‘20 games to go’: No panic despite horror start

Lions coach Chris Fagan says it’s wrong to “catastrophise” his side’s ordinary start to the season but admits Brisbane “has work to do” after losing the grand final rematch to Collingwood.

The Lions remain without a win after three games, with two of their defeats, including Thursday night’s 20-point loss to the Magpies, coming at the Gabba, where Brisbane went undefeated last season.

“We certainly haven’t had the start that we hoped for, and we’ve dropped two home games which has been very unusual for us over the last period of time, so we’ve got a bit of work to do to find ourselves,” Fagan admitted.

“It’s not a great start, but let’s not catastrophise it either, would be the way I’d look at it.

“We’re zero and three, and there’s 20 games to go.”

Fagan said he wouldn’t “press the panic button” with players that were down on form.

“Some of our players are not at their best at the moment. I can’t explain to you why, and that’s sport for you,” he said.

“Sometimes you go through form slumps … so we’ve got to keep working away with those guys.

“I’ve trusted them for a long time and they’ve delivered so I’m not going to jump off them just because we’ve lost three games in a row.

“We’ve turned up and played pretty well for the last five or six years, and right now we’re just having a little slump, and you’ve got to remember that that’s teams sometimes – it’s the life of a team.

“Sometimes you go through a form slump. I’ve got to help find their form again – that’s my job.

“They’re the players that we’ve got.”

Fagan felt his side’s performance against the Magpies was the Lions’ best display of a season that has also included losses to Carlton and Fremantle.

“I felt tonight we probably played better than we have all year so far, in a way,” Fagan said.

“Even though we didn’t get the result that we were after, we were better in lots of ways tonight.”

“They (Collingwood) tackled better than us, but what I would say is that we invited their pressure to tackle as well in a sense.

“We know we need to get more tackles and we need to be more effective with them as well.”

Fagan was left to lament a poor opening quarter, with Collingwood leading by 24 points at the first break.

Brisbane co-captain Lachie Neale led Brisbane’s second-quarter fightback after quarter-time and finished the match with 35 disposals despite hurting his ankle in the third quarter.

“I reckon it’ll be pretty sore tomorrow,” Fagan said of Neale’s ankle.

“It was a good effort by him to keep playing. He was able to finish the game but he wasn’t moving as well once he did that. It was a bit of a moment in the game.”