The Lions head into the much needed break in 17th position, ahead of Essendon on percentage.
Strategy coach Danny Daly showed optimism following the loss to Richmond, stating that skills and tackling will be the main focus at training as the Lions head into the last eight weeks of the home and away season.
“Our contested ball has been a real positive over the last five weeks… We’ve actually won three of them.”
Lewis Taylor narrowly leads the goalkicking at the break with 16, but Zorko (15) and Schache (14) are following close behind. The Lions have continued their trend in recent seasons of sourcing goals from small forwards and midfielders, but the advent of Schache, Walker and Hipwood as genuine targets is an exciting development that should see the Lions improve on their goalkicking tally in the coming seasons.
Dayne Zorko has been a standout, consistently breaking lines with run and averaging over 24 disposals, 4 marks and a goal per game, as well as leading the Lions’ tackling with 80.
Skipper Tom Rockliff is averaging 27 disposals and despite battling injuries and receiving criticism in the media about winning the footy back from the opposition, is ranked 6th in the competition for average tackles per game.
The Lions have fielded six debutants in season 2016, blooding Josh Schache, Ben Keays and Eric Hipwood up forward; Jarrad Jansen and Rhys Mathieson in the midfield and Matthew Hammelmann down back.
Of the 47 players on the Lions list, a record 13 are Queenslanders, a figure that is set be bolstered even further with the success of the Hyundai Help for Kids Lions Academy.
Injuries have seen just three Lions – Pearce Hanley, Ryan Bastinac and Stefan Martin – play all 14 games, and Danny Daly says that a club in finals contention should expect to see a core of 7-12 players playing every game. The Lions have had 36 players take the field this year, behind only Collingwood in players used.
Daly highlighted that the Lions have had 21 players make their debut in the last three seasons, the most in the AFL by a considerable stretch, and while the inexperience has caused some short term pain, the benefits will come to fruition in the next few seasons.
Graph used in the Round 14 Vero Coaches Wrap. Shows experiences compared to other teams.
“It’s about the journey, we just need to make sure that we keep the faith, we’re trying to provide hope for you, we’re trying to provide a brand of footy that’s exciting for you, sometimes it doesn’t come off but we are working on it, and again all these kids are going to be the way forward for us.”
Fresh from the mid-season break the Lions will head to Metricon Stadium next weekend to take on the Suns.
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