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Your Sunday feast of football starts with a danger game for the home team as they host the new boys on the block. It’s the Brisbane Lions at home to Greater Western Sydney Giants at the Gabba. We’ll have live scores and a blog kicking off at 1.10pm AEST
It’s not been a pretty start to the 2012 season for Michael Voss and his Lions line-up. There’s been just the two wins from seven and the losses they’ve had have been heavy, even if the scoreboard doesn’t necessarily say so.
Strangely enough though, the coach has not been talked about as being under pressure. The idea of Voss being in the gun for the season isn’t a new one – it was talked about heavily in the pre-season.
But with the horror run from Melbourne, troubles at the Gold Coast and the roasting of Michelangelo Rucci (who seems to be the only writer in the whole of South Australia), Voss has flown under the radar.
That was until this week, when Brisbane Lions chairman Angus Johnson decided to put the pressure on the club internally.
He has said that the commitment levels of some of the players is not adequate, but was quick to point out the coach’s position was safe and secure.
Uh-oh.
In our experience, when the head-honcho of the club comes out in support of the coach, there’s trouble abounds. It’s as if Johnson’s handed Voss the reigns as the pilot of the flight through the Bermuda Triangle – you know that the future’s bleak.
So how do you save the coach’s future? Simple – start winning some games and today should (and I stress, should) be the catalyst for the Lions to start getting some positivity not just on the ladder, but in the club too.
Before their bye in round eleven, they’ll travel to Melbourne to play the Kangaroos and host the West Coast Eagles.
The way North Melbourne’s been playing in the last fortnight and the host of injuries at the Eagles, you just never know what could happen if the Lions hit their straps. Plus, Melbourne is on the horizon at home.
But it must start today.
Daniel Merrett must start getting more of the footy up forward to provide support for Jonathan Brown.
The midfield has to start getting the ball forward as well – the Lions only average 45 inside 50’s throughout the first seven weeks of the season, a stat that is seriously not good enough.
They have to get their hands on the football more overall – they’re average disposal count is less than the Giants. Plus they need to be more efficient with it – again a stat GWS actually beat the Lions in this season.
Getting Jed Adcock is a positive. He’ll provide plenty of rebound off half back and hopefully launch some handy forward sortis.
On the other side of the coin – a simple question. You’ve had the GWS Giants theme song in your head all week, haven’t you?
It’s catchy once you hear it sung by the players. And thankfully that happened last week. If you missed it, watch it here. Let’s be honest, it was fun!
Not many people gave GWS a chance to win any matches this season. Now, they’re a decent chance of having two wins next to their name by 4pm today.
Now that the boys have had a taste of victory, it’s something they’ll want to experience again quickly. However today will be a vastly different line-up.
Coach Kevin Sheedy has decided to rest a few of his key players from the last couple of weeks – Tomas Budd, Dylan Shiel, Devon Smith… there were Dream Team and SuperCoach players pulling their hair out on Thursday night wondering what they should be doing!
They do get some good injection of youth into the team though with Adam Tomlinson, William Hoskin-Elliot, Matthew Buntine… they’re progressing well and get their chance today.
Sheedy knows what he’s doing. He’s planning for 2014 and having a dynamite team then, so getting game time into these young legs is crucial, resting players when required.
But, if the sniff of success comes into the nostrils, don’t think the Giants will let it go past. No, not at all. Today is a realistic chance of getting another win under their belt against a Lions team that has been well and truly below par.
Who knows, by day’s end, we may be singing “…and we will never surrender, we’ll fight until the end, we’re greater than the rest!” And you’ll probably be doing a Cossack dance at the same time.
So make sure you join us for Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney from Gabba with live comments from the game. Have your input too below as we get ready for bouncedown at 1.10pm AEST.
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