Brisbane will go on the attack against Richmond to secure minor premiership

Chris Fagan says Brisbane’s objective on Sunday is to win the minor premiership by defeating Richmond, not protect its percentage in order to hang to a top-two spot.

Chris Fagan at Brisbane training at the Gabba on Friday. Picture: Peter Wallis

Brisbane has vowed to go all out to beat Richmond and claim the minor premiership – not ultra-defensive to keep the game tight in a bid to secure a home final on percentage.

And coach Chris Fagan says that means there will be no tag on Tigers superstar Dustin Martin because it would mean “giving up some hunt’’.

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With contenders Geelong and West Coast both playing on Saturday, the Lions will know by Sunday’s bounce down at the MCG what losing margin would still see them finish top two and secure a qualifying final at the Gabba.

But Fagan says the object has to be to win and he won’t be thinking about protecting percentage.

“It won’t make any difference to our approach to the game,’’ he said.

“It is not really a ‘what if’ in a sense. I think you can complicate the issue by worrying about those sorts of things.

“I think what we should be focusing on and what we are focusing on, is playing our best footy on the weekend and hoping that is good enough to get a result.’’

Chris Fagan at Brisbane training at the Gabba on Friday. Picture: Peter Wallis

That means Fagan will stick to the game plan that has carried the side to its nine game winning streak in a bid to defeat the Tigers for the first time in 10 years.

The disclaimer is that Fagan did warn last week that you couldn’t believe coaches, himself included, when they talked about tactics.

However, the Lions’ recent history shows Fagan is content to back his men one-on-one.

Jarrod Berry was given tagging assignments in his first season and even last year he played on Fremantle star Nat Fyfe.

This season Mitch Robinson has swung on to opponents during games if they have started to become too damaging, and that wait and see approach is Fagan’s preference because he doesn’t like to lose the contributions of a ball winner by applying a hard tag form the outset.

“You’re giving up some hunt yourself wandering around worrying about what he’s doing,” he said.

“All teams approach him differently, some do (tag), some don’t, with varying degrees of success.

“We’ll just back our own system in. We might just go head-to-head to start with.”

Lions coach Chris Fagan gives a fan a high-five last week. Picture: AAP

Martin is back at his almost unstoppable 2017 Brownlow Medal form over the past month, and was a clear winner in a duel with West Coast star Elliot Yeo in the Tigers’ thrilling six point win last Sunday.

Last year he booted six goals in a 93-point drubbing of the Lions at the MCG.

“He’s powerful, he breaks away from congestion and takes ground really quickly,” Fagan said.

“He’s a great player, a hard bloke to match-up on.”

The ramifications are huge for Brisbane. They can finish anywhere from first to fourth depending on theirs and other results.

A home final is the ultimate goal given they have proven very difficult to beat at the Gabba, losing just the one game there this season against Collingwood on Easter Thursday.

“It’s a big one,” Fagan said.

Originally published as Brisbane will go on the attack against Richmond to secure minor premiership