The Brisbane Lions Reserves won back-to-back NEAFL matches for the first time in 2014, after claiming a comfortable 10-goal victory over Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium last Saturday.
Despite getting off to a relatively slow start, the Lions rallied in the wet and slippery conditions and eventually wore down their opponents to run out 60-point winners – 14.11 (95) to 5.5 (35).
Lions Reserves Coach Leigh Harding was pleased with the team’s performance, particularly after quarter time.
“We probably didn’t start the way we wanted to, and Gold Coast kicked the first 2-3 goals of the game,” Harding told lions.com.au.
“We got a couple of goals back late in the first quarter, and really dominated the game from then onwards.
“The game was played in very tough conditions. It was wet, and the rain was coming in heavy. Our boys seemed to adjust better to those conditions.
“We kept them to just one goal in the second half, and they probably shouldn’t have gotten the one they did. The ball seemed to be in out forward half for most of the second half.”
The win was the Lions’ sixth for the season, and saw them shoot up to ninth on the NEAFL ladder with just one match remaining.
It’s as high as the Club can expect to finish, however, with two wins separating them from eighth-placed Southport.
Gold Coast, meanwhile, remain consigned to the bottom of the table – still without a win from their 18 outings.
Please find below Leigh Harding’s appraisal on each of the listed Lions who played against the Gold Coast on Saturday.
Ash McGrath | Played off half-back and gave us good drive. Gold Coast tried to get him to play deeper in defence so that he was out of play, but we kept him high so that we could utilise his good skills. Gave us good offensive run in difficult conditions. |
Nick Robertson | Played midfield a bit forward after coming back from a week in the seniors. Had the ball about 20-odd times, but probably didn’t get as many clearances as we would have liked – particularly in the conditions. Still had an impact on the game. |
Jordan Lisle | Jordan was serving a suspension from last week’s game, so didn’t play. He’ll be back this weekend. |
Matthew Leuenberger | In the first half, it looked like Leuey was going to tear the game apart. He was very dominant, and moved around the ground really well. Then he got a sore spot on his toe, so we decided not to risk him in the second half. Turn out everything is fine. It was disappointing that we couldn’t get more game time into him. We had hoped he could play a full game and put his hand up for senior selection. |
Andrew Raines | He did the same as he does every week on the wing – he won plenty of the ball, ran hard, and showed great leadership for our younger guys. |
Ryan Lester | Ryan played the first half only, and was one of the dominant players on the ground. He was very influential, but at half-time we put him on ice and then flew him down to Melbourne as the emergency. He exceeded our expectations. |
Jackson Paine | Jackson was very good. He was able to get off his guy and take some marks. The other good thing was he laid four forward 50 tackles and had a good smother. He kicked five goals, so got rewarded for his pressure. His pressure and offensive work was probably the best seen from him for the year. |
Isaac Conway | Izzy played mainly forward and a bit on-ball. He didn’t have a huge impact given the conditions. Had it a dozen times, but didn’t hit the scoreboard or have any shots on goal, which is an area he needs to improve if he’s up forward. He has a very solid base, good legs, so can plant himself and is hard to bring him down in tackles. |
Mitch Golby | We only planned for Mitch to play three quarters in his first game back from injury, so we actually kept him on the bench for the whole first quarter – mainly because we knew we were losing Lester at half-time. Then he got a knock to his hip in the third quarter, which floored him for last term. So effectively we only got a good half out of Mitch. In the last quarter, we used him as a rotation in our forward line. In the third term, he was dominant across half-back. He and Ash McGrath repelled most of the Gold Coast’s forward entries. |
Nick Hayes | Hayesy played midfield again, and got good numbers. He finished with high-20 disposals, nine clearances and led our tackle count. Was clean inside and kept his feet. Had the output we thought he would. |
Archie Smith | Archie didn’t play. He was a bit crook, so we expect he’ll be right for our last match. |
Jordon Bourke | Jordon started slowly in the first quarter, and was just a bit off. After then, his last three quarters were very good. In fact, our whole team defence was very good. Our good team defence allowed him to set-up and intercept. Had about 10 spoils to go with 20 possessions. |
Sam Michael | A monster effort by Sam. He played mostly forward/ruck with Archie out, and then when we lost Leuey, he took the ruck for the whole second half. He thrived on the responsibilities and was one of our best players. He worked the opposition ruckman over and got hands on the ball. He played behind the ball when resting, and helped repel from opposition forward 50m entries. |
Zac O’Brien | His first half was very, very good. His second half was very good. Had 42 possessions and 13 clearances. Conditions suited him, because he’s low to the ground. He’s played well all year, but he’s really cashed in with some big numbers in the past few weeks. |
