On the field, off the field. Things aren’t looking great for the Brisbane Lions or the Gold Coast Suns right now.
The issue was made clear throughout various forms of media during the lead-up to last week’s Q-Clash, in which the Suns got their first win of the season while keeping the Lions winless.
The week since has rammed it home further. The headlines were blunt – Suns players disobey no-alcohol edict, Lions coach in unpleasant player confrontation.
And there’s no way around describing the on-field situation at both clubs as anything more than unattractive.
Take a look at these ladders.
Brisbane are a bottom three side across all areas of the park. They have no territorial claim to plant their flag on.
When the midfield can’t hold back the opposition, the defensive 50 aren’t coping with the high inflow. When they do get the ball forward, the forward 50 struggle to capitalise.
All this in an environment where the other team typically wins the inside 50 count convincingly.
It’s a recipe for disaster and it’s showing up in the results. Since losing to Collingwood by two kicks in Round 1, their best performance has been a 53-point loss.
Quarter-by-quarter, it’s even worse. They haven’t won a quarter since Round 1 and overall their best quarter is the first term, in which across five games they’ve been outscored 130-76.
Gold Coast, if measured against where they were expected to be at this point in their existence, could have an equally-damning picture painted of them.
Only one of the five teams they’ve played to date were finalists last year. The other four – no joke – were last year’s bottom four. Just the one win from that dream start is a big, big issue. The matches will only get tougher from here.
But that’s the on-field situation for season 2015. Beyond season 2015 may not be so dire.
Yes, Queensland footy isn’t looking too flash at the moment. Yes, it deserves to be under scrutiny. But should it be panic stations? Perhaps not.
As far as Brisbane goes, it’s always easy to get excited about a list’s potential when there are names like Tom Rockliff, Dayne Zorko and Daniel Rich. Throw in an off-season where Dayne Beams, Mitch Robinson and Allen Christensen were added and it would have been fair to assume the midfield would be more than handy, if nothing else.
That hasn’t translated into results, which is frustrating for fans, but you should never underestimate the power of a nice foundation.
I remember the days of looking at Port Adelaide’s list in the pre-season and seeing names like Boak and Gray and a number of other players with promise, which prompted thoughts that it was only a matter of time before they clicked.
Needless to say, by the time they did click, I’d already given up on pumping up Port during the pre-season. I’d been let down too many times before to get too excited.
But boy, when Port clicked they really clicked. All it took was a couple of trigger events – a new direction off the field and a new coach to steer the on-field efforts – and they were away.
Now, perhaps the Lions are missing some of the ingredients Port had. Perhaps the Lions have other advantages. Who knows.
The thing to remember is that with the right triggers, things can change very quickly. The challenge for the club is identifying what those triggers are.
At the Suns, they too are a club that generate good vibes on paper. They have a list built on the back of high draft picks and special rules around acquiring players from other clubs.
For years, sensationalised back pages told us they were destined for success. And everything up to about nine months ago seemed to follow the script. The club was on the right trajectory.
Since then, a fair bit has changed. But I’m not convinced you can deviate so drastically in that space of time that years of work – and high draft picks – can be undone. Like the Lions, there is a nice foundation there for those willing to look beyond current results.
Like the Lions, it’s fair to say the Suns are also a club in need of some triggers.
In a perfect world, Justin Leppitsch standing up to a player acting without respect would constitute a trigger. In that same world Suns leaders insisting that the players who acted up would miss actual games – rather than copping a fine – would consitute a trigger.
Perhaps that’s how we will perceive those events when looking back at some point in the future.
The truth is that regardless of whether the past week has an impact, a few more things will need to fall into place. But as the Port Adelaide example shows, those things can fall into place pretty quickly – especially when there’s a mix of star power and young talent at your foundation.
And Queensland right now has a number of emerging stars in the right age bracket playing across the state’s two clubs.
Jumping to dire conclusions with that foundation probably isn’t the best approach.
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