Hugh McCluggage says Lions raring to go for round two clash with Fremantle after long break
After the best part of two months training in pairs away from the club, classy Lions midfielder Hugh McCluggage said re-focusing on footy had boosted spirits, with Brisbane ready to roar into action.
Gold Coast
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Brisbane young gun Hugh McCluggage says the competitive juices are flowing at the Gabba again.
Ahead of their Round 2 clash with Fremantle on July 13, the Lions players enjoyed a return to contact at training last week when they also started reviewing the Round 1 loss to Hawthorn in March.
After the best part of two months training in pairs away from the club while the competition was shutdown due to COVID-19, classy midfielder McCluggage said re-focusing on footy had boosted spirits, with Brisbane ready to roar into action.
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“It’s definitely been refreshing. The club made a real point of getting all the (coronavirus) protocols right so we can just think about football before Round 2,’’ he said.
“It’s nice to be thinking about footy again and you can sense that the excitement is starting to hit the boys that Round 2 is only just around the corner.
“There were a few big hits this week that made you realise you were really back playing footy. You wouldn’t be playing the game if you didn’t love that physical side of it.
“It was good to get back into that aspect after so long. The boys loved it and we are ready to go.
“We’ve got a good run of home games at the Gabba and we really want to have a fast start to make the most of it.’’
McCluggage said it felt “a little bit weird” to be reviewing their last competitive outing from late March but lessons had been learned.
“We didn’t play at the standard that we wanted to. We’ve looked at a few things starting with the basics. We also were a little flat and we probably didn’t adapt to the different conditions as well as Hawthorn did in terms of having no crowd,’’ he said.
“It was a strange feeling post-game. We were all flat after losing but all of a sudden your mind turned to what you were doing next and whether you’d go home (during isolation) or stay in Brisbane.
“There was really no time to stew over the loss then. We turned our attention away from the game and haven’t thought much about it until this week.”
McCluggage trained with Jarrod and Tom Berry during the lockdown period when he also worked on his leadership skills after recently being elevated into the club’s nine-man leadership group. Advice from senior coach Chris Fagan is his weekly phone catch-ups helped in that regard, too.
“That’s a skill that needs training as much as anything. In times like these, that’s when the good leaders really stand up. It’s not so much about footy, it’s about getting around your teammates and the club’s staff as well,’’ he said.
“I’ve been picking the brains of the leaders around the club and doing what I can.
“Fages’ was massive on getting around your teammates. His other main message was about perspective during this time and what was happening to us really wasn’t that bad compared to other people who really doing it tough.’’
‘Nailed’ it: Suns raring to go for season restart
He had the hottest boot in the AFL for the first three weeks of the 2019 season.
But Gold Coast forward Alex Sexton is yet to kick a ball in anger in 2020.
So the Queensland junior is counting down the days until the Suns host West Coast on June 13.
The 26-year-old kicked 10 goals in his first three games last season to lead the Coleman Medal race as the competition’s leading goalkicker.
He finished the 2019 campaign with a career-best 39 goals to his name after playing all 22 matches.
The 119-game veteran missed the Suns’ season-opening loss to Port Adelaide with a hamstring injury and would have been a chance of being fit to play just a week later.
But – like everyone in the AFL – he has been forced to cool his heels for the past two months due to COVID-19.
After completing the Gold Coast’s main session of the week at Carrara on Friday, Sexton said he and the Suns had “nailed” the eight-week training block in isolation by embracing the different challenges that confronted the club.
“We’ve got elite staff, amazing staff that have had us prepped for this. The work we’ve done away from the club has been outstanding. The guys have come back and haven’t missed a beat. Everyone is having a crack…a couple of weeks to go and we’ll be ready,’’ he said.
“I feel good, I’ve done the work.
“I’ve got to own my spot. I missed Round 1 but everything is fine now so I’m looking forward to playing.
“It was weird. I was really keen after Round 1 to get back in and I would have been really close to playing, if not the next one.
“To have (COVID-19) then happen, we have just had to adapt to it and roll with it.’’
Sexton said the Gold Coast hub would be “good for Queensland footy” and the Suns were happy to have a solid run of home games which was a stark contrast to 2018 when the Suns were on the road for the first half of the season due to the Commonwealth Games.
Speed demon among Irishmen flown back
Greg Davis
ACTIONS speak louder than words.
