AFLW grand final: Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich speaks on the problem North Melbourne poses
The Brisbane Lions coach has addressed the familiar challenge North Melbourne pose – but it’s not what you may think.
The challenge of taking on North Melbourne feels eerily similar for Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich.
It’s not so much that the two have been the AFLW’s pantheon sides, highlighted by three consecutive grand finals.
Starcevich’s familiarity with the Roos feels like a game of Whack-A Mole, where the respite between problems is short-lived.
The Lions go into Saturday’s decider as underdogs, a tag their coach welcomes openly.
In Friday’s pre-match press conference, Starcevich repeatedly referenced playing Melbourne twice in a month as perfect preparation.
But when he was asked if the Demons provided “a blueprint” of how to combat the Roos, Starcevich delivered a lighthearted yet extremely accurate assessment.
“You know that game Whack-A-Mole’? They’re a little bit like that, something else pops up,” he said with a laugh.
“They’ve got so many strengths, there’s a couple of couple of things Melbourne did well but something else will pop up we’ll have to deal with.”
Starcevich said the Lions had evolved since the Roos collected one of their 26 straight wins in round 5.
There was a bit of concern among the group but it became the turning point in Brisbane’s now flowing season.
“I think what happens when you turn 2-3 you’re all a bit shaky on what does the rest of the year look like,” he said.
“It takes a while to really build your confidence back up and get into some sort of rhythm and flow in your style of play.
“I think that has built nicely over the last 2½ months to the point where we’ve been working on a few things, know when to implement that, time of game to bring those sort of things in.
“You’ve got your standard DNA in your game plan and that sort of stuff has always been really strong with us.
“It’s just taken a while for us to mesh the two together at the right times … that’s happened in the last 2½ months.”
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