have not heard of anyone else being sick? were there?

According to ppl I know who work at the club - quite a few of the players were pretty crook through the week.

[Eastern]

Let's hope that a bit of Queensland warmth and sunshine brings them all back to good health.

Hold On.............Floods up there. Re-locate the game to the dome..... Still collect the $400K, of course !!