Lions brace for 'daunting' run home to AFL finals

Yahoo

3 days ago

Chris Fagan has narrowed his focus as the Brisbane Lions face a make-or-break stretch of their AFL premiership defence leading into the finals.
On a three-match winning streak, the second-placed Lions face five top-eight rivals over the last six home-and-away rounds as the fight for ladder positions nears its climax.
The difficult test starts in a huge clash with the Western Bulldogs at the Gabba on Friday night.
"Every game's important. We have a particularly hard run, so I'm not looking too far ahead," Lions coach Fagan said on Thursday.
"We're just wholly and solely focused on tomorrow night because that's about all you can think about at the moment, otherwise it seems too daunting.
"One week at a time, big game tomorrow night against a really good opponent who have got a lot to play for as well."
The Bulldogs (10-7) sit ninth after a home loss to Adelaide last round and remain firmly in the finals hunt, but have won just one game so far this season against a side currently above them on the ladder.
Despite that record, Fagan is wary of an opposition midfield unit led by renowned ball-winners Tom Liberatore, Ed Richards and Marcus Bontempelli.
"That's what you need to address," he said.
"(Luke Beveridge's) teams have always been able to score and generally speaking they've been good defensively, albeit that's the criticism of them at the moment.
"But I reckon they would've done a bit of work on that this week, so I'm expecting a good all-round game from the Dogs."
Fagan will want a better start from Brisbane than in their previous encounter with the Bulldogs, when they trailed by 39 points early in the third quarter of their Gather Round clash at Norwood Oval.
The Lions roared back with 13 of the last 16 goals to win by 21 points in one of the most entertaining games of the season.
"I haven't really looked back but all I know is we were probably fortunate to win that game, coming from that far behind," Fagan said.
"We wouldn't want to find ourselves in that position tomorrow night."
Bulldogs spearhead Sam Darcy kicked 2.3 from 16 disposals and had eight marks in that previous clash, opposed to Harris Andrews.
Fagan will again send his co-captain to mind the 205cm target, who has kicked 17 goals in five appearances since returning from a knee injury.
"You probably wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that's who Harris is going to play on," Fagan said.
"The rest of our defenders aren't quite tall enough to play on Sam Darcy.
"Harris will have that job and I know he's looking forward to it. It will be a great clash."
Fagan was tight-lipped on who would replace injured defender Noah Answerth (achilles), but ruled out Keidean Coleman and Tom Doedee.
In-form forward Zac Bailey will also miss through suspension after receiving a one-match ban for his high bump on Carlton's Nick Haynes.
"I've moved on because the bottom line is he's got a week," Fagan said of Bailey's ban.
"My personal view is a little bit harsh, but that's probably all I want to say about it."