Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has paid tribute to one of his former stars while urging his team to “embrace” grand final week after the Lions earned a spot in next Saturday’s decider against Collingwood at the MCG.
Playing in their third preliminary final in four seasons, the Lions finally took the next step by beating the gallant Blues by 16 points at the Gabba.
However, a first grand final berth since losing in 2004 to Port Adelaide was in severe jeopardy after Carlton kicked the game’s first five goals in a “dicey” start.
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“To make your way to a grand final, they’re hard things to get to, as we know and it was looking a little bit dicey at quarter-time, but after that we found our leagues and played some great finals footy and showed a lot of character,” a proud Fagan said.
“We have worked really hard at learning from all those occasions where we haven’t played in the manner that we wanted to in some of the big games.
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“We’ve never we’ve never really ever shied away from our lessons, internally. I know I stick up for my blokes like a madman sometimes, but internally, we’ve always dealt with our issues and our weaknesses because that’s how you get better at them.
“That performance tonight, all of those things that we’ve been talking about and working on came together because we weren’t in a good spot a quarter-time.”
Fagan said there was no use “yelling and screaming” at quarter-time when the Lions trailed 31-8.
“I was pretty positive. I just showed faith in them,” he said.
Now shifting his focus to facing the Pies, Fagan had some touching words for former charge, now Collingwood forward, Dan McStay who will miss the decider with a knee injury.
“It’s your worst nightmare as a player when you’ve played with the team all year, you’ve been a solid contributor, you get to a grand final and you can’t play because you’re injured – that’s the worst thing,” he said.
“Our thoughts go out to him obviously because our rise as a team over the last seven years, he played a really important role in.
“Always sad for players when that happens, but particularly for him because he’s a bloke we all like and admire.”
McStay played 161 games for Brisbane before making the move to Melbourne for family reasons.
Fagan is no stranger to grand finals, having been part of the football staff at Melbourne and Hawthorn in six deciders between 2000 and 2015.
“There’s lots of different things that happen in grand final week. You’ve just got to embrace them and enjoy them, and try to keep the week as normal as you can but understand it won’t be normal,” he said.
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“They’re the key things – just calmness around the place.
“We just need to get our players together on Monday and talk to them about what the week looks like so that they know what’s coming.”
Fagan also played down fears of injury to star Lachie Neale who suffered a “stinger” in the win over the Blues.
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