2016 Pre-Bye Assessment

[GoLions]

It's no secret that this season has been beyond dreadful. Too many games where we have been nowhere near competitive enough for the majority of games, and our W/L record of 1-13 shows that. As it seems to be the case every year, we have been hit by injuries, and been forced to play more younger players than we would have liked. As bad as this year has currently been though, I think there are still some positives to look at, which should provide some hope to us improving in the not too distant future.



Positives:
- We have thrown a lot of our younger guys in earlier than we would have planned, which is giving them invaluable experience. This will start to pay off further down the track, when these 20-23 year old players have 40-100 games experience and can really take their games to the next level, or cover other injured players a lot better when required.
- The culture around the club seems much better. It wasn't that long ago where players were leaving left, right, and centre. Now players seem very keen to re-sign with the club, or extend their contracts, with Sam Mayes being the latest to do so. We are also having a number of players wanting to come to the club, such as Beams, Bell, and Christensen, who are all very good players. Previously, it seemed as though no-one wanted to come to Queensland, so we must be doing something right there.
- We have shown how good our best footy can be. We pushed the Swans right to the final few seconds in our clash with them. Matched the Hawks for the majority of the game before being blown away in the final quarter. We need to work on producing this level of football more often though.
- Drafting has been very good the last few seasons, and this year has been no exception. Schache has been very impressive, Keays has shown glimpses, and Matho very impressive against the Tigers in just his 3rd game. Hipwood has also been able to snag a couple of goals here and there and could become a pretty decent player in the future for us.

Negatives:
- Will start off with the obvious one, only one win for the season and we've already played 14 games. And the problem is that in barely any of these games have we looked like we had a chance of winning. Apart from our games against the Swans and Hawks, two of the better teams of the competition, we seem to be getting blown out of games in the first half, and then keeping up in the second half when the other teams presumably start taking it easy as they have already won. You would think that, with a young team, the opposite would be happening (not being able to run out games). This needs to be fixed, as in the last few weeks now we have had promising starts against the Dockers and the Tigers, then given up far too many unanswered goals and lost the game before half time.
- Leaders not performing consistently. This has been a pretty big issue I think. Hanley has had a terrible season. Rich has been inconsistent as always (however I would say he's been fairly good the last month or two). Rocky has only recently come back from injury, but just isn't damaging enough. Zorko and Robbo have been excellent, but they need help. They can't do it all on their own and thus far that is all that has been happening for the majority of the year. Others need to step up.
- Injuries have hurt. Beams, Bell, Christensen, Rocky all missing a large portion of games for the year is hard to cover, but it is still no excuse for the performances we have been dishing up. Having them play every week doesn't mean that all of a sudden we are going to start winning games. Other players who are still playing like garbage.

There's other positives and negatives I could talk about, but I think they're the main ones to focus on. I'll now give a brief evaluation of each player on our list who has played games in the AFL this year, but keep in mind I've missed a few due to uni and exams and all that.



Ben Keays - Has played a bit over half the season so far, and has shown glimpses. Could have had a larger impact but has missed a lot of opportunities in front of goal, kicking 3 goals and 8 behinds. The bye should do him some good.

Ryan Harwood - Had a poor start to the season, but had been much better after the first month or so before getting injured. Will miss the majority of the rest of the season, if not all of it. Still needs to work on his disposal a bit.

Allen Christensen - I've been really impressed by Bundy since he joined us. Moved to a role in defence just before his injury and looked very good. Hopefully get him back before the end of the year.

Ryan Bastinac - Started poorly and didn't look like he deserved a spot in our best 22. However, he has been going alright the last month or so, winning a bit of contested ball, just needs to eliminate those really quiet games that he occasionally has.

Mitch Robinson - Would be between him and Zorko for who would be leading our Best and Fairest this year, he has been outstanding. Gets a lot of contested ball, tackling well, shutting down elite players on the opposing team and still getting a lot of the ball himself.

Josh Green - Missed a bit of footy through injury and then had a bit of a run in the NEAFL. Hasn't been too bad, probably needs to hit the scoreboard a bit more.

Tom Bell - His best has been very good, but he has been very inconsistent. Out for the rest of the season now, but hoping he can perform far more frequently next season.

Rohan Bewick - Hasn't been bad, but hasn't been great either. I'd like to see him played forward a bit more. Only in the side due to injuries though tbh.

Dayne Beams - Only the 2 games due to injury. Hoping for an injury-free 2017. Need him out there.

Daniel Rich - Still struggles to shake a tag, but has been better than previous seasons I would say. Still needs to step up more though.

