Coach’s surprising call after AFL thrashing

Brisbane senior coach Chris Fagan says the Lions are well placed to do more damage in September than any other time in his tenure at the Gabba after carving up Collingwood with an 85-point belting on Saturday night.

Brisbane needs to beat the West Coast Eagles next week and hope the Western Bulldogs lose to Port Adelaide to have any chance of squeezing into the top four and earning the double chance in the finals series.

But Fagan said the final ladder position might not matter as the Lions generated ominous momentum with their clinical disposal of the Magpies with 14 goals across the second and third terms setting up the brutal thrashing.

“The thing that’s a bit different about us this year is that I honestly believe, despite the fact we’ve finished second on the ladder the previous two years, I think our best football this year has been the best football I’ve seen the Lions play over the course of the last three years,” Fagan said.

“If we can reproduce it on a consistent basis, we’re going to give teams a lot of trouble and that’s what’s heartening about our efforts.

“We just want to try and be in our best form coming into finals, because it’s a little out of our control, isn’t it?

“If the Dogs win next week, then we can’t get in, even if we do win. We’ll just concentrate on what we’ve been doing the last few weeks and try to get better as a team.

“If we get a little bit of luck next week, then so be it, if we don’t, we just got to play an elimination final every week and see how far we can go.”

Despite kicking 142 points to punish the Pies, Fagan was more pleased with the defensive effort to restrict Collingwood to just 57 points.

But opposition sides would have noticed the triple headed monster of Charlie Cameron (an equal career-best six goals), Joe Daniher (three goals) and Dan McStay (three goals) tearing the Magpies apart on the back of the superlative work of the Lions midfield.

“It was good for Charlie to kick six tonight, but we don’t expect him to do that every week,’’ Fagan said.

“Last week he kicked two and I thought had one of his best games of the year … tonight it was his turn to get on the scoreboard but I thought he took all his opportunities, he continued to compete when Maynard got on top for a little while and got his just reward.

“I think Joey’s best football is still ahead of him for our club. He’s basically missed three years of football through injury, so this year’s his comeback year.

“I think he’s just scratching the surface, but he’s playing a great team game, provides us with a great target, he’s a clever player, his contested marking is starting to come back, which is one of his great strengths.’’

Meanwhile, interim Collingwood coach Robert Harvey did not see the heated exchange between Jordan De Goey and Brayden Maynard at the last change but said it just typified the disappointment across the Collingwood squad.

“Players are passionate, and they don’t like losing. They are always going to vent their feelings at times as long as it’s done respectfully. In the end it was a tough day and I know those players are proud boys and they won’t be happy with that result,’’ Harvey said.

“They’ll be feeling like I am. We haven’t dished that up all year so they’d be smarting. Those boys wouldn’t be happy at all with what we dished up tonight.’’

Harvey hopes said the lopsided result was an “aberration” after the Magpies were dismantled defensively.

“Unfortunately, probably 15 minutes into the second quarter we just started losing guys one by one. It was an aberration for us because we’ve been fighting on resiliently all year,’’ he said.

“This was the one we just didn’t fight back … I know we’ve got a lot of young kids in the team but in the end, we’d obviously like to be more competitive than that.

“They are obviously a really hardened, experienced team that is finals bound but we pride ourselves on being better, fighting it out.

“The players are really hurting obviously. They are proud guys, to see them like they are now, is really disappointing and we’ve got a week to go to make sure that is an aberration and we put our best foot forward next week.’’

Trey Ruscoe was subbed out with an ankle injury and Harvey said it was probably at the lower end of the scale.

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