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Joined June 2012
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Lynch was my favourite player of the lions. The most memorable matches I attended were the 2004 preliminary final against the Cats, the 2002 grand final against the Pies, the 2009 grand final between the Saint and Cats and Round 10 2001 game between Essendon and Brisbane (where it all began).
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As a lions supporter I certainly hope they will make the top 8 next year. Attempting to take the role of an impartial observer I think a top 8 finish is within the realm of possibility.
I remember having similar thoughts at the end of 2009 – the last year we made the finals. The signs were really positive and we had earned a home final and made it through to the second week of finals. It was Voss’s first year of coaching and there was a collective feeling (at least amongst the lions supporters and other AFL fans I talked to) that a crack at the top four and premiership was coming around in the next couple of years. Then came trade week and the worst series of trades ever conducted by a club, culminating in the acquisition of Fevola.
We won the first four games of 2010 but everything went downhill from there, with only one more win for the season (against the eventual premiers Collingwood, at home). I think the trading done in that period, and in particular the Fevola trade, were incredibly damaging and set us back a couple of years. Another issue is certainly the fact that Voss served no apprenticeship before taking on the role of senior coach of the lions.
Therefore, I think the signs are again good but I hope the lessons of 2009-10 have been learnt. This means doing more of the type of recruiting which leads us to pick up players such as Dayne Zorko. I don’t think there is any real need to be very active in trade period – the makings of a very good team are there, they just need to play more football together. Brisbane had the second-youngest list in the league at the start of the year (even younger than Gold Coast) which I think is another good sign that our time is coming (http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/numbers-personnel-point-to-the-hawks-20120229-1u3go.html).
Also, just a final point about our coach. I don’t think Voss should be sacked. A lot of his mistakes can be traced back to the fact that he had no AFL-level coaching experience and he was, in effect, serving his apprenticeship as our senior coach. Now that he has that experience it would be a shame to not use it for the benefit of Brisbane – in other words, we would have endured all the pains of having an inexperience coach as our head coach and then be dumping him before we had any chance to enjoy the rewards!
Lions yet to regain AFL respect: Voss
I absolutely agree.
And if he has improved and can now bowl as part of our bowling unit, as opposed to continuing the erratic style which characterised his bowling prior to his injury (most notably in the last Ashes series), then (as has been echoed by people above) let him demonstrate this through shield cricket so that he is only chosen for the test team when he is among the best four bowlers on current form.
CA contracted players: Johnson holds on, Cowan missed out
I think he has a commerce degree, as indicated in the second last paragraph of this article.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/time-to-deliver/2007/11/17/1194767017897.html?page=2
Team Katich vs Team Pup: Part Two - ‘The Choke’
I too have given Mitch a hard time (but with good reason I think) and was just as scathing when he receiving one of the Cricket Australia contracts, despite the number of contracts being limited. However, I too have been impressed with how he has gone back to state cricket and is quietly rebuilding himself (not unlike the way Hilf did the same after his poor Ashes campaign in 2010-11). I haven’t been able to see any of his shield games but watching him play the one-day games and he has been bowling very well and (most importantly I think for him as it is his greatest weapon) swinging the ball both ways. I will be the first person to admit (and indeed point out) that you shouldn’t take one-day performances as indicia for test call-up. But I think his bowling in Shield cricket has been quite good and I think that ability to swing (on pitches other than the WACA) was something he lost and was a major contributor to his downfall as it was his wicket-taking weapon. His erratic nature was also a point of great concern for fans but again there do not seem to be the same signs in these one-dayers.
That said, I take the view that he still has a long way to go to get back into the test team and that there is now a long line of bowlers who should be picked before him. Despite the apparent improvement in his technique and form his shield statistics for this year are certainly not the best around (13 wickets at an average of 30, SR of 54.7 and economy rate of 3.28) and it would not make sense to throw him back into test cricket when he is doing well to re-build himself in shield cricket. That may do him and Australian cricket more harm than good.
Are we witnessing the resurrection of Mitch?