Brisbane Lions again ‘knocking on the door’ of a premiership
The Brisbane Lions have made the top four for the third successive season in their quest for their first premiership since 2003.
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It’s all that Brisbane coach Chris Fagan can ask for – a third successive top-four finish that again has the Lions “knocking on the door” of the club’s first AFL premiership since 2003.
While the 2021 flag would be the ultimate reward for the huge strides the former easybeats have made in the past three years, Fagan won’t call it another wasted opportunity if the Lions don’t win this year’s premiership.
“You’ve just got to keep knocking on the door and give yourself a chance, so I only see it as a positive regardless of what happens (this year),” Fagan said ahead of the Lions’ qualifying final clash with minor premiers Melbourne on Saturday night at the Adelaide Oval.
He pointed to the Kangaroos and Geelong as modern-day examples of excellent teams that haven’t been rewarded with an abundance of titles.
“I look to those great North Melbourne sides that Denis Pagan coached. They made seven (successive) preliminary finals (from 1994 to 2000), they only got to three grand finals and won two of them.
“It’s all about just giving yourself a chance and putting yourself into the position, and that’s what the really good clubs do, and fortunately we’ve been able to do that for three years in a row.
“A club like Geelong has done that over and over and over again, but they’ve only been able to win one (flag) in recent times, and that’s not a criticism. I 100 per cent admire them for the fact that that’s what they continue to do.
“They (premierships) are very, very hard to win and you need a little bit of luck as well along the way.”
However, the finals-hardened Lions are also good enough to make their own luck in their latest premiership assault.
“I think the experiences help you – it’s just as simple as that,” Fagan said.
“Losing finals hardens you a little bit. I expect our players are still disappointed over the last two years, that while it was a great effort to finish in the top four, we couldn’t actually get to the big dance (the grand final).
“The other thing that will be good for them is that they understand that you don’t think about the big dance, you just think about whatever final it is you have to play to try to get the best result you can and then go to the next one and go from there.
“There are no fairytales in finals series. It comes down to hard work and who’s in form at the right time.”
Key defender Harris Andrews and experienced wingman Mitch Robinson have overcome respective hamstring and calf problems to earn recalls to the Lions’ 22 this weekend.
Andrews comes in for Ryan Lester, who has suffered his own hamstring injury, while Robinson replaces the versatile Callum Ah Chee, who was sent for scans on Thursday after injuring his groin at training.
Lions high performance manager Damien Austin expected Ah Chee’s injury to be “minor”.
Originally published as Brisbane Lions again ‘knocking on the door’ of a premiership
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