This clip just warms my hearte verytime I watch it.

Just over 24 hours ago Leigh Matthews resigned as the coach of the Brisbane Lions and it was today announced that Michael Voss would take over. While I would have been happy for Leigh to have another year and try and get us back in the finals, I think it was an excellent decision on his behalf to step aside before he overstayed his welcome. The game plan over the last two years has been lacking and the second half of this season was even more disappointing than 1998 when we won the wooden spoon. The players played without convinction and we blew numerous leads and winning opportunities.

The hasty decision to install Michael Voss was very concerning to me at first, but then some of my fears were dismissed when it was revealed plans had been in place for a while for Vossy to take over from Leigh. Still, I don’t see what the rush was. Why couldn’t others have the opportunity to apply for the job, you never know who might bring what to the table? A radical change might be just what we need and we might not get that from Michael Voss. I understand the urgency to manage the team list for next year, but surely a one week interview process at the end of the season of a range of potential candidates would have veen the best thing. My suspicion is that Voss would have been chosen at the end of the day anyway, but it would have put to rest any fears he isn’t the man for the job.

Now that the decision has been made though I am right behind the coach and already looking forward to the 2009 season. Michael Voss is the heart and soul of our football club and I really do feel he can inject the passion and pride in the jumper that has been lacking in recent times. I also feel that the re-signing of J. Brown will give the team a much needed morale boost as well. It just seems liked the second half of the season the team was playing under the weight of dragged out contract negotiations with Browny.

The marketability of Voss cannot be underestimated either. The Lions are about to face a massive challenge from the Gold Coast starting up in their backyard and we are going to need someone to be the face of the club for the forseeable future. This is probably something that a John Longmire or Damien hardwick couldn’t have brought to the table.

Gutted. Today was just a miserable day all around. The weather was shocking and the football the Lions produced was even worse. The Bulldogs are not a ten goal better side than us and we didn’t even give a yelp. I can handle the skill errors/turnovers, but there was no intensity, will for the ball, taking on a contest today. It was just a very weak effort from a vast majority. Hearing Browny talk on radio after the game he summed it up perfectly, the beat us comprehensively all over the field and they were harder. We just didn’t have our usual tackle, chase and pressure today.

Our accountability was pretty horrible all day long. The midfielders were the main offenders. Everything was just way too easy for the Bulldogs. We’d work had for a goal and then they just fire one straight back, extremely demoralising.

The Bulldogs were inaccurate, especially early and once again our inability to move the ball up the field from kick outs was exposed. The more I see it live from a high vantage point, the more I see that the backline really can’t be blamed for it. There just aren’t enough players working into space up the field. Also, it is highly obvious that using Merrett coming out of the backline is a last resort option. His skill level and decision making with ball in hand clearly isn’t trusted by his team mates. A lot of the skill errors today came from open play rebound situations where guys like McGrath, Drummond and MacDonald had to wait and wait and wait for something to present and nothing came.

Hard to gauge the kind of day the backline had, there wasn’t really much they could do with the volume and quality of ball coming in. There were a few soft goals though where the ball could/should have been punched through or more pressure applied. Merrett can hold his head high, whenever the ball came in a fashion that had him in the contest I think he won it everytime.

Simon Black got his usual number of possessions, but he had absolutely no legs or ability to chase. Adcock was our BOG for mine; he tried his heart out all day and is clearly carrying an injury. He ran into space to give his team mates an option, he put his head over the football and he looked ready for the contest. My admiration for his courage and endeavour increases with every game I see him play.

Stiller redeemed himself with an decent game in the end, but there were instances early on where he chose to hang off the play when he needed to commit to winning the ball. Tim Notting was another guy I think you could single out as having a pretty soft game today. He was barely sighted and didn’t really look interested in winning a ball. Johnstone had a shocker, but reading he injured himself early on I’ll lay off him. We really missed Rischa, in recent weeks he has been winning a lot of ball and breaking tackles. Today that was lacking for sure.

