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<\/p>\nJames Worpel will likely come to the Cats from Hawthorn. He is a good inside midfielder, so his inclusion should help release Max Holmes and Bailey Smith, but he is also a B grader. He is not a talent who will transform a list.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Brisbane will add another prized talent from their academy to their list \u2013 Daniel Annable, who will be bid on very early in this year\u2019s draft. Yes, that will lead to hand-wringing about the premier being able to add top-end draft talent in a year they won the premiership, just as they added the Ashcrofts and Jaspa Fletcher as father-son selections in recent years while finishing at or near the top. But that is a separate discussion.<\/p>\n
Annable is an elite talent who, in any other team, would be considered ready to step straight into the midfield next year at AFL level. But, at the Lions he will have to find a place in the queue of an already deep premiership midfield.<\/p>\n
Geelong, as the key rival to the Lions, has to consider where they find improvement on their list commensurate to what Brisbane is adding. This is also a Brisbane team with eight players \u2013 some of them their best players \u2013 aged under 22, so not yet even ripe in football terms.<\/p>\n
There is more scope for the Lions to improve organically before they even add Annable, or Sam Draper from Essendon or Oscar Allen from West Coast.<\/p>\n
Geelong doesn\u2019t have that sort of profile. They have young talent, but it\u2019s not on a par with Brisbane\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Max Holmes would be a star in any team and was their best player on Saturday. Jyhe Clarke, although he was beaten on the day, showed more in the first half than he has shown to date. Shannon Neale had a grand final to forget. Connor O\u2019Sullivan is capable. Shaun Mannagh is a good player and, like Lawson Humphries who was good on Saturday, both are canny draft choices. The great hope of Toby Conway has been thwarted by injury. And Oliver Henry can\u2019t get in the team.<\/p>\n
Marshall would significantly improve them, primarily because he releases Blicavs back into his most dangerous role of everywhere-man on the ball and behind it. Worpel would help, but not as much as Bailey Smith would help them if he improved his kicking.<\/p>\n
How close are the Cats then? They won 17 games, won two finals easily and lost a grand final which was never on their terms.<\/p>\n
Will finds a way<\/p>\n
This was Will Ashcroft\u2019s Norm Smith Medal, but it might not have been. That is not to imply he was undeserving \u2013 he was a justifiable winner, as he was last year. But this year\u2019s medal, more so than most grand finals, could have ended up hanging around any one of half a dozen other necks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charlie Cameron and Will Ashcroft were among the most influential players in the grand final.Credit: Eddie Jim<\/p>\n
Hugh McCluggage? He provided redemptive story after a modest 14 touches in the qualifying final against Geelong enhanced the view that restricting him was the key to stopping the Lions. Two opponents, 26 touches, five clearances, four goals and four more score assists neatly precis his excellent game on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Charlie Cameron kicked four goals that opened the game up. When no one else could kick a goal \u2013 hello, Zac Bailey \u2013 Charlie could. His interventions were few, but they were meaningful. He kicked his goals when goals were at a premium and when the Lions eventually opened their gap on Geelong.<\/p>\n
Can you win any AFL medal, let alone a Norm Smith Medal, when you are a defender? Poor Harris Andrews, there was no more consequential a player on the ground. But, playing at full-back, he was up against it.<\/p>\n
Jaspa Fletcher may spend his career in the shadows of the blond bouffants of the Ashcroft brothers. But Luke Hodge, voting in the Norm Smith Medal, figured him best on the ground. That might have been generous, but Fletcher did have support from the rest of the panel, and he would not have been an undeserving winner.<\/p>\n
Zac Bailey had a head-scratching game. Can you be the best player when you kick so badly? He was in Arnold Breidis territory (0.7 in the 1977 grand final) with his first quarter alone. He atoned for his inaccuracy later, finishing the game with 3.6. He was creative and helpful up around the ball, so he was not strictly a small forward. But for mine, you can\u2019t be best on ground when you miss so many.<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale posed the question of whether you can be the best player on the ground when you only play half the game? A game that was level at half-time turned Brisbane\u2019s way when Neale was injected. It was cause not coincidence that the midfield balance completely shifted in the Lions\u2019 favour once Neale came on. He finished with seven clearances \u2013 the second most on the ground, even though he spent half the game wearing a subs vest.<\/p>\n
Geelong deployed two taggers or defensive midfielders \u2013 Tom Atkins and Oisin Mullin \u2013 neither of whom were especially effective. Playing both of them on the ball meant that all creativity and offensive drive for Geelong had to come from Max Holmes, who remains more an of outside player than an inside one. Holmes was good but not great. Otherwise, the Cats relied on Bailey Smith for their attacking flair, but his field kicking was as bad as Zac Bailey\u2019s goal kicking. He turned it over far too often, and had a dulled influence on the game.<\/p>\n
![\"Lions](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/992da3b896a8805a5a8a89a0408636a35ef096d3.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lions stars Lachie Neale and Hugh McCluggage ran amok in the second half.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
So when Neale came on, the Lions just had far too much depth of creative talent around the ball for Geelong.<\/p>\n
Neale, for me, was clearly in the best players, without even considering what he overcame to be out there on the field. The fact he did what he did in only half a game is greater evidence of his impact rather than marking him down for only playing a half.<\/p>\n
On a day when it felt there might be no wrong decision for the Norm Smith Medal, the right decision was Will Ashcroft.<\/p>\n
The great defender<\/p>\n
Harris Andrews might not be better than Matthew Scarlett. He might not be superior to Alex Rance. But he is inferior to neither.<\/p>\n
Andrews is to full-backs what Max Gawn is to rucks \u2013 the pre-eminent player in his position of his generation. And he is still only 28.<\/p>\n
Andrews\u2019 grand final was superb. Admittedly for the first half, this grand final felt like a match without forward lines because no forward \u2013 key or even small \u2013 had much impact on the game. Despite that, Andrews\u2019 intercept marking \u2013 he took more than any player on the ground \u2013 was as damaging as Dane Zorko\u2019s kicking.<\/p>\n
Andrews was such a presence he forced Geelong to redirect how they played. Yes, he was playing on Shannon Neale, a young, inexperienced forward who had a bad day, but his presence forced Geelong into trying to change their attack. This was also helped significantly by the understated game of Darcy Gardiner who was beating Jeremy Cameron before the Cats forward broke his arm.<\/p>\n
League\u2019s Dogg act<\/p>\n
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If you figure that people grooving along to Snoop Dogg in their seats vindicates the AFL for their choice of grand final entertainer, then you are asking the wrong question.<\/p>\n
Was it right for a league that bans players for making homophobic comments on the field, that engages in White Ribbon Day, that gave an award to Harris Andrews only days ago for work in campaigning against domestic violence, to choose a rapper with a rap sheet for misogyny and homophobia like Dogg? The answer remains no.<\/p>\n