Agree, although Neale and McCarthy are both 31 this year so I don’t think they’re in a meaningfully different category to Lester (32 this year). I think it’s conceivable that there could be a dip when Cameron, Daniher, Lyons, McCarthy, McInerney, and Neale age out while the likes of Bailey, Rayner, Starcevich, etc come into free-agency. These problems feel quite distinct from what Hawthorn and Richmond faced. Their stars were almost all over the hill whereas it genuinely feel like the bulk of the Lions’ list are emerging players

‘Not since Lachie Neale flirted with and then abandoned a plan to try and return home to Fremantle two years ago has a star of this magnitude been even mooted to be heading elsewhere.’

1. Lachie Neale is not from Fremantle, he is South Australian.
2. You go on to talk about Brodie Grundy who was traded from Collingwood to Melbourne last year. While Grundy’s output has dropped off in the last year and a bit, he’s certainly been seen as a star and is on big money.
3. Your threshold is ‘been even mooted’. Anyone who casually follows trade talks knows that a Dustin Martin trade has at least been ‘mooted’ over the last two years and Dusty would have to be the most high-profile player in the competition.

The comparison you make with Lachie Neale spearheading Brisbane up the ladder is a good one. However, it’s important to note, that Neale’s trade to Brisbane was the culmination of their rebuild. West Coast are just starting their rebuild so there would be no point paying Clayton Oliver big money while they languish in the bottom four. Similar with North Melbourne, although they may be further along.

By the time Lachie Neale came to Brisbane, the Lions had finished Bottom Four for all but three seasons over the past decade. They had taken multiple high-caliber players in a series of drafts and also traded for some role-players (Bastinac, Christensen, Martin, Robinson, Walker) to complement their rebuild. Neale was the icing on the cake.

I actually think Adelaide are in somewhat of a comparable position to where Brisbane were in 2018. They have a relatively new coach who is progressing the team. They are potentially the club that would benefit most from Clayton Oliver’s signing.

‘Even the Titans NRL team have struggled to make an impact in Rugby League mad Queensland.’
I’ve lived here my whole life. A lot of untruths about Queensland. One is that it’s Rugby League mad. While Rugby League enjoys decent support in QLD, it’s nothing like what AFL is in Victoria (or SA or WA for that matter). People in QLD get into Rugby League for the State of Origin, and the Broncos with Brisbane being, until the Dolphins, a one-team town, but it’s still not anywhere near like what AFL support is like in AFL states (as a point of comparison, the Broncos averaged 30,000 people a game last year, which is 6,000 short of what Port Adelaide averages and Port Adelaide is only the second team in SA).
Another factor is that, as I’d argue, Rugby League is stronger in inland places – Ipswich, Toowoomba, Roma. The Titans are very much an expansion team designed to gain support in a growth market, as opposed to having a strong, pre-existing fanbase. I can think of a lot of NRL legends from those aforementioned areas, I can’t think of any from the Gold Coast. There’s also the variable of the Gold Coast having quite an itinerant population. Adults who are moving into the area aren’t adopting the Titans as their team and the kids aren’t necessarily taking up Rugby League.

‘following his horrid on-field sledge that brought Melbourne defender Harrison Petty to tears.’

Avoid making value judgements. We don’t know what was said, there has only been rumours. I would just go with the facts, something Zorko said upset Petty.

Non-consensual trades work in the NBA where players have a starting salary of about 1 Million US dollars. If you’re a depth player at a Victorian club with a wife and kids, earning between 100 and 200 grand a year, you can hardly afford to pack up and move to Perth at a moment’s notice.

‘Or we could just keep doing what we’ve always done and be happy with getting the same outcomes. New Kids on the Block are still cool right?’

Last I checked, the AFL was just about Australia’s most successful sporting competition. I’m not sure radical change is needed

Chris Fagan didn’t take over after a wooden spoon. He coached Brisbane to a wooden spoon in 2017. That needs to be mentioned. The bottoming out was essential to the rebuild

I wonder which team you support?

