Lachie Neale ‘more positive than negative’ in bid to return for Brisbane Lions in AFL grand final, while Collingwood Magpies star Scott Pendlebury’s season ends in heartbreak
“We’ll wait and see. It didn’t look good and, obviously, he couldn’t continue the game, but, again, the risk will be, if he plays, will it pop out again? [There’s] lots to talk about there,” Fagan said.
“But one thing I do is that you can’t take unfit players into grand finals. It just doesn’t work.”
Fitness test: Jarrod Berry was helped from the field on Saturday night.Credit: AFL Photos
Berry later told Seven when asked about his chances of playing: “Might not even scan it, just strap it up and go for it”.
The Lions were crunched by the Cats in their qualifying final a fortnight ago, with star midfielder Hugh McCluggage tagged and held to only 14 disposals. McCluggage was not tagged by Gold Coast last week, and had Steele Sidebottom go to him, at times, on Saturday night, but responded with 37 disposals in a best-on-ground performance.
Fagan said the Lions had learnt their lessons from that defeat.
“We, obviously, have already had a close look at what happened in that game, and we’ll have another close look as a coaching group to what Geelong did to us,” Fagan said.
“It’s pretty obvious they tagged a couple of our better players, and they will probably want to do that again. They tried to tag McCluggage tonight, and he played a magnificent game. So, a part of the response to that is going to be the blokes that got tagged have got to do a better job last time.”
Collingwood coach Craig McRae said Scott Pendlebury’s calf injury minutes into the first term had hurt his team’s set up, but did not think the 425-game veteran had experienced a leg problem in the warm-ups.
“It doesn’t help when you have one of your most experienced players, who just organises things, and he did a calf early. It’s really strange. This is what happens at this time of the year,” McRae said.
Asked if Pendlebury, 37, had experienced any issues in the warm-ups, McRae said: “No, not that I am aware of. I haven’t spoken to him, but not that I am aware of”.
Pendlebury has been given a one-year contract to play on next year.
While the injury-hit Lions were brilliantly led by McCluggage (37 touches, 10 clearances) and full-back Harris Andrews, there was a moment of controversy with about 10 minutes remaining in the final term when umpires opted not to pay Collingwood forward Jamie Elliott a free kick, having taken front-on contact from Brandon Starcevich in a marking contest in the forward pocket. The Magpies trailed by two goals at that point.
McRae said “it looked like that, yeah” when asked whether the incident should have warranted a free kick.
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“But it’s no guarantee that he kicks the goal. This is the world I live in – I never make excuses. I don’t want our fans to see a coach that leads our group through excuses, because it just doesn’t get you anywhere. I think losers make excuses, we don’t. We are winners, and we didn’t win today. [We were] clearly beaten by a better team – I think they would have beaten us anyway, the way they were playing.”
Dual-premiership player David King said during commentary on Fox Footy that a free kick should have been paid.
“No doubt, this is a free kick every day of the week – that’s chopping of the arms, front on contact,” he said.
Lions great Alastair Lynch also said in commentary: “That was a free kick every day of the week”.
Given a reprieve, the Lions all but locked up the game minutes later when Charlie Cameron converted a set shot. The floodgates opened from that point, the Lions finishing in a blaze of goals.
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