Well, I’ve been sitting here waiting for the review of Brisbane and North Melbourne to hit my desk, but it’s Sunday evening, and there is no sign of it, so you know what they say.
If you want something done right, do it yourself.
I’m taking that advice. I have too much respect for our readers to ask that you wait any longer. I’ll leave it open for all, as well. It’s only fair.
We were looking at polar opposites coming into this contest, with one side of the equation boasting the competition’s yardstick, the Brisbane Lions. The reigning premiers, however, had not had the start they wanted, and stumbled out of the gates before correcting the ship and notching two wins.
The Kangaroos, on the other hand, were coming off another disappointing season, but had managed to put that behind them and to jump to a 3-1 record heading into Gather Round. Word around the traps were that they fancied their chances and felt an upset was well and truly in play.
It made for an enticing matchup, with North shaping as a far better side in 2026 than we saw at any stage in 2025, and the challenge of the Lions would give them the chance to test just how far they’d come.
Until halftime, the Roos were up to their eyeballs in the contest, but the premiers started turning the screws in the third quarter, and went on with the job in the last to run out 26-point winners.
Who were the stars in this one? And who were the ones who didn’t cut the mustard?
HB has the answers as he runs you through the Winners and Losers of the Lions’ win.
This is a quicker format, and I apologise in advance – I didn’t expect to be catching up on this one on a Sunday night.
A POINT TO PROVE
Before each game I watch, I pencil in two players to watch a little more intensively as the contest progresses. There is no uniformity in choosing them – I just kind of look at the individual games and which players need to make a statement.
OSCAR ALLEN
The Lions will be pretty patient with Oscar, given his recent injury history and the adjustments he has to make to settle into a new system. The hope would be that he gets games under his belt, rounds into form, and as the season progresses, he starts making an impact.
Against a North Melbourne defence that is a little suspect in the air, he had the opportunity to make an impact in this one, and started well, kicking the first of the game, and had the chance to contribute a goal per quarter.
Sadly, his shot in the final quarter went astray, however, this was likely his most complete performance to date for the Lions, and a great building block.
He also took the responsibility of the ruck contests inside 50, which will be important in the long run as the Lions rotate their big fellas and manage the miles going into their legs.
DYLAN STEPHENS
Had arguably the best game of his career in Round Four, and I was interested to see if he could back it up.
He is one of those players that threatens to do something, but when you watch him under pressure, he tends to panic. And that’s the key to playing on him – if you can run with him and keep the pressure on, he tends to disappear.
That’s what happened in this game.
I reckon he’d frustrate the hell out of any coach – if he is permitted the wide open spaces, he is all good. If he is forced to work for his own footy, forget about it – not happening.
He finished with 15 possessions in this game and 13 of them were uncontested. Like my lazy son, unless he is being fed, he ain’t eating.
So, did either prove a point?
Hmmm, yes and no for Oscar. He was okay without being great, but really, that’s about all i expect at this point. As for Stephens, he is very much a two steps forward/one step back type of player. This week was the one step back.
NEW FACES IN FOCUS
In this section, I want to give a specific focus on players new, or at least relatively new, to the teams. Some have played elsewhere, and others are fronting up in their first season, so it is always worth keeping an eye on how they’re travelling. In addition, players returning from injury/suspension may also be included.
CHARLIE SPARGO
First game for the team, and it looked that way. I always allow for a bit of time to adjust – this is no different. He’ll be better for the run.
TOM BLAMIRES
Really filling an important role for the Roos, and I’d love to see him realise that he belongs very soon, and start taking the game on a little more. I know that caution is likely a big part of his role, and given the way he was acquired, stepping outside his mandate is likely crazy…
… but I always like the crazy ones. I’d love to see him throw caution to the wind and run through the guts here and there.
LINC MCCARTHY
Back up forward this week, and looked to be relishing his role as he worked up through the wings. Kicked two goals and looked dangerous around the footy inside 50.
A great card to be able to play when Lohmann and Charlie Cameron are having a tough day at the office.
SAM DRAPER
Gets his own section as one of the winners. Really solid game – plenty of power on display against very inferior competition.
OSCAR ALLEN
A section on him above – he had a point to prove in this game.
ZAC BANCH
Kicked a nice goal in the first quarter, but was largely unsighted for long periods of this game. I worry about North’s small forwards until Lachy Dovaston gets fit enough to run out games. If you could combine Banch, Duursma, and Konstanty, you might have the pieces to make one excellent small forward.
