Brisbane coach Chris Fagan hopes the Lions received a timely premiership jolt after being outgunned by the ferocious GWS Giants, whose coach Adam Kingsley warned the rest of the competition there is plenty of improvement left in his side.
Leading by 30 points at quarter-time and seemingly on track for a 10th consecutive victory, the Lions were restricted to just four goals for the rest of the game as the Giants stormed home to win 13.4 (82) to 8.16 (64).
While inaccuracy hurt the Lions, Fagan admitted the Giants – who also beat Brisbane in April in Canberra by 54 points – seemed much hungrier as they kicked the final six goals of the match to record a sixth successive victory.
“To a degree we let them off the hook, but I wouldn’t just completely blame it on accuracy,” Fagan said.
“I think after quarter-time their ferocity in the hunt and ferocity to put pressure on us was way better than ours, and that’s the reason why they won.
“We weren’t able to match that and that’s unusual for us. I can’t fault our blokes for a long time in that regard, but today, particularly in the second half, their hunger to win the ball and to put pressure on us when they didn’t have the ball was better than ours.
“I’d like to think we’re going to win every week, but I’m probably not being realistic in this competition. It’s so hard to stay up and play at a high level.
“Maybe this is just the little check we needed to bounce back up again for the final two weeks (of the regular season).“
Having started the round in second spot, the Lions, who have recovered following a poor start to the season – could fall to as low as fifth depending on other results this weekend.
“When we were two (wins) and five (losses), we didn’t have much margin for error and we’ve been mentally strong enough to get to his point in time, but today we failed to play for long enough in the way we wanted to,” Fagan said.
“It’s hard to be critical of my midfielders. They got beaten today. They’d be the first to admit it. They’ve already talked to me about it and they’ll be looking forward to bouncing back next week.”
The Lions meet Collingwood next Saturday at the MCG, while the Giants are in action a few hours earlier at home against Fremantle.
The Giants not only ended Brisbane’s winning run at nine matches but also extended their own streak to six games to leapfrog the Lions on the ladder.
“From quarter time onwards, I thought it was fantastic,” Kingsley said.
“We we’re able to win the ball, and we certainly controlled the entries and field position far better than what we did in the first (quarter), and put the score on the board.”
However, Kingsley remains frustrated with the Giants’ failure to put four quarters together having last week also needed late heroics to beat Hawthorn.
“If we’re not going to win the contest, whether it’s at stoppage or away from the stoppage, we’re not going to be the team that we want to be, so we’ve got to work harder to get to the contest to support it, and we’ve got to be a little bit tougher,” he said.
“We’re really confident in our game, but then again, we’re not perfect, and we know that, and we don’t need to be to a certain level but we’ve got to play more than 40 minutes of footy against the Hawks and I felt like we played more than 40 minutes (against the Lions), but we still had lapses that could have proved really costly.
“We’ll continue to work on it. We’ve always got something to work on. We’re far from the finished product. That’s exciting, but now we’re coming towards the pointy end of the season.
“Today’s win certainly helps us qualify for finals, (but) we’ve got a bit to work on.”
Fagan conceded the Giants were a huge premiership threat.
“I thought after we played them in round seven they were an outstanding unit and I haven’t changed my mind today,” the Lions coach said.
“I think they’re a decent chance. They’re a very good team.”
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