Optimism and hope are wonderful things

Optimism and hope are wonderful things

As the new football season approaches and practice matches (that’s really what the NAB comp is) are about to begin every football supporter is optimistic about how their team is going to go in the coming year. Hopes of their team making the finals or even taking out the premiership have not been squashed by a humiliating defeat in round one or the tragic news that two of their teams superstars have gone down with season ending knee injuries.

Supporters of the Gold Coast and Power hope that this is the year where their team starts to climb from the bottom of the ladder.

Richmond supporters hope that it is not another year where they just miss out on the finals.

Carlton supporters hope that it is the year that a grand final spot is a realistic goal and even better a year where they finish above Collingwood.

The Bombers supporters hope that Hird’s second year as coach does not end up like Voss’ at Brisbane.

And Geelong supporters hope that the party just keeps on continuing.

So as a Brisbane Lions supporter living in a small town in the Adelaide Hills where the only football news on TV and in the paper is whether the fight between Taylor Walker and Matthew Jaensch at Crows training the other day was a friendly tiff or a fight bigger than “The Rumble in the Jungle” I sit and ponder about what hopes I have for my team in 2012.  After all this was once  the greatest team going around at the start of the 2000’s to now one that many people expect to be saved from getting the wooden spoon this year by a team of kids known as the Giants.

Upon reflecting here are my hopes when it comes to the Lions for 2012:

–          That with the help of Mark Harvey, Michael Voss becomes as good a coach as what he was as a player and not the first coach to get the axe.

 

–          That Tom Rockliff, Jack Redden, Daniel Rich and Jared Polec take that next step and become the new ‘Fab Four’ of the Brisbane Lions.

 

–          That Pat Karnezis with less hair and more muscle becomes the Brisbane Lions ‘Buddy Franklin’ over the next year.

 

–          That Josh Drummond actually gets through a season without an injury.

 

–          That Brisbane do what the West Coast did in 2011 and go from  a team at the bottom of the ladder to a team that is one game away from a Grand Final

 

–          And finally that the only time I see Jonathan Brown’s face in the media is because he has kicked another bag of six in another Lions win rather than because of a courageous act that has gone wrong causing him to look like he has just been in a car accident.

 

That’s the great thing about the start of a new footy season there is always a chance that a footy supporters hopes and dreams for their team could become a reality.

Let’s hope for my sake the hopes I have for my Lions this year don’t become a nightmare!

So fellow Almanackers what do you hope for when it comes to your football team this season? What is the fans’ best possible scenario? What is realistic?

(Interesting to consider this before the start of the NAB Cup – ed.)

 

 

About Andrew Weiss

Andrew is one of the few Brisbane Lions supporters that lives in the Adelaide Hills. He still has bragging rights over any Crows or Port supporter by mentioning the back to back to back premierships the Lions achieved in 2001-2003. After playing for over a decade for the mighty Adelaide Lutheran Football Club better known as 'The Doggies' he now spends his Saturdays running around footy ovals as an umpire, getting abuse no matter what decision is made. Coaching is probably next on the agenda as his two sons have started to play the great game of AFL. Andrew is a sports fanatic who when not watching or reading about sport is teaching secondary students about Biology, Nutrition and Psychology.

Comments

  1. Skip of Skipton says

    G’day Andrew. I find Brisbane to be a hard team to assess coming into the ’12 season. There’s plenty of good young cattle, more than most pundits appreciate, I reckon. If they can have a bit of luck with keeping their spine together (Merrett, Drummond, Leuenberger, Big Jon) they might be a show for the 8, or at least blowing wind up a few in the hunt for finals.

  2. Skip of Skipton says

    P.S. How does someone from the Adelaide Hills end up a Brisbane Lions supporter?

  3. Andrew Weiss says

    I know it might be hard to believe that someone living in the Adelaisde hills would be an avid supporter of the Lions skip of skipton. Funny thing was the other day as I was in the supermarket and i ran into three other lions supporters. This too was an unbelievable occurence but after chatting to them they were originally from Brisbane. As for myself I have never lived in Brisabne or Queensland. I will disclose how I became a supporter in an article down the track. So stay tuned. Thanks for the comments on my first piece for the footy alamnac site.

  4. Skip of Skipton says

    Cheers. They were an amazing outfit back in the early ’00s. The best football team to that point in time, no doubt. I can’t recall anyone who didn’t appreciate their brilliance. I’d guess there would be the odd Collingwood supporter who’d argue that, but I haven’t met him. (or her, just in case Dannielle is reading this)
    Some of the Hawks teams in the 80s were outstanding in their teamwork. Bombers of ’85. Early ’90s Eagles. Carlton of ’95. The way North played in the ’90s under Pagan. All great teams, but Brisbane was a class above. Only the Cats from ’07 onward could you rate in the same ilk.

  5. Agree with Skip, the Lions are such a hard team to assess this year, a lot of promising kids, if they live up to their promise and if Brown can stay on the paddock for say 80-90% of the season, they’re definitely a shot at the eight. Voss seemed to get them on the right track last year with blooding more kids than he was given credit for, and they may sneak under the guard of a few teams much like my boys (West Coast) did last year. And having seen the Lions in the flesh a couple of times I was quite impressed with them. Of course Brown is so hit & miss in terms of getting injured, hopefully he can get through the season without incident.

    To answer the question re what we hope from our own team – well I’d be happy with a year of consolidation. I still think the jury is out on West Coast, we had a comparatively good run with injuries last season, and got ‘career years’ out of old stagers like Cox, Glass and Kerr, plus as I allude to above I fancy some of our kids snuck under the guard of some opposition teams last year. The likelihood of all those things happening again doesn’t seem very strong, and I sense our true position lies somewhere between where we came last year, and where we finished in 2010 (I do think we were somewhat of a ‘false’ wooden spooner that year as we did the sensible thing and sent a lot of players off for rehab and operations early that year).

    I don’t think there’s much between us and about eight other teams vying from anywhere between 5th and 13th on the ladder, I’d be happy if we can make the lower half of the eight as kids like Gaff, Darling, Shuey, Selwood (Scott), NicNat and the like garner more experience that will hopefully set us up for the next five years, fingers crossed!

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