Senior Hugh McCluggage (2016-)

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WHO COULD BE LEADING YOUR CLUB'S BEST AND FAIREST AWARD?
Hugh McCluggage

Hugh McCluggage has developed into one of the most reliable wingmen in the game and continues to perform at a borderline All-Australian level. The 22-year-old has averaged 19 disposals, six score involvements and 300 metres gained so far this season and rarely plays a bad game. Expect McCluggage to be a prominent vote getter for the Lions on B&F night if he continues to have a huge influence on results for the Lions.
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Milux said:
I have so much love for this kid its not funny.
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TBH I think his post shoulder injury form has been a bit overrated by most journos. Up until last week he'd struggled a bit.
 
jackess said:
TBH I think his post shoulder injury form has been a bit overrated by most journos. Up until last week he'd struggled a bit.
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Has struggled abit this year. Definitely agree. His injury has hampered him abit. But hope last week was him gearing up for a finals series.
 
Milux said:
Has struggled abit this year. Definitely agree. His injury has hampered him abit. But hope last week was him gearing up for a finals series.
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Yeah not a knock on him it's something he'll learn to cope with but he seems almost considered an AA lock by quite a few journos and I'm not sure he's quite there at this stage of the season
 
jackess said:
Yeah not a knock on him it's something he'll learn to cope with but he seems almost considered an AA lock by quite a few journos and I'm not sure he's quite there at this stage of the season
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I think you'll find that the AA selection panel rarely look at a players form in that given year, but rather over a period of time or until a player's reputation surpasses their actual form. I don't agree with that philosophy at all and its probably not absolute, but it is for a lot of selections outside the usual suspects i.e. AFL's best players.
 
Lions star Hugh McCluggage is dreaming of going all the way after his own moment of redemption kept Brisbane’s premiership hopes alive

Having missed the chance to seal Brisbane’s breakthrough win over Richmond a quarter earlier, Lions star Hugh McCluggage wasn’t about to make the same mistake again in the dying stages of his team’s qualifying final win at the Gabba.

Haunted by goalkicking inaccuracy all season, McCluggage, who had kicked 7.21 for the season to that point, squandered a gift in front of goal in the third quarter as the Lions looked to shake a finals hoodoo and there were fears that it could come back to bite them.

But with the game in the balance in the final term, the 22-year-old wingman delivered with a snap for goal which sealed Brisbane a preliminary final berth and put the Lions one win away from a historic home Grand Final appearance.

“It was exciting – a fair bit of relief swept over me when I kicked that one,” McCluggage said.

“I’d obviously missed one a bit earlier that I would have liked to kick, but was nice to be able to kick the sealer and move on to another week of finals.”

McCluggage had been desperate for a shot at redemption after his earlier miss.

“We’ve done a lot of work on mindset and being able to move on when you make mistakes,” he said.

“That held me in good stead. I tried to just forget about it straight away.

“I’ve always been someone that likes to get forward and have shots at goal.

“You can’t shy away from it, even if you’re not kicking goals. I know that it’ll turn eventually.”

McCluggage’s goal not only buried personal demons but also helped the Lions’ end their 11-year losing streak against Richmond, and made up for the previous year’s qualifying final loss to the same opposition.

“We knew we’d knocked off a lot of sides that we hadn’t beaten for a long time and they (Richmond) were another one we wanted to tick off,” he said.

“It hangs over your head a little bit, and we hadn’t won a final for quite some time either, so to tick those two off I think it means we can play with an open mind now.

“When you haven’t won a final it can start getting in your head. It was only two finals we had last year, but it gives us massive confidence going ahead that we can match it with anyone.”

The Lions won’t shy away from their premiership ambitions either, knowing a preliminary final victory over either Geelong or Collingwood next week will put them in to the October 24 Grand Final at the Gabba.

“You’ve got to dream,” McCluggage said.

“We’ve thought about going all the way. It’d be silly to shy away from that but ... we’re not looking forward to anything further than the game that’s ahead of us.

“That’s what we did for the Richmond game and that’s what we’re going to do for the next game whoever we end up playing.”
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Brisbane Lions star Hugh McCluggage’s message to Fitzroy fans

Hugh McCluggage was born two years after Fitzroy folded in the AFL – but the Lions young gun has a message for the old school fans who stuck by the club in the merger.

On that gut-wrenching September day in 1996, when a part of Aussie Rules history was unceremoniously torn from the league, the McCluggage family was still a year and a half from welcoming their boy into the world.

But that hasn’t stopped the rising star from feeling the weight of history every time he pulls on the guernsey.

“I know every time I pull on the jumper I’m really proud to do so because I know there’s a lot of past Brisbane and Fitzroy players that would have done the same thing,” McCluggage said.

“The support up here in Brisbane is great, especially now we’re going a bit better, but we like to acknowledge that Fitzroy history too.”
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McCluggage said it’s a relationship the current players endeavor to embrace.

“We try to delve into that history as much as we can with the Fitzroy connection and unfortunately this year we haven’t been able to go down to Victoria. But when we do we try to have members days and involve all those Melbourne fans as much as we can,” he said.

An Allansford native, McCluggage would have been zoned to Fitzroy had he been born a few decades earlier, joining the likes of Bernie Harris from Terang, Ken Hinkley at Camperdown, and Warrnambool’s Brian Brown – father of three-time premiership forward Jonathan – as south-west Victorians who started their careers with the Lions.

“I know when I head back to Warrnambool I get to meet a few ex-Fitzroy players. There’s a lot of Lions and Fitzroy supporters down there that I enjoy having a chat to every time I go home so we definitely have them in our minds up here even when we can’t get back down there,” he said.

“I just want them to know that appreciation we have for that support.

“When we do get back, come up to us and say g’day because we love speaking about it, speaking of that history, and especially the Fitzroy history because I get a real kick out of it hearing about that.”

And for the Fitzroy diehard, who has ridden every bump and felt every low that this historic club has gone through over the past 30 years, the acknowledgment from his Brisbane players as Melbourne continues through the grind of a joy-sapping lockdown means the world.

“You’ve done us proud all season. Keep doing us proud on prelim final day,” Leydon said.

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourselves, one game at a time, one minute at a time.

“And we’re with you all the way.”
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pulpdriver said:
Straight kicking in the forward 50 really is legitimately the only thing he's done poorly this season.
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Some of it can be excused by the shear volume of work the poor bloke puts in before he gets a shot. Most forwards can make a few leads and get onto the end of one or two easy ones. Bags has to run 3 or 4 kms before he gets a chance. By that time he is nackered.
 
Merrett-Murray Medal 2020

His midfield partner Jarryd Lyons won the Nigel Lappin Trophy for runner-up with 269 votes while McCluggage took home the Alastair Lynch trophy for third place with 237 votes.
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The 2020 Finals Player Award

Lachie Neale and Hugh McCluggage presented by Jed Adcock
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