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The damning stat highlighting Brisbane's concerns
Jaiden Sciberras • June 16th, 2025 6:15 pm
Is there any cause for concern at the Brisbane Lions?
Following a disappointing loss to the Giants in Round 14, the Lions have now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Off the back of their stellar premiership run last season, the Lions seem to have several holes opened up within the side, particularly after losing key defender Jack Payne to a season-ending knee injury and with the continued struggle in the absence of the retired Joe Daniher up forward.
With that being said, both losses have been well within reach for Brisbane, failing to kick a goal from 11 attempts in the final term against the Crows to lose by five points, followed by yet another horribly inaccurate contest against the Giants, managing 31 scoring shots to 23 yet falling by 11 points.
Sitting in third place however just two points clear of fifth and a game and a half from eighth with the bye still to come, SEN Fireball co-hosts David King and Kane Cornes discussed whether the Lions have any real concerns entering the back half of the season.
Cornes: “Are you worried about Brisbane?
“I guess we’ve had this conversation a couple of times at least this year. When do we start to genuinely hit the panic button?”
King: “This is one of the great challenges for any coach, to lose a key position player at the mid-point of the year when you’re there to win it.
“You’ve got to make adjustments on the run. Is it just plug and play Darcy Gardiner?
“Say, 'okay, Harris (Andrews) and Darcy, work it out, you’ve played a lot of footy together already, you’ve played a lot of defensive footy together'.
“Is it as simple as that? Or do you have to change the mechanics in which you play to protect your back six a little bit more...or do you just roll on, and see where it takes us?”
Cornes: “I think they would think that they’re in good shape.
“They kicked 13.18, and Chris Fagan has said after the game again, if we kick accurately, we win.
“Clearly the personnel is an issue, with no Daniher, no Payne, Hipwood went to play as a defender – I don’t love that, but at the moment you can’t hide Eric Hipwood where he is at, either forward or back.
“Where’s (Tom) Doedee at? I’m not sure what reinforcements they’ve got from their medical room, but they would suggest that their game is in pretty good order, provided they can kick straight for goal.
“0.8 against Adelaide in the last quarter last week, two out on the full, one smothered, and they’ve kicked 13.18 again on the weekend against the Giants, when it looked as though they had the game in control for large portions of this.”
Beyond their evident goal-kicking woes, King brought up a rather dire stat from the weekend’s contest, highlighting a potential major concern over the Lions’ contest, while Cornes believes all the issues currently facing coach Chris Fagan are highly fixable.
King: “I’ll put this on the table.
“When you see a teammate go off on a stretcher with what looks to be a season-ending knee injury, it can emotionally affect you for the day.
“That aside, a pressure factor of 152, only one game worse in the last 10 years – Richmond versus St Kilda last year.
“That’s about 2000 games of footy – one game worse.
“And 28 tackles. 28 tackles! It’s nothing to do with goal kicking, it’s nothing to do with anything but intent.
“Brisbane have only had one game worse than 28 tackles in their last 10 years.
“They are numbers they can’t hide from.”
Cornes: “The positive would be, are those issues fixable, and I would say yes.
“But time runs out, and time runs out quickly. You want to be in the top four, particularly when you are an interstate team.
“I think they can ramp up the pressure, I think they can ramp up the tackling, I think they can fix their goal kicking issues, but it’s a bit tiresome that we continually talk about Brisbane and whether it’s time to hit the panic bottom.
“At some point it is going to be time to hit it. I don’t think that is yet, but it is not far away.”
The Lions take on an in-form Geelong at GMHBA Stadium this Friday night before entering their mid-season bye in Round 16.
