He’s not any of these, but if you got Corey Enright, Chris Johnson or Gavin Wanganeen with your pick #1 you’d take it.
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Defensively he was good
But as with most weeks, he is a calamity with ball in hand. Pure panic merchant
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He was very good.
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He still lacks composure with the ball. Handball turnovers, blind hack kicks. But defensively today he was faultless against a quality opponent.
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Good defensively. ■■■■ with ball in hand.
Cost us the game.
That handball was SO bad.
Yes he was great at defending, but absolutely kills all momentum whenever we have it.
Have to get rid of him
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That handball from the free kick was sooooo McGrath. Our vice captain gives us so much confidence with ball in hand. Great example of what it takes youngsters.
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It was terrible but he did the job on that tip rat Hill.
that sums up most of the club.
i’m no mcgrath fan, he kept hill to 0 possies in a half, all for the EFC to actively kick it to him in the 3rd quarter to get him in the game an have an influence.
i’ve never seen a club ACTIVElLY kick the ball to a 0 touch player simply to involve him in the game. If he was out of contract and you were courting him I could understant it, but ■■■■ it would have been less obvious if they walked the ball to th egoal line and handballed it to him to kick a goal
You really think most at the club are good defensively???
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Came 2nd in the medal last year, that’s twice (thrice?) he’s torched Hill on Anzac Day.
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Cost us the game!! That is possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on here
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Yeah well he has no excuse, it’s not like there was any pressure on the defenders at all
I can understand people having an okay view on McGrath as he can do a decent shut down job, however his disposal and decision making is abhorrent in my opinion and outweighs the positives he brings. He’s our Vice Captain and either has no composure, or no care for where he is kicking the ball - either way it’s a horrible trait.
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Quality small forwards are more dangerous than ever in today’s game and if you don’t have someone to play on them you’re no chance. Hill has a Norm; Lohmann, Ah Chee, Stengle, etc all huge in recent GFs.
Replace Prior with another McGrath and we’d have a couple more shanks, but Elliot also isn’t kicking 5 & finishing 2nd in the medal today.
Doesn’t excuse the errors and we should definitely expect a high standard from our VC but his role in the side is vital, he does it well most weeks & tbh it’s daylight between him and any other name on our list for that role now that Kelly’s gone.
It wouldn’t utilise the strengths of Roberts/Redman, Prior & Lual ain’t that guy, El-Hawli’s best footy has been on a wing, Johnson is an accumulator, maybe Clarke/Nguyen eventually.
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There are just so many players on our list we can’t be confidence on with ball in hand, huge issue for us
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What’s worse is they scored a behind from that handball and McGrath ended up taking the kick in.
I can’t say whether he demanded the kick in but jeez every other defending teammate must of rolled their eyes and questioned “why are you taking the kick ins?”
It’s these small decisions and events that add up across a game and season.
You can’t be a top 4 team if McGrath is taking kick ins.
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I wasn’t paying much attention but surely Reid should be taking all of our kick ins when on the field
Or Rids
I will say the controversial comment… he was absolutely our best player today. Brad Scott rightly praised him out in the presser. I have never seen anyone shut down Bobby Hill as much as McGrath did today. Took Brad weirdly moving McGrath to Elliott for first 10-15 mins of the third for Bobby to get disposals and a goal quickly. Quickly moved McGrath back to Hill and he shut him out again. Played two great games in a row.
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Chat GPT:
If McGrath had been a Lion…
Hypothetically, say Brisbane still builds a strong list without McCluggage—maybe they draft someone else to help fill that outside class. If McGrath becomes their go-to shutdown defender/midfielder, he could plausibly have been given the job on Hill in the Grand Final.
And if he replicates his Essendon form on Hill (who he’s contained well in the past), that might:
• Limit Hill to 1 or 2 goals instead of 4
• Take away Collingwood’s most damaging first-half player
• Prevent the Pies from getting early scoreboard momentum
Would that have been enough?
Brisbane only lost by 4 points. Take away even one of Hill’s goals, and shift momentum slightly, and the Lions could very well have won.
So… revision:
In a very specific scenario—if McGrath was playing for Brisbane in 2023 and given the Hill job—that one matchup change might actually have been enough to flip the result.
New verdict:
Yes, it’s plausible Brisbane could’ve won the 2023 premiership if they had Andrew McGrath—and deployed him effectively on Bobby Hill. It’s a narrow butterfly effect, but in a 4-point game, small changes matter.
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