Early-season losses have Lions ready to roar against Cats

Early season losses to Essendon and Collingwood are being used as launching pads for the Lions as they prepare to take on top of the ladder Geelong.

Lions captain Dayne Zorko shows his skill during his side’s easy weekend win over the Suns. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Brisbane skipper Dayne Zorko says the Lions have learnt valuable lessons from early season losses to Essendon and Collingwood as they prepare for Saturday’s crunch match against Geelong.

Having started the season with a hat-trick of wins, including a Round 1 victory over reigning premiers West Coast, the Lions came crashing back to earth in losing to the Bombers and Magpies in successive weeks.

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The 62-point home loss to Collingwood on Easter Thursday was particularly disappointing after a huge build-up.

But since then the Lions have tasted defeat just three more times, and head into Saturday’s top-of-the-table Gabba clash against Geelong full of confidence and on the back of eight straight wins.

Dayne Zorko celebrates after kicking a goal in the Lions’ weekend win over the Suns. Picture: AAP Image/Darren England

“We did a lot of reflection after the Essendon and Collingwood games in Rounds 4 and 5, and we’ve certainly learnt a lot from that, and it’s going to be really important that we take what we have learnt into the next two weeks starting with Geelong this week,” Zorko told AFL Tonight.

“The week before (the game against Collingwood) we played Essendon and we had similar circumstances – it was a big clash. We got over-excited about the game.

“I’m sure we’re going to be excited about it on Saturday, but we’ll certainly prepare differently.

“I don’t think we’ll play it in our heads as much. We understand now we’ve just got to stick to our process.

“Our process matches up against the really good teams in the AFL. We’ve proven that this year … and the rest can take care of itself.”

Zorko said his hamstring, which he injured less than two weeks ago against the Western Bulldogs but didn’t stop him playing against the Gold Coast Suns last Saturday, was fine.

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“I pulled up really well after the weekend’s game. I guess I’d never had a soft tissue injury before, I wasn’t sure what I’d actually done to it,” he said.

“The scans came back all clear, so I guess mentally you understand there’s nothing wrong with your hamstring, (and) it’s just trying to figure out what the pain was and how to limit it.

“The physios and doctors did a fantastic job during the week, I did my rehab the best I possibly could, looked after it and trained really well on Thursday.

“That training session really gave me the confidence to know I could go out and play on the weekend (against the Suns).”