Pearce Hanley - Probably his worst season at the club for quite a while. Wouldn't surprise me if he got dropped to the NEAFL after the bye. Shocking year. Ball use has been way down from what you would expect from him.

Stefan Martin - Not his best season. That concussion seemed to shake him up a little, has looked better the last few weeks though since West was removed from the side. Expecting a big second half of the season now that he has been 'rested'.

Trent West - Apparently came into the side to give Stef a rest, went ok, but don't like him spending bulk minutes in the ruck. Needs to become more potent up forward.

Josh Walker - Been better than I was expecting, and makes things a bit easier for Schache. Would want him to kick a few more goals though.

Dayne Zorko - As mentioned earlier, would be between him and Robbo for our Best and Fairest so far. Nothing to complain about really, definitely his best season for the club so far. Hopefully he finishes off the year just like he has started it.

Jarrad Jansen - Been alright in his first few games, finding a bit of the contested ball which we sorely need from our young midfielders. Should play out most of the remainder of the season.

Claye Beams - Been fairly poor so far, expecting much more from him if he gets more games after the bye.

Nick Robertson - Came into the side a month ok, played pretty well, and then injured his neck I believe. Will probably come back into the side after the bye. Really like the way he goes about things, but still a lot of improvement left in him.

Daniel Merrett - A lot of people seem to want to drop him, but that would only make things worse I reckon. After Clarke retired, he's probably our only defender capable of taking on the big forwards. Needs to stop giving away so many free kicks though.

Marco Paparone - Only the 4 games, seems to have dropped off a bit from last year. I still think he's best 22 for us, so expecting him to come back into the side soon. Needs to perform better though.

Josh Schache - Been really impressive in his first year. Missed a few shots on goal, but probably comes down to nerves more than anything else. Will only get better, can't wait to see how good he is in a few years time.

Liam Dawson - Just the 3 games, not much to talk about.

Daniel McStay - Not too bad, definitely prefer seeing him in the backline. Needs to fix up his disposal a bit more though, makes a few crucial errors here and there.

Tom Cutler - Really started to hit some form the last month or two before missing this week with injury, should be good to go after the bye. Looks like he is going to be a great player in the future.

Darcy Gardiner - Probably gone backwards a little bit, but is still extremely young and will keep getting better over the next few years. Long term prospect.

Lewis Taylor - Could someone please tell me what happened to the guy that won the 2014 Rising Star award? Needs to finish the year off with a bang, been pretty poor so far.

Eric Hipwood - Been impressive in his first 2 games, knows where the goals are. Hopefully he gets a few more games over the rest of the year.

Harris Andrews - This guy is gonna be a star, can't wait until he's got 50+ games under his belt.

Sam Mayes - I don't like criticizing him, as he gets played out of position a lot. Would like to see him play on a half forward flank a lot more, but we have a lot of those types of players at the club. Last month and a bit has been much better though. Hopefully continues on with this form, as he has a lot of potential.

Jonathan Freeman - Thought this would be his breakout year, didn't hit the scoreboard enough from the few games he played though. I think he missed some of the season with injury? Not sure on that though.

Ryan Lester - I want to see him playing a bit more up forward, have seen him used in defence a bit here and there and don't think it suits him. Hasn't had a great year.

Rhys Mathieson - Played very well against the Tigers, don't know why he missed a few after making his debut. Hopefully he plays out the rest of the season, was an absolute steal in the draft when we got him.

Tom Rockliff - Missed a fair portion of the season with injury, has come back pretty well, needs to be a bit more damaging with the footy though, not enough metres gained from his possessions in comparison with some of the more elite players. Still, gives his all every week and has been much better than most.

Jackson Paine - Showed a bit, but only the 3 games. Seems to have adapted well to being played as a defender.

Billy Evans - Only the 2 games, not much to say about him.

Matthew Hammelmann - Made his debut this week, didn't do much off half back.



Please note, I have been trying to focus on the positives more than the negatives, as I think that's all that you can do at this point. I don't think getting rid of Leppa would solve any problems at the moment, at the very least need to see how things go for the rest of the season. Just really want to see our boys put in some 4-quarter efforts, and then the wins should hopefully come.

[Ringo]

Fair Assessment GL and agree with most. Taylor and Hanley the real disappointments as they are experienced players who should be doing more.
Do not think Gardiner has gone backwards though just not progressed.
Both Hipwood and Andrews will be stars and will be great when the baulk up and spend time on the weights. (Andrews has grown 3cm this season).

Lots of positives with games into youth but players need to show more confidence and drive the ball forward a lot more quickly. Schache and Bell could win a lot of one on one contest if given the chance.