CHRIS Fagan was disappointed with his team’s play forward of the ball in Saturday’s loss to Sydney, but still has supreme belief the reigning premier can rebound to play finals.
The two-point loss leaves the Lions with 14 wins and a draw ahead of a trip to Perth to play Fremantle next Friday night and a final round game against Hawthorn at the Gabba.
They must win at least one of those matches to guarantee a passage to September.
Despite dominating the clearance battle (39-22) against Sydney and going inside 50 on 65 occasions to 52, Brisbane came up short.
Fagan said his team got smashed at ground balls in the forward half of the ground, surmising too many players flew for marking contests and not enough stayed at the fall of the ball.
He also lamented wayward goalkicking that cruelled any chance of an unlikely comeback, before three goals in the final minute gave them the slimmest of chances to pinch victory.
“Sixty-five entries. It’s a lot, isn’t it? It’s a lot to lose,” Fagan said.
“We did a lot of things right, but we just didn’t win the ground ball in our front half, and they were able to bounce off it and that’s the reason they won the game.”
Brisbane’s backline was missing four players from its premiership team, with Ryan Lester (concussion) and late scratching Brandon Starcevich (hamstring), joining Jack Payne (knee) and Noah Answerth (Achilles) on the sidelines.
Fagan said Starcevich was a chance to play Fremantle next week, but did not use the absentees as an excuse for the loss.
“You’ve just got to cope, that’s life,” he said. “I still thought we had enough talent on the park to win tonight.
“I don’t doubt this group in any way, shape or form.
“Our best is very very good.”
The Lions will head to Perth with eight wins and a draw from 11 matches on the road this season.
“Our record on the road this year is probably the best it’s ever been in club history. Records are past tense though, aren’t they?,” Fagan said
You’ve got to go over and do the job. Your record on the road doesn’t matter when you go to Perth next week, you’ve just got to get the job done on the day.
“We need to do a bit better forward of centre than we did tonight.”
Sydney coach Dean Cox was understandably delighted with his team’s performance, although a couple of injury concerns have emerged from the win.
Red-hot ruckman Brodie Grundy was undergoing a Head Injury Assessment post-match following a late incident, while Justin McInerney appears to have suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury.
Cox said he was “proud” of his team, particularly how they have responded since the 90-point hammering from Adelaide in round 12.
“Their standards have risen, they’ve played the footy we’re after,” Cox said.
“We wanted to finish the year off as well as we can, and there’s still two games to go.
“One thing we said to the players when we couldn’t reach the finals was this was about preparing us for ’26.”
