Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has admitted he was surprised by the negative attention on his side this week following its loss to the Western Bulldogs.
A week after beating Melbourne, the Lions’ Marvel Stadium defeat to the Dogs was met with external scrutiny including Brisbane’s star forwards in particular coming under fire.
But Fagan’s side responded in the best way possible in a powerful 33-victory win over the second-placed Magpies at the Gabba on Thursday night to open Round 4, handing Collingwood its first loss of the season.
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Speaking after Thursday night’s win, Fagan said he thought the negative commentary towards his team was unjustified.
“I sort of expected our players would respond. I’m not certain why there was so much focus on us,” Fagan told reporters.
“The Bulldogs aren‘t a bad side, and they’re pretty hard to beat at Marvel Stadium, so in a sense I didn’t really understand.
“I could understand it after the Port Adelaide loss, because I thought we played really poorly that day. But last week was just one of those games that was a grind.
“The other team kicked a little bit straighter than us, so we lost. And they had a lot to play for, because they’d been under the blowtorch all week.
“I wasn’t disturbed by that performance last week at all.”
It came after Brisbane went into the season as one of the big premiership favourites after adding Josh Dunkley, Jack Gunston and Will Ashcroft into its mix.
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But they’ve produced mixed form over the first four rounds including several individual stars not playing at their best.
Fagan emphasised the evenness of the competition and insisted there’s no easy opponents.
“I feel like everyone thinks we‘re going to go out there and win every week. It’s just not how it works in AFL footy,” he said.
“It’s a hard, tough, competition that you have to earn every single win, no matter who you’re playing against.
“I was glad that we played well tonight, but the picture that was painted last week, I didn’t think it was as bad as that.”
Lions forwards Charlie Cameron (equal career-high six goals) and Cam Rayner (four goals) both came up big against Collingwood, while Joe Daniher (20 touches, two goals) and Eric Hipwood (two goals) responded to the criticism surrounding their performances against the Dogs.
Not that Daniher would’ve taken notice of the outside noise, according to Fagan.
“Joey (Daniher) would never know there was any talk about him,” Fagan said.
“He doesn‘t watch the TV; he doesn’t listen to the media … that’s just how Joey rolls.
“The conversation was more between him and I. He was really disappointed with his game last week, there was probably no one more so in the club than himself, so his performance tonight was on the back of his own chastisement of himself.”
The Lions will look to make it two wins in a row for the first time this season when they face North Melbourne in Adelaide next weekend during the AFL’s Gather Round.