Unfortunately, the law frowns upon such experiments.
On with the winners and losers.
THE WINNERS
LACHIE NEALE
It’s the same old song when it comes to Neale, isn’t it? If you asked me how to best describe his work in this game, I could use the same word to describe his work across his entire career.
Clean.
He is always clean with the footy. It doesn’t matter who is applying the pressure or where it is coming from – when Neale gets his hands on the footy, he has that ability to already survey what’s around him before he collects it, and that allows him the opportunity to either dish to someone who has made space, or use a change of direction buy himself space.
There has been so much written about Neale over the last six months, and plenty of it has been unflattering, but the one I have always found interesting was how people questioned whether off-field issues would impact his form on the field.
I smiled when I saw that. Did they not know who they were talking about? Had they not seen the way Neale prepares for his footy? The bloke is a machine, driven to be at the peak level every time he plays. You don’t win two Brownlows by being mentally fragile, people!
He finished with 20 contested touches amongst his 30 touches for the game. To put that in context, his 20 contested touches were the highest total of the weekend, and he still ran at 70% efficiency with his ball use.
There are some players who can win the footy, but they lack the polish. Neale is not one of them. He always has time, and when he doesn’t, he finds someone who does. A virtuoso performance from a bloke that remains one of the best in the business.
SAM DRAPER
You know, when I look at the stats associated with Draper’s game, if you remove the two goals, they don’t look all that impressive.
But you can’t remove the two goals, can you? Things don’t work that way! When you assess a player’s game, you assess it as a whole, and not only did Draper push forward to hit the scoreboard, but when he was on the ball, the number of times he drifted back inside defensive 50 to break up North’s forward thrusts… it was hard not to see how impactful he was.
The numbers will tell you that he had only three intercepts and four one-percenters, but I distinctly remember watching Harris Andrews pull out of contests because Draper was back in the hole, and he knew that his big man was going to do the job.
When the best defender in the game is deferring to you, you know you’re doing something right.
We have to factor in that the Lions were up against a team without a designated ruck, and that made Draper’s life a lot easier, but wins in the role can’t occur by luck – Draper put in the work, was big all over the ground, and by kicking goals in the second half, he helped pave the way for the Lions to overtake the Roos, and put distance on them.
His best outing of his short Brisbane tenure.
COOPER TREMBATH
Well, well… what do North have here?
If you’ve read my work on here for a while, you’d be well aware that I have mentioned many times that North’s inability to be aerial threats inside 50 remained a real issue for the club. They recruited Jack Darling to play the role of drawing fire away from Nick Larkey, but in his twilight, Jack can barely jump over a piece of paper. North were still lacking that contested marking player inside 50.
Note the tense – were.
Cooper Trembath emerged late in 2025 with a string of three games where he hit the scoreboard, and starting this season, he has continued to build on that form.
In this game, he took five contested grabs, including one huge grab in the goal square – when was the last time someone at North was able to do that? Larkey is a workhorse, but he is not a powerful unit, and his marking above his head leaves a bit to be desired.
Trembath is close to the perfect running mate. He launches at the ball without fear, and despite having a high-quality defender to deal with (Ryan Lester, Ty Gallop), he refused to change the way he played the game, flying at anything and everything.
Sometimes, players slip through the cracks. Sometimes, you find a diamond in the rough. Sometimes, a player like Cooper Trembath emerges to become a force in your front half, and whilst those instances are rare, when you find one, you keep hold of them.
That North re-signed him earlier this year will prove to be a masterstroke. The kid might just be something special.
LUKE PARKER
He threatened the intercept mark record as he continued to rack them up through the third quarter.
In that period alone, Parker took five intercept grabs, and could have had six, had a free kick not been called instead of the mark being paid. He was effectively stemming the flow of the Brisbane offence, almost singlehandedly.
Playing Parker in defence has been another win for the Roos, as he offers a similar presence for North as Blake Hardwick gives the Hawks – string, no bullshit, and knows the game inside and out.
Parker has an air of control about him in defence. The Roos have tried him elsewhere, but he now appears to be at home in the back half. If he is going to remain there for the remainder of the season, the North backline will be stronger for it, even if he has to play taller at times.
JY SIMPKIN
You know you’ve really made it when you get the tag in Round Five.