I would say this is a holistic analysis of Zorko’s captaincy. It was never intended to be focused on who will succeed Zorko, that’s just the title the editors gave it

Best player does not necessarily become captain but the counter-argument is that Neale is 29, has two club Best and Fairests and a Bronlow Medal (maybe another one coming). His form is well and truly consistent. It’s not like Melbourne when they appointed Jack Trengrove as captain for instance or, to a lesser extent, the Bulldogs picking Bontempelli.

It’s as if freelance contributors write about the topics that interest them

I mean ‘young’ is contestable. Every player in the AFL is under 40 so you could make a case that every player is young. Also, you have players like Sam Walsh and Matt Rowell who are ineligible by your criteria for having played too many games, yet clearly, they are the best young players at their club (which was the title of this article).

McCluggage and Lyons are both elite

Interesting. My gut feeling was ‘no’. I’m from Brisbane myself and I think that there are too many fairweather sports fans here. I can remember the hype around the Brisbane Roar a decade or so ago now, when I go to games, 3/4 of the stadium is empty. For a while, it looked like the hype around the Lions from the early 2000s was a thing of the past, but crowds have returned to the Gabba now that Brisbane are a Top Four team. Obviously, no team is gonna stay on the Top Four forever. Time will tell whether the new fans will stick around when this successful era eventually comes to a close. I’m hoping the fans will though. The Lions have a strong culture and good players in the early years of their careers so hopefully, there will be positivity around the club even if they aren’t making four and hopefully their plunge is not quite as dramatic as after the Premiership years. In my mind, the AFL should wait until the Lions’ success is consolidated and ideally, I’d like to see the Gold Coast a bit less dependent on the AFL and hopefully making finals. Too much expanding too soon could be costly.

By the way, I’m generally against a second Brisbane NRL team. I just don’t know what would be gained. Right now, everyone who wants to watch NRL in Brisbane has a team they can follow and the Broncos have a certain privileged status by being the only NRL team in Brisbane. My fears are that the creation of a second NRL team in Brisbane would simply pluck fans away from the Broncos. I think this could be a lesson for the AFL so it may be worth waiting and seeing how the NRL’s efforts go. In hindsight, maybe the AFL should have observed the challenges the Titans faced before rushing ahead with the Gold Coast Suns

Although Brisbane’s rehab team have been good, they can’t claim Daniher as one of their success stories. He was right late last year and played a few games for Essendon. Had the season gone longer, he may have shown consistent form. By the time Daniher arrived at the Lions, he was totally fit and was one of the only players to complete all the pre-season training. Brisbane have picked up a solid character and he is good good contributor to the team (allows Hipwood to play with more freedom as Daniher takes the best opposition defender each week).

True but, in a contest between two top four teams, you tend to give the edge to the home team. It’s a tall ask beating good teams away from home. Bear in mind that Richmond were vulnerable away from the MCG during their Premiership run (although they got the job done at the Gabba in 2020). That being said, big Victorian teams have a structural advantage in that regard and can expect to play more games at home than a non-Victorian team. However, if the Lions finish top two then they can host two finals and might only have to leave the Gabba for the big dance.

In terms of players from that Grand Final that have gone into coaching, there have been some pretty good assistants too. Nigel Lappin (Geelong), Craig McCrae (Brisbane, Collingwood, Richmond), Blake Caracella (Geelong, Richmond, Essendon) and Luke Power (Carlton) come to mind.

You correctly identify that Richmond have overcome a lot of adversity to get where they are. The challenge will be whether they can once again respond.

Lions fan. Yes, Brisbane won the last two games (one in 2020 and one in 2019) against the Western Bulldogs but both were at the Gabba. When they played in early 2019 in Ballarat, the Bulldogs won and, before that, I think it had been a while since the Lions got up against the Dogs. I’m not content with Brisbane’s side of the ledger just yet, need a few more wins before we let the Doggies have one.

