Brisbane Lions mercilessly exposed during opening round onslaught

One team has been labelled “horrendous”, while another has been urged to drop two ageing stars after a wild weekend of footy.

Chris Fagan, Senior Coach of the Lions during the 2023 AFL Round 01 match between the Port Adelaide Power and the Brisbane Lions at Adelaide Oval on March 18, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The opening round of the AFL season has come and gone with footy fans devouring as much content as humanly possible after months of no real action.

From the round kicking off with a draw to the final contest being won in decisive fashion, the weekend had it all.

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Serious contenders delivered on their early promise while teams tipped to be outside of the eight showed signs of life without any real threat.

The AFL season is a long and arduous contest with more rounds now than ever before, it means teams have plenty of time to eradicate any issues in the early weeks.

With a season stretching more than five months, there shouldn’t be any reason to be hitting the panic alarm after one game.

But that’s no fun, so with only round under our belt we’re going to lock in some predictions and do what you shouldn’t do; wildly overreact to one game.

Brisbane Lions aren’t serious contenders

Sorry Brisbane fans, but the current list isn’t going to compete for the AFL Grand Final anytime soon.

After being widely tipped to be one of the main threats to battle it out at the MCG on the final day of the season, the Lions were comprehensively swept off the park on Saturday.

The Lions showed their prowess during a powerful second quarter as they kicked six goals to two.

Just as quickly as they took the lead, the Lions became the hunted and were ruthlessly picked apart by a rampant Port Adelaide outfit.

In the space of around 25 minutes the game was torn out of the Lions’ hands as the Power kicked eight straight goals.

Five more months of this. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

Defensively the Lions looked more like a deer in the headlights as they failed to stop the onslaught on the forward attacks.

During the second half assault, the Power had 95 more disposals than the Lions, held a 37-15 inside 50 advantage, led the clearances 21-14 and collected 27 more contested possessions.

It was a similar story in the preliminary final loss to Geelong in 2022 when the Cats had a run of 10 out of 11 goals across the second and third quarter.

The Lions made a splash during the off-season by adding Western Bulldogs star Josh Dunkley and adding highly-touted father-son prospect Will Ashcroft.

Unfortunately those additions haven’t helped address the biggest issue with the premiership contenders.

Defensively they’re Swiss cheese and once teams get a head of steam, the holes only become more evident.

Outside of Harris Andrews, the Lions backline is devoid of key players that can impact and stop opponents. Until they show they can fix up their defensive issues, put a line through their premiership hopes.

West Coast Eagles will struggle to win a single game

From one end of the ladder to the other.

On Saturday the West Coast Eagles were run off the park in the first half against an opponent expected to finish close to them on the ladder.

North Melbourne ran riot, kicking eight out of nine goals to surge away to a 34-point lead.

The knives came out far and wide over the diabolical display from the Eagles with Brownlow Medal winner Dane Swan delivering a brutal clip.

“I may have been wrong about West Coast. They are dog s***. Their senior players have all forgotten how to play football. (Apart from McGovern),” he tweeted.

He wasn’t alone in criticising the Eagles’ display, all of which came before a late game fight back that almost saw them pinch victory from the jaws of defeat.

This isn’t good. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

“You couldn’t be more scathing of West Coast right now,” Gerard Whateley said on SEN.

ABC sports producer Akash Fotedar was scathing in his review of how the Eagles had played and attempted to move the ball.

“All well and good trying to move the ball faster, but you need to win the ball first. West Coast -30 in contested possession. That’s horrendous,” he added.

“Not to mention being down on tackles too, despite having less possessions and clearances. Concerns for Simpson that are beyond ball movement.”

Things won’t get any easier for the Eagles in the weeks to come as they take on the GWS Giants before a derby showdown against Fremantle in round three.

Tigers need to move on from old stars

The first game of the season gave us the first draw of the year as the Tigers and Blues duked it out in a low-scoring affair.

But in the wake of the loss one Carlton great came out guns blazing and said Richmond were held back by two ageing stars.

Forward Jack Riewoldt failed to have any real impact on the contest, finishing with one goal and 12 touches.

Brownlow Medal winner Trent Cotchin was equally as disappointing, collecting 18 disposals in a lacklustre performance.

It was those two showings that led Mark Maclure to call on the Tigers to be brave and drop the big name stars.

Cotch and Riewoldt struggled in the opener. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“I looked at Jack Riewoldt and I looked at Trent Cotchin, are (Richmond) brave enough to tell them something,” Maclure said on SEN’s Crunch Time.

“Is there a chance that they’re brave enough to tell them that maybe it’s time.

“They didn’t put the youth in, there was hardly any youth in the Richmond side if you go back and have a look.”

Richmond pulled a rabbit out of a hat to walk away from the season opener with a draw in a contest the Blues led with less than two minutes to play.

They’ll venture over to Adelaide Oval next weekend for a ocntest against the Crows before returning to the MCG in a blockbuster showdown against Collingwood.

If Riewoldt and Cotchin fail to fire, the decision to drop them might not be brave … it may be a necessity.

Originally published as Brisbane Lions mercilessly exposed during opening round onslaught