So the Brisbane Lions and Irishman James Madden must be very keen on each other.
Madden, 20, arrived back in Australia on Saturday with five other Irish players after the AFL, AFLPA, the relevant clubs (Collingwood, Essendon, GWS and Brisbane) and an immigration expert combined to earn visa approval for them to return to the country.
The Irish contingent went home after the competition was shutdown two months ago and will go into quarantine in Melbourne for the next two weeks.
The Lions recruited the 186cm-tall Madden after he broke the all-time AFL Draft Combine 20 metre sprint record at the European Combine in December 2017.
The Gaelic football and hurling star arrived in Australia in 2018 and spent 2019 playing in Brisbane’s NEAFL side when his skills and game sense steadily improved to complement his standout speed across halfback.
The Category B rookie has extended his contract with Brisbane until the end of 2021 by which time he could be challenging for a place in the senior side.
Given the number of hoops that both Madden and Brisbane had to jump through to get him back to the Gabba, they are clearly both excited about his future that may not include any actual matches in 2020 due to COVID-19 measures.
“We made it really clear to him that we wanted him to come back,’’ Lions General Manager of Football David Noble said.
“There was strong interest from us in continuing his development because we believe he has a future.
“If he was up for the trip, which is a little bit more clunky at the moment, we would love to support him in his desire to become a professional athlete at this level.”
After speaking to Madden and his family about how the footy landscape had drastically changed due to coronavirus, what would be involved in the trip back to Australia and where he sat in the club’s long-term plans, the answer was prompt and positive.
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“He said, ‘yep, get me back’,’’ Noble said.
Even if he does not play a game this year, Noble said Madden would work closely with the club’s development coaches.
“He’s very quick which fits the profile we want for here at the Gabba which is a quick ground. He needs to keep chipping away with his skills and understanding of the game which have already progressed because he is a diligent, self-starter with a good work ethic,’’ he said.
Madden was encouraged to sign with Brisbane by former Lions player Cian Hanley – the younger brother of one-time Brisbane star Pearce.
“James is very popular within the playing group. He’s very well liked like most of the Irish boys. He has a great attitude to the community environment which is another reason why we wanted him back,’’ Noble said.
Why top picks have Suns buzzing
Greg Davis
Silky Gold Coast midfielder Brayden Fiorini says young guns Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson have the Suns buzzing.
Rowell and Anderson were taken by the Suns with the top two draft picks at the end of last year and the best friends made their senior AFL debuts together when Gold Coast lost to Port Adelaide at Metricon Stadium in Round 1 in March.
They returned to Melbourne to be with their families when the competition was put on hold because of COVID-19 and have hit the ground running this week as Gold Coast returned to training.
Rowell and Anderson have been in the seven-man training group alongside the 22-year-old Fiorini, who was elevated to the club’s leadership group last year when he averaged a club-high 25 disposals per game and finished fifth in the Suns’ best-and-fairest.
After a stop-start opening few seasons, Fiorini has found the consistency to go with the class, composure and clever ball use in the midfield or on a wing that made him a top 20 draft pick in 2015.
Entering his fifth season in the AFL system, Fiorini said he has not had to use his leadership skills around Rowell and Anderson.
“I don’t need to with those fellas, they are really self-driven and really professional. It feels like they’ve been around the club for a long time,’’ Fiorini said.
“Wittsy (co-captain Jarrod Witts) and I are looking over them but they are actually really driving training at the moment and holding us to a higher standard as well which is good to see.
“It was a tough start for them, getting drafted, playing one week and then off again but they got to go home and see their families which is a bonus.
“Moving away when you are 18 can be pretty tough … but knowing those two, they would have trained hard, just as hard as they would have up here.
“They have been buzzing around the joint which is good for us.”
Fiorini said the two-month forced break had brought the players closer together and that tight-knit bond will serve the young Suns well as they navigate the uncharted waters of the 2020 season.
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“We have been continually checking in over the break with support groups and catch-ups so we are pumped to be back together. We don’t really know how the season is going to play out so we’ll go with the flow and try to keep the enthusiasm up,’’ he said.
“You do miss the boys when you are away from the club but the regular check-ups with everyone, you definitely saw the genuine care. We are pretty close, we do share this special bond and we cherish it more now that we are back together.’’
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