North Melbourne are in good hands with David Noble but that doesn’t mean that they will win the wooden spoon. The wooden spoon doesn’t spell disaster, it’s a sign of a developing team. It’s often forgotten that the Lions won the wooden spoon in Chris Fagan’s first year as coach (2017). Put simply, there are teething processes as a club opts to play the kids, unite behind a game plan and embrace team culture. It’s a case of sometimes you’ve got to destroy the structures in order toe rebuild them. I think you are right that the Kangaroos will be competitive soon but I think it’s wishful thinking to expect them to avoid the wooden spoon. Adelaide had a similar trajectory of playing hopelessly in early 2020 and then turned a corner later in the season but it wasn’t enough for them to avoid the wooden spoon although they now seem to be a much stronger team. I see a similar trajectory for North Melbourne.

Article feels too brief and finished just when I was getting interested

Well, I was just listing the tall defenders we do have. Adams isn’t necessarily in our 22 but my point is I’m not sure if there’s any more need for McStay in our backline than there is in our forward line. There are two forwards ahead of him while there are about four or five defenders that are in the side before him.

I’d be happy if McInerney is able to maintain his form from last year. Last year he went from player at the edge of our Best 22 to our number one ruckman and fourth in our Best and Fairest. It’d be great if he kept improving but, honestly, you couldn’t ask for much more

I keep hearing about McStay in defence but we’ve already got Marcus Adams, Harris Andrews, Grant Birchall, Darcy Gardiner and Ryan Lester as our defensive talls. Maybe McStay could take over from Birchall but there is already competition there with Jack Payne on the ascendancy.

I think absolutely Daniher and Hipwood will be playing in the same forward line. Hipwood re-signed at the end of the season and he is integral to the club’s plans. The one under pressure is McStay who lost is out of contract at season’s end. Unclear if McStay will hold his spot in the team with the arrival of Joe Daniher and the development of Tom Fullarton.

I would just about put Chris Fagan in the ‘No matter what, they’re safe’ category. He has turned the club around, created one of the strongest club cultures in the competition, has young players constantly resigning, has attracted star players from other clubs (Charlie Cameron, Luke Hodge, Lachie Neale, Grant Birchall, Joe Daniher) and has improved every year going from 18th to 15th to a semi-final to a preliminary final. Sure, if the Lions bomb out next year and get the wooden spoon, questions would be asked about Chris Fagan’s coaching but that would be the case with any Top Four team from the previous team.

I mean, you would hope that a coach like Damien Hardwick has built enough goodwill that the Richmond hierarchy wouldn’t sack him if the team fell apart, but that’s a pretty extreme hypothetical and such a drastic turnaround would surely warrant investigation. Even though Fagan hasn’t got the Premierships like Clarkson, Hardwick, Scott, and Simpson, he has remade the Lions at a faster rate than was thought possible and the culture seems to be at an upward trajectory. I know you are saying he’s 99.9% safe, but I would apply that same logic to all the coaches in the untouchable category. As I alluded to, the bigger the fall the greater the questions.

I think the biggest thing hanging over Fagan’s head is how the team performs in big games, but he partially answered that with Brisbane’s win over Richmond in the first week of finals. My concern is that this Brisbane team could be like GWS where they have a lot of upside but never quite fulfill their potential. Thing is, that will only really be proven with hindsight. As far as coaching appointments go, the board is mainly concerned with whether Brisbane looks competitive each year and are signing new members. The fact that they did one better in 2020 than they did in 2019 and have now added Joe Daniher in the off-season means there is every confidence that Brisbane is on an upward trajectory. Granted, in two or three years time, if Brisbane hasn’t won a premiership or they have regressed then Fagan could come under pressure but, once again, it’s hard to deal in hypotheticals. As it stands, I would say he is as safe (if not safer) than any of those coaches you put in your ultra safe category.

The coach I would question in ‘No matter what, they’re safe’ is Chris Scott. He actually does seem to be the manifestation of that coach who, in hindsight, underachieved. He won a Premiership in his first year in 2011 (just how much that was his or a product of a super team that had won in 2007 and 2009) and has taken Geelong to consistent finals. Each year his team looks competitive and there is surely goodwill in the organization. But sooner or later, the question will be asked, when’s he gonna get them another Premiership? He’s in his tenth year and it’s not like they haven’t had the list or the opportunities. I’m not saying he’s sacked but I think Geelong would be less willing to tolerate a minor regression (say they finish 5-8th) than Brisbane.