Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch says the buck stops with him after Lions’ dismal 78-point hiding at the Gabba

BRISBANE coach Justin Leppitsch says the buck stops with him after the dismal 78-point hiding at the hands of Collingwood at the Gabba.

Brisbane midfielder Ryan Bastinac under pressure from Darcy Moore and Mason Cox. Picture: AAP

BRISBANE coach Justin Leppitsch says the buck stops with him after the dismal 78-point hiding at the hands of Collingwood at the Gabba.

The lacklustre Lions failed to score in the first quarter and trailed by 65 points at halftime as the Magpies swooped on the woeful effort from the home side when the contest was briefly in the balance.

Brisbane were simply uncompetitive in one of the worst home performances in recent memory.

Leppitsch did not miss a tackle or a target but said he had to take the blame.

“Obviously I got it wrong. I’ve got to take responsibility for that and get better as a coach and make sure I’m directing people the right way and we’re focusing on the right things. The buck stops with me,’’ Leppitsch said.

The Qld clubs have lost by a combined margin of 319 points in the past 2 weeks. Rubbish. @cmail_sport @superfooty #AFLLions

— Greg Davis (@GregDavis_cmail) May 14, 2016

“I question everything we do, I question myself daily. I sit there, every second, is this the right session, are we doing the right things.

“The ‘why’ is always the challenge in this game, that’s my job as a coach, to find out why it’s not happening. We know what we need to do — every club does, every coach goes in presenting this is how we play to beat Collingwood. Bucks does the same about us and it becomes that

arm-wrestle, who’s going to come on top.

“That’s every week. We always ask why and sometimes it’s a load of different reasons. Sometimes it’s fatigue, sometimes it’s noncompliance. Sometimes it’s just because you’re not good enough as a player, plain and simple.

“That’s when selections are made and careers are decided. We’ve got to decide every player in which category they fit in, in all those three.

Obviously you can’t sack everybody after a loss but it was stark that we had a lot of players down.’’

That was a steaming pile of uncompetitive rubbish from Brisbane in the first half. Unacceptable. Should be ashamed of the effort.

— Greg Davis (@GregDavis_cmail) May 14, 2016

Leppitsch said it was one of the worst performances in his three seasons in charge at the Gabba and we was “shocked’’ at the effort in the first half.

“It’s pretty plain to see that first half, I was shocked. I would have thought even Collingwood would have been shocked with that level of effort and intensity and just listlessness. It just looked like we couldn’t move, it was bizarre,’’ he said.

“I think you’re always going to get (bad) games. When you’re coaching a young team, you know there’s going to be three or four a year where we’re just not going to come out of the blocks.

“You never know what day it’s going to be. It was definitely today and I didn’t think the low would be as low as what we were in that first half. We didn’t have anything to give. That was clearly disappointing.

“We’ve undone some good work, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve got to pick back up.’’

Star midfielder Dayne Beams played no part in the fourth quarter as the Lions managed the knee injury that delayed the start of his year.

“He’s going to carry the knee all year. He probably needs another surgery at some point, always has, but it’s something we can manage.

It’s one of those things, we’ve got to wait and see if we can manage it through games. It just was a bit much for him today to keep going,’’ Leppitsch said.

Originally published as Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch says the buck stops with him after Lions’ dismal 78-point hiding at the Gabba