ON face value, it is easy to think the Brisbane Lions’ VFL season was a disappointment.
Having gone undefeated to win the 2019 NEAFL premiership and claim their fifth flag in the 10-year existence of that competition, the Lions dropped off after a solid start to lose their last four matches – including three 100-point thrashings – and finish in 17th spot on the ladder.
But when you dig a little deeper, you realise “disappointment” is not even close to the correct word – in fact, “promising” is much closer to the mark.
After they lost 2019 premiership stars such as Ben Keays, Tom Cutler, Josh Walker, Lewis Taylor, Will Martyn, Noah Cumberland and Mitch Hinge to other AFL clubs, and Ryan Bastinac, Matt Eagles and Corey Lyons to Aspley, plus Ryan Lester, Brandon Starcevich and Keidean Coleman becoming AFL regulars and highly respected football manager David Noble winning North Melbourne’s AFL coaching role, the Lions decided to look to the future.
They handed debuts to 15 unlisted Lions Academy youngsters, with eight featuring in at least six games and Bruce Reville (the oldest at 20) and Saxon Crozier playing every match, plus eight more AFL-listed players from the same age group.
Through all of that, they managed to stand 3-3 mid-season with big wins over Essendon and Gold Coast – in which Reville and fellow rookie Will Tasker kicked five goals each – before running out of steam against bigger, more experienced bodies.
But those youngsters blossomed with opportunity and Crozier, Tahj Abberley, Charlie Bowes, Jack Briskey and Toby Triffett made the Allies team for the National Championships, while Tasker was unlucky to miss.
It is why coach Mitch Hahn is particularly upbeat about where the Lions are placed for 2022.
“Our philosophy in the first year (of the VFL) has been to give guys an opportunity, which meant we were going to be a really young team, we didn’t go out and headhunt any players as other clubs did,” he said.
“Our average age for the season would be the lowest by far of any team – I think there were games where we had an average age below 20.
“We were very young but we knew that was going to be the case and it gave opportunity to our development and Academy players.
“There wasn’t one game where we were older than our opposition – the closest we got was Richmond where our average was 19.86 and theirs was 21.77, but we played Southport twice and one of those was 19.81 to 23.81.
“At one point we were 3-3 – we lost the last four games but we played Southport twice, who are a very mature team and finished second, Geelong, who are also a very mature team and finished in the top four and then GWS who also had Sydney Swans players with them.
“We had some really good play for a young team, but after those first six weeks things started to change (with COVID) and we weren’t able to get our development players to training as much.
“Once you start to lose that consistency with a young playing group it becomes hard to pick a team to go out on the weekends when they haven’t trained all week and are coming up against more experienced and mature teams.
“The back end was a bit disappointing and we would have liked to be a bit more competitive, but understanding how young we are we have to be pretty positive.”
Hahn said he was grateful for the assistance of a group of senior AFL players after he lost two development coaches to the soft cap reduction.
“It was easier when we were still connected with the seniors and we had guys like Harris Andrews and Ryan Lester who were doing a lot of work with the younger players because we had lost Paul Henriksen and Zane Littlejohn,” he said.
“We relied on some senior players to pick up the slack and they’ve done a good job, helping not just our listed players but our development players as well.
“Guys like Lachie Neale, Dayne Zorko and Oscar McInerney giving up their time to help these guys was really good early in the year when we were together.”
Hahn said the most pleasing aspect was being able to develop younger players to go into the AFL team and not be out of their depth.
“Guys like Keidean Coleman, Jaxon Prior, Dev Robertson, guys who spent some time with us early on, went into the senior team and played their role and that was one of the really important parts of what our VFL program is,” he said.
“With a young group we had those ebbs and flows where we had really good passages but we just couldn’t string three or four of them together … and playing against bigger and more experienced bodies you need to be able to put those passages together otherwise you turn it over and you can’t win it back.
“We’ve learnt a fair bit out of this year and we know we need to bring some stronger players into our program next year … and we’re already onto that.
“We were a little bit slow on that last year but we also wanted to give some opportunities to our development players, which we will continue to do going forward but they will have to earn that spot a bit more.”
Hahn praised Reville and Tasker in particular, who enjoyed exceptional debut seasons at State league level.
“Bruce’s 19th year was wiped out (by COVID) so we asked him to come back and he had a fantastic season, he was strong and really improved his game,” Hahn said.
“He is a wingman and he was able to play that role and ended up averaging about 14 touches and kicked 1.1 a game, and his delivery inside 50 really stood him apart.
“Will also showed some stuff and we were disappointed he didn’t get picked in the Allies. He ended up averaging 15 disposals, 1.1 and one score assist and kicked 10 goals in eight games … they are pretty good numbers for a guy in his first season of VFL footy.”
There wasn’t much experience in the VFL team at any stage, with 100-game ruckman Archie Smith leading the way along with a group of second and third-year players, while the likes of Rhys Mathieson provided assistance.
“We’ve had some good contributors across the season – our mainstays who have been there like a Brock Smith in his second year and Connor Ballenden,” Hahn said.
“We moved Connor from a forward/ruck to centre half-back and he improved his game.
“Carter Michael as a first-year half-back had a really strong start to the season and we were also able to build up Nakia Cockatoo, who played eight games with us and we’re seeing the rewards in his past couple of senior games.
“Rhys has been fantastic with his leadership, Tom Fullarton had a few games with us early and Harry Sharp, a kid in his first year, had a couple of senior games.
“You call them leaders but they’re actually really young leaders, which certainly helped with the development of those guys.”
3-7 win-loss, 17th
What went right: The season started promisingly with a 66-point belting of Essendon in round one, while the 10-goal Thursday night QClash win over Gold Coast was also impressive. The Lions Academy boys got plenty of games in and will be much better for the experience.
What went wrong: The 12-goal first quarter conceded in round two against Carlton ended a 21-match winning streak and undid the good work of round one. Consecutive 100-point losses to Southport (twice) and Geelong mid-season hurt as the youngsters were monstered by bigger, more experienced opposition.
Best and fairest prediction: Rhys Mathieson simply dominated whenever he was dropped back to the VFL, but only played five of the 10 games. Is that enough? Thomas Berry, Connor Ballenden and Brock Smith are also in contention.
Best young players: Bruce Reville and Will Tasker showed plenty, including five goals each against the Suns in round five. Tahj Abberley, Harrison Arnold and Saxon Crozier also impressed. Of the AFL-listed players, Berry, Ballenden, Tom Joyce and Carter Michael showed strong growth.
Coach status: Mitch Hahn resumed the role he has held since 2017 this year after spending 2020 as a COVID officer at the Lions. The dual NEAFL premiership coach expects to continue for a fifth season in 2022.
Twitter: @BRhodesVFL
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