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Find your frequency hereThe Lions Academy prospect who is turning Fagan’s head as a potential Daniher replacement
Lachlan Geleit • February 19th, 2025 1:01 pm
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has named a pair of Lions that are vying to fill the tall forward role vacated by the retired Joe Daniher.
While the duo are both new to the club, they are at the complete opposite ends of the career spectrum in 32-year-old Sam Day who was picked up as a delisted free agent who played 155 games for Gold Coast and teenager Ty Gallop who was last year drafted with Pick 42 out of Brisbane’s Academy.
Fagan has been impressed by Day’s footy smarts despite knowing what he could already offer at AFL level while 194cm youngster Gallop has impressed immensely in his first pre-season after kicking four goals in a recent intra-club match up against the likes of Harris Andrews, Ryan Lester and Jack Payne.
“There are two blokes that are going pretty well at the moment,” Fagan told SEN Whateley.
“One is Sam Day, he played really well in our practice game the other night and he's fitting in beautifully. He's just a good, smart footballer who competes well for the ball in the area.
“He's a bit different to Joe, obviously, but he's been performing well.
“And there's another young bloke that we drafted this year from our Academy, Ty Gallop. Last week he played our ‘A’ team versus our ‘B’ team, he was playing on Harris Andrews, Ryan Lester, Jack Payne and co. and he managed to kick four goals in a team that only kicked nine.
“He performed really well the week before when we actually mixed the teams up. He's a bright young prospect and he'll get a go tomorrow night as well.
“Don't be surprised if he's a person that pops up this year is a pretty good AFL player.”
Another Brisbane draftee that Lions fans will be looking forward to seeing for the first time in Thursday’s scratch matches against Gold Coast and Collingwood is father-son Levi Ashcroft.
It’ll be the first time that the No. 5 pick has completed in match play this pre-season after undergoing shoulder surgery and Fagan is really excited about what the younger brother of Norm Smith Medallist Will can bring to the table.
“He (Levi) will get a half. He hasn’t played because he had shoulder surgery, he hasn’t been able to join in with intra-club games that we’ve played over the last two weeks,” Fagan said.
“But he will get to play tomorrow night, he'll get on the ground in the second half.
“I know he's chomping at the bit. He wants to get in and prove that he's good enough to be in that first team, and he probably is, but he knows that we need to see the evidence of that.
“His training's been really good. You can see he's a clever player. He's a lot like Will, but he's also a little bit different to Will, I think he’s a little bit more of a forward than probably what Will is.
“But we're really excited about what he can bring to the table, and I just really admire his self-belief and his football nous that he has for a boy who is only 18 years of age.”
The Lions face the Suns and Magpies at People First Stadium at 6pm AEDT on Thursday. The three-way match consists of six periods with clubs to play four periods each.
