Brisbane coach Chris Fagan says he needs veteran duo Jack Gunston and Daniel Rich again enjoying when the Lions get to the finals and their resolution to drop themselves was overblown.
Gunston, a premiership participant at Hawthorn who moved to the Lions this season and Rich, a membership finest and fairest winner and All-Australian, gained’t play for the close to future after having frank conversations with their coach final week.
They are each coming into a stable coaching block and Fagan mentioned they remained key planks of Brisbane’s premiership push.
While some pundits questioned whether or not their resolution to step down was mutual, Fagan mentioned the prolonged health work would finest serve the Lions come the finals.
“There was more made of it than should have been made of it to be honest,” Fagan mentioned on Thursday.
“It was just (about) giving those blokes a bit of a break from playing and helping them build their fitness levels back up because they’ve been carrying some injuries.
“They’re training well. Not sure how long it will be before they play again.
“We want to give them the best chance to play their best football when we arrive at that time.
“We’re not in finals yet so we’re not thinking that far ahead – we have to win enough games to qualify – but the bottom line is, we want them playing their best football, whenever that is, and we’re giving them the best chance to do that.”
Fagan confirmed midfielder Hugh McCluggage, who suffered a severe concussion in a deal with that resulted in a three-match suspension for Hawthorn captain James Sicily, would play towards St Kilda on Friday night time and was exhibiting no in poor health results.
“He’s trained all week, passed all his concussion protocols and everything seems to be normal with him, so he’ll be back in the team,” he mentioned.
“He’s just another good cog in the midfield – he’s one of the best ball users inside 50 in the competition, if not the best, so he always adds a lot to our team.”
But Brisbane gained’t deliver again former captain Dayne Zorko, who remains to be getting over a calf damage.
“I don’t think he’ll get up for this week – better chance for next week’s game,” Fagan mentioned.
“He’s just had to rest up a little bit … doing lots of alternative types of aerobic work, but I think he’ll be starting to train today (Thursday) and over the weekend.
“Zorks is one of those guys that loves playing, so he’s always frustrated when he’s injured, but in the long run (keeping him out) will probably be good for him.”
Originally revealed as Brisbane coach defends resolution of senior gamers to step down after poor kind
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
