No one was pleased with the performance we put in as a team. Not the coaches. Not the players. And definitely not our fans.
As a spectator, I was just as frustrated as everyone else watching the game from the coach’s box.
I’ve seen first-hand some of the emails that have come through to the Club since Saturday night and they certainly haven’t held back in venting their frustrations. Our members and supporters are a passionate bunch and deserve to have their say. There’s no doubt they’re hurting as much as the rest of us.
But some have taken things a bit far I reckon.
A few Lions fans have refused to attend the rest of our home games this year. Others have threatened to tear up their memberships and start supporting other codes.
Don’t get me wrong, our fans have every right to be disappointed. They ride the good with the bad and our Club couldn’t function without them. So you can understand their emotional involvement, but geez some have really gone to town on us.
It’s easy to put your support behind a winning side and it’s no secret that things haven’t worked out on the field for us yet this season. But it’s the tough times like these that we need you guys to stick by us more than ever.
I’m not saying you have to be content or with our poor performances, just that it’s a part of football and things will turn around soon. It makes the good times taste that much sweeter.
We’ve got a great young bunch of kids who we rely on heavily each week. Some of these guys haven’t even turned 21 yet, so their development is being fast-tracked quite rapidly.
They’ll eventually grow through the system together the same way guys like Vossy, Leppa, Nigel Lappin and the Scott twins did through the mid 1990s.
As for the Suns, all credit to them. They took the game on and had us rattled from the start.
They’ll still be feeling pretty good about themselves right now I reckon - and so they should be. They landed the first blow in what has already developed into a huge rivalry and have earned early bragging rights in Queensland.
That is for at least 14 more weeks until we get another crack at them in Round 21 at the Gabba. The boys will looking for some serious payback then.
But right now our focus is all on Essendon this Saturday night. They’re up and flying and will head up here with plenty of confidence.
We’ll be recognising the 10-Year Anniversary of our 2001 Grand Final win over Essendon this Saturday night, and it’s no coincidence that we kick-started our premiership campaign with a stirring win over the Bombers at the Gabba that same year.
Maybe it’s time for another ‘if it bleeds you can kill it’ line from the coach to help fire up the boys.
On a personal note, I’ll probably have to spend just one more night on the sidelines with my surgeons likely to give me the green light to play next week against North Melbourne.
That doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying to gently persuade them to let me out there one week early, but I haven’t been able to crack them yet.
