Mitch Robinson flew the flag for the Lions on a disappointing night against North Melbourne.
The 26-year old spent several minutes off the ground, first with a leg injury, and then was treated for a head knock, yet still collected five contested possessions from beneath various packs.
“Robbo’s always coming off with something, he’s crazy”, Assistant Coach Danny Daly told this week’s Vero Coaches Wrap.
“One thing he’s brought to this Club is a lot of hardness. We’ve given him a few jobs over the last few weeks. He did the job on Fyfe a few weeks ago and we gave him the role on Swallow on the weekend.
“He did an outstanding job on Swallow in the first half, but we had to release that tag because we needed him helping Rocky around the midfield and the hardball. He was able to do that for us – he had something like eight clearances and ten tackles.
“The other thing he’s been able to do is bring some leadership to our young guys as well. He’s pretty close to the young group, he’s been like another coach for us in terms of their development, he’s been a terrific bonus for us this year.”
Daly said North Melbourne’s efficiency by hand and foot hurt the Lions on Saturday.
“We had the ball just as much as the opposition and we matched them in clearances but our ability to use the ball through the corridor and to get the ball forward was a big problem for us.
“We created some real problems ourselves with our ball movement. North were able to force some turnovers and kick some goals just by our inability to use short kicks, where we kept going long down the line which really hurt us on the night.”
The Lions were dealt a further blow with the loss of midfielder James Aish with a finger tendon injury.
“Aishy’s just on the road to rehab now”, Daly said.
Bupa Recovery Report: Round 17
“It’s disappointing because he was starting to find a bit of form through the midfield and that third quarter we gave him the role on Swallow when we released Mitch Robinson and he did a terrific job on Andrew Swallow and he gained six or seven possessions and a couple of clearences himself.
“There were some really good signs for Aishy, but it’s been the year it has been with our injuries and we’ve lost another soldier now, so we’ll just have to replace him with someone else and keep moving forward.”
