Lions coach Chris Fagan has leapt to the defence of key Brisbane ahead Joe Daniher, asking critics to “reserve judgment” on the previous Essendon star relatively than “pick on” him.
Daniher has been within the firing line forward of the Lions’ Gabba showdown with Collingwood on Thursday night time following his poor show in Brisbane’s 14-point loss to the Western Bulldogs final week.
While Fagan was amongst these disillusioned with Daniher’s effort, which included 4 behinds and no objectives, he known as for better stability when commenting on the performances of the 2017 All-Australian.
“The week before he kicks four goals (against Melbourne) and nobody’s talking about him then,” the Lions coach mentioned.
“Then last week he kicks zero goals (and) four (behinds) and suddenly it’s ‘let’s pick on Joey Daniher week’.
“He’s not the only one up here. We need all of our other tall forwards to be playing a little bit better; our forward line in general wasn’t at its best last week.
“Just reserve judgment. We tend to jump on his back pretty quickly; we’re much slower patting him on the back when he plays well.”
Fagan mentioned he had addressed Daniher and fellow ahead Eric Hipwood about their failure to compete towards the Bulldogs.
“We’ve talked about that with our preparation for the game this week.” he mentioned.
Fagan advised defender Daniel Rich was an unlikely starter; the Lions are set to err on the aspect of warning with the veteran by giving him one other week to get well from the quad pressure which dominated him out of the conflict with the Bulldogs.
“He’d be in some doubt,” Fagan mentioned.
“With an older guy, you’re not sure. He’s probably right to play, but do you do the sensible thing and wait for another week? That’s possibly the way that we’ll go,” Fagan mentioned.
Despite Brisbane’s detached kind to begin the season, Fagan mentioned a match towards the unbeaten and “scintillating” Magpies had come at a “good time”.
“Their ability to turn up in numbers for contests, that’s been the greatest strength this year,” he mentioned of the staff coached by Lions triple premiership-winning participant Craig McRae.
“They just outnumber the opposition and then win the ball away, and they keep it in motion and supply their forwards pretty well; they all seem to be on the one page with that.
“We are looking forward to it. They’re in scintillating form. They’re flying high at the moment, so it’s a good challenge for us at a good time.”
Originally printed as Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan sad with criticism of key ahead Joe Daniher
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