Sherman had a promising game, he was exciting with his run and carry, but his finish still isn’t there. He had a touch of the fumbles and couldn’t hit the target, not that anyone else could. Someone needed to step up in the pace stakes in the absence of Harding and he did that.

Brennan faded in and out of the game again; I’m starting to think his best position is that kind of Martin Pike lead up the wing. He has a good ability to take grabs close to the boundary line and work in small spaces. His kicking still leaves a bit to be desired at times, but that is true of many. He was non-existent with his clearance work at the centre bounces and I’ m pretty sure he was in there a lot of the time that the Bulldogs got those really quick centre breaks.

One thing that has been noticeable watching both the Sydney and Bulldogs games live is that when a scrumage forms at ground level, both teams surround it and on foot so as soon as the ball squeezes out they are in front position. Contrasting with the Lions who seem to wait on the fringes for the ball to fly out or commit to piling on top.

The forward line didn’t really get enough ball to have any bearing on the game. The delivery to Clark was pretty poor, he ran hard all day, but it just didn’t work for him today. Corrie and Hooper were serviceable. Browny was supreme, delivery let him down as did his team putting in such an effort for his 150^th game. Around the forward 50 we were outnumbered all day, the Bulldogs always seemed to have players streaming out of the backline and it was left to Clark, Hooper and Corrie to go on long chases down the ground. By contrast we were playing stop start football out of the back, looking like we had 15 players on the field.

Votes
5 – Adcock
4 – Brown
3 – Power
2 – Merrett
1 – Sherman

Our disposal efficiency, particularly by foot early in the game was pretty horrible, but today we did enough when it was needed. It was more of a workmanlike performance than anything else. We come up against better opposition away from home next week and that will be a very itneresting test.

If we win I will be over the moon and craving September action, if we stick with the Bulldogs, but go down in the end I will be pleased. If we get shown up against quality opposition I’ll be shattered. The Bulldogs had a great win today, former Brisbane Lions Jason Akermanis kicked 6, I’m sure Leigh Matthews will have a solution to shut him down, but the problem is the Dogs have a multi pronged attack.

Another great game by Travis Johnstone today, proving to be an excellent recruit for us this season. Daniel Bradshaw is an injury concern, hopefully it is just something that can be nursed by keeping him close to goal. The problem is Jonathan Brown has an injury that requires the exact same solution. They started to get in each others way a bit today. We missed the cleanliness and poise of Roe and Drummond out of the back half this week too, we can only get better with them coming back in the side.

My Votes
5 - T Johnstone
4 - S Black
3 - J Brown
2 - J MacDonald
1 - J Adcock

Tonight was a very pleasing game against a team that I rate pretty highly. North Melbourne were able to stay in the game thanks to some amazing accuracy (12 goals 2 behinds at one stage), the Lions had lots of tough shots at goal and subsequently ended up with lots of behinds to go with all their goals. We absolutely smashed them in the clearances, contested ball and inside fifties, more so than showed on the scoreboard. Credit to North Melbourne though they kept coming all night and I could never really relax.

A win against another top eight side is crucial for our season and confidence going forward. There were some passages of play tonight where we looked on the verge of something very very special. It is very easy to get ahead of ourselves though, we have another home game next week against Freo and we have to make sure we can keep this winning streak going.

There are a few injury concerns to come out of the game. Our hearts were in our mouths when Jonathan Brown looked to have suffered a serious leg injury. Patfull, Drummond and Roe, all crucial to our backline are all under an injury cloud now too.

Charman, Black, Power were all sensational out of the middle of the ground and Johnstone gave them some great support. I was particularly impressed with Johnstone’s efforts around the ground, tackling, pressuring, punching and doing the team things. The two pylons up forward once again had nights out dining on goals. Brown was very unlucky not to kick ten, he had a few posters.

My Votes
5 - J Brown
4 - L Power
3 - S Black
2 - J Charman
1 - T Johnstone