Six-day turnaround gives no time for Lions to dwell on loss
BRISBANE know there is no point complaining over a short six-day break between their 98-point loss to West Coast and the home game against Richmond.
BRISBANE physical performance manager Brett Burton says there is no point complaining about a short six-day break between the Lions' 98-point loss to West Coast and the home game against Richmond on Saturday night.
Brisbane's focus immediately after the humiliating defeat at the hands of the rampant Eagles at Patersons Stadium on Sunday was on recovery ahead of the clash with the very winnable game against Tigers at the Gabba.
The Lions boarded a flight at 9pm (WA time) and arrived back in Brisbane after 3am yesterday (Qld time) before attending a recovery session in the afternoon.
The Brisbane dressingrooms in the bowels of Patersons Stadium featured stacks of sports drinks, lollies and food to replace lost energy and fluids as soon as possible.
Backing up the week after the longest road trip in the AFL is tough enough without having one less day to prepare, but Burton says there was no use lamenting the cruel quirk of the fixture.
"You also have to deal with the mental and emotional stuff after a loss like that but it is what it is. It's not going to change. There's no point whingeing about it or feeling sorry for ourselves," Burton said.
"We've got to suck it up and deal with it and get the food, hydration and sleep into the boys.
"Sleep is a very important thing right now. That's why we come home straight after the game so the boys get back into their own time zone and we get their sleeping patterns back to normal.
"A six-day turnaround is always difficult and the extra travel factor from Perth makes it more difficult but we operate in a professional environment and we've had to deal with a five-day turnaround this year so your attention to detail has to be right. We've changed our schedule accordingly to ensure the focus is on recovery."
Burton said the training load would be lightened significantly this week. Patersons Stadium is the biggest ground in the AFL and the Eagles ran the Lions ragged so Brisbane will keep their players off their feet to freshen them up ahead of the clash with Richmond.
"In a normal week, it's about recovery the first few days and you have your main training session as well as a touch session later in the week," he said.
"This week it is all about recovery. We'll do a main session but it will be minimal. It will be about getting some movement, it won't be very intense."
Lions coach Michael Voss said Brisbane's promising patch of form between the round 10 win over the Eagles and the round 18 loss to West Coast would mean little if the Lions did not finish 2012 with a flourish.
"Not finishing off well would be very disappointing because we've made inroads. We need to capitalise on those inroads so we can gather some momentum going into the pre-season," he said.
Brisbane will get scans on the ankle of fullback Matt Maguire who left the game in the third quarter with a suspected sprain.