Brisbane Lions will need to lift against Adelaide Crows in AFLW preliminary final

The Lions are one win away from an AFLW grand final, with nerves evident in the Brisbane camp.

Brisbane Lions AFLW coach Craig Starcevich speaks to his players. Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

THE Brisbane Lions might need to find their “best footy” quickly, with a AFLW grand final spot on the line at Metricon Stadium tonight.

Despite his side having won the minor premiership, Lions coach Craig Starcevich admitted to being on edge ahead of Brisbane’s preliminary final date with reigning premiers Adelaide.

“(It’s) as nerve-racking as ever,” Starcevich said.

“You do a whole lot of work to get to this point and ultimately you want to play the last week, so to get there you’ve got to get through the third week of the finals.

“Two weeks ago (in the qualifying final) it wasn’t knockout – this is now knockout. The stakes are higher the further you get.

“You know you’re playing against a really good opponent who have been there plenty of time themselves. We’ve got great history with them and we’re expecting a fierce battle (on Friday).

“You’ll see a great game of footy between two really good teams.”

POV: you’re a football flying towards Cathy Svarc. pic.twitter.com/oKE8WTrpOp

— Brisbane Lions AFLW (@lionsaflw) November 17, 2022

Starcevich said “anyone” could win.

“I can walk you through a whole lot of different scenarios over the years where teams that are expected to do well haven’t, so you just need to be constantly on guard for every possibility – there are no givens,” he said.

“I still feel like we are miles and miles away from our best footy, to be honest.

“It is a never-ending quest to keep finding improvement, but to our team’s credit one thing that has made them a joy to coach is when you point out a few things, we generally fix it.”

Starcevich admitted he had been frustrated by the ongoing talk about where the Lions would host the grand final when his team had yet to reach the decider.

“My job is to keep the focus on the here and now ... so for me it’s frustrating,” he said.

“It’s something that I need to make sure our players are shielded from and we focus on the (job) because it’s not being generated by me, it’s not being generated by the players – it’s outside noise.”

He said the one positive from the speculation about the grand-final venue was that it meant plenty of publicity for the AFLW.

“If you want to look at it that way, as a back-handed way of saying we’re getting plenty of press about it, it’s definitely creating that,” Starcevich said.

“But for me it’s about concentrating on what we need to do, which is play decent footy.”

Originally published as Brisbane Lions will need to lift against Adelaide Crows in AFLW preliminary final