Emerging spearhead revitalising newly-confident Lions
Anna Harrington |
With their final “hoodoo” ticked off and a new spearhead hitting his straps, Brisbane are primed to hit the back end of their premiership defence high on confidence.
The Lions claimed their first victory over Geelong in 22 years on Friday night, with second-year key forward Logan Morris kicking five goals in the 14.8 (92) to 6.15 (51) win.
It means the reigning premiers (10-1-4) will head into the bye in second place and confident they can again do something special, despite losing key defender Jack Payne to injury.
When asked if Brisbane were lifting based on their opponents, Fagan said “maybe” as he also reflected on their win over Hawthorn at the MCG and a tough away loss to Adelaide.
“Maybe there’s a little bit of that in it, but we’ve got to become better than that,” he added.
“But still, when we got to the bye last year, we were 13th. We got to the bye this year, we’re second.
“So plenty of things still to work on, but I think the boys have done a good job to win the flag, weather the storm in the first part of the year. It hasn’t been smooth sailing, all the teams come at you.
“So I’m pretty pleased with where we’re at but it’s a hard competition so you’ve just got to keep going, don’t you?
Brisbane’s first win over the Cats in Geelong since 2003 was massive in the race for the top two.
Collingwood (44 points) lead Brisbane (42) and Geelong (40).
“It’s a huge win for us,” defender Jaspa Fletcher told AAP.
“Fages brought it up in our meeting this week. It’s obviously a bit of a hoodoo that we wanted to tick off.
“He was pretty set on it in our meeting. It really fired the boys up.
“He’s been massive for us over his time here at the club. So I guess this win’s for him as well.”
Young spearhead Morris, 20, now has 30 goals in 14 appearances this year after backing up his five-goal haul against GWS.
“I love the fact that he was able to back up a great performance,” Fagan said.
“I said to him during the week ‘mate, you’ve had a bit of attention this week, plenty of publicity – do you reckon you’ll get a kick this week?
“I think that was the secret, I said that to him and he wanted to prove me wrong.
“He’s a good, level-headed young fella, he’s an exciting footballer. Twenty years of age, being able to do that sort of work on the field. It’s exciting for Brisbane supporters that we found one.
“Losing Joey (Daniher) last year was a bit of a blow but Logan’s stepping up.”
Cam Rayner was at his dynamic best, kicking three goals,while Fagan believed small forward Kai Lohmann was finding confidence again.
Brandon Starcevich was substituted after shutting down Patrick Dangerfield but Fagan confirmed he’d just been cramping in his second game back from a long lay-off with concussion.
AAP