Forget the two Norm Smith Medals, right? Now you have a bloke running with you whose sole purpose is to prevent you getting a touch! And Jy Simpkin did a bang-up job on the emerging superstar of the Brisbane midfield, Will Ashcroft.
Whilst he was able to restrict Ashcroft to just 19 touches, he was also releasing at the right time to hurt the Lions going the other way. This is something that only select run-with players can achieve. If you look at the way Ed Langdon tagged Nick Daicos last year, he basically forfeited his own game. Simpkin did not do that in this game, running hard off Ashcroft to register 27 touches of his own as he finished amongst North’s best.
Despite the result, this was a great individual performance from Simpkin, who copped plenty of flak (some of it from me!) for his decision to try to orchestrate a trade in the off-season. Whilst captain of the club, I thought it was a poor effort, and wanted to see him make good this season – performances like this do exactly that.
His power at the coalface and willingness to sacrifice when necessary were the type of acts a club leader needs to demonstrate. Maybe as a senior player he will continue to provide the leadership North needed from him when he was captain of the club?
ZAC BAILEY
Has he had an attitude adjustment this year? A chiropractic adjustment? Had the yellow crayon removed from his nose?
There is something about Zac that hits a bit different this season, almost as though he knows he is a cut above just about everyone else and just might let them know about it here or there.
He is so strong through the hips and he is now just wading through tackles and letting them fall off him like Joe Ganino’s pants in public toilets.
With 21 touches, two goals, and two goal assists, he continues on the road to becoming the best forward/mid in the business.
THE LOSERS
ZANE DUURSMA
He’s got passes in recent weeks because despite being a low-possession player, he was attacking the footy and hitting the scoreboard.
He did neither in this one, as he hovered around in the forward pocket and added very little to his team over the duration of the game.
Plays a little bit too much like a millionaire for my liking, and that’s fine when you hit the scoreboard – it wallpapers over most things, but you get exposed when you don’t, and that’s what occurred in this contest.
CALLUM COLEMAN-JONES
Nup, not a fan.
Haven’t been for a long while.
I remember some Tiger supporters being annoyed at me when I said I didn’t think he was going to make it in this league. They told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about, which is usually true, but I stand by it in this case.
He’s big – that’s about all he has going for him.
He is slow, has no lateral movement, and once the ruck contest is done, he offers very little else.
Seven touches, no marks. He’s like one of those 1990s NBA centres – in the league because he is big. That’s about it.
QUICKIES
Enjoyed Harry Sheezel’s game in this one, and not because he found a heap of the footy, but because he had a bit of mongrel in him and looked like he wanted to take the game on. It might have been the most potent I have seen him, despite him having some big numbers in other games.
Quality over quantity.
He and LDU are on the verge of making North a massive force. A few things to iron out first (small forward position still a huge problem, and key defence worries me) but in terms of potency, their drive out of the guts should give the forwards a heap to work with.
How lucky/good does a team have to be to have a player like Dayne Zorko go down with a strained calf, and you just have a plug and play option like Keidean Coleman and Jaspa Fletcher to switch into the half-back distribution role and the team doesn’t miss a beat?
There’ll be some who stamp their feet and yell and scream about parity, father/son, and Academy advantages. If any of those teams are Collingwood or Geelong supporters, they should cop a foot in the arse. They’ve been dining out on those types of pickups for years.
You reckon if Luke McDonald had a shave at 9am, he’d have a five o’clock shadow by 10.15?
Jarrod Berry’s swinging arm on Dylan Stephens didn’t look good from one angle, but on the reverse, he genuinely looked like he was going for the footy. At the time, I said I didn’t think he had anything to answer. Many disagreed.
Good to see he wasn’t cited. I like it when I’m right – doesn’t happen often.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, the Lions have righted the ship and now head into Round Six with a 3-2 record. On the road against the Dees, they have the opportunity to pick up a nice little MCG win and sit pretty just outside the top four if results go their way.
A big difference to the way they started the season. Noah Answerth could be available, and I reckon Hugh McCluggage will be much better for the run in this one.
As for North, they get Richmond and if they want to break out of the bottom four this season, these games are must-win encounters. They’re playing better footy than the Tigers and are playing another team whose ruck stocks are terrible , so there is a chance they can gain midfield ascendancy.
Again, apologies for this one being late – some pretty severe communication issues on our end. Hope the free article makes up for it.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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