‘Should be targeting it’: AFL greats’ big warning to banged up Blues

Injured Carlton star Sam Docherty will be “fair game” to Lions players, Fox Footy’s Will Schofield has warned as Brisbane face arguably their biggest pressure test in recent history.

The Lions are into their fifth consecutive finals series – yet have no grand final appearances to show for their dominance.

This season, they’ve managed to stay camped behind their Gabba fortress in finals, a venue where they haven’t lost a game this season, and need to overcome a banged up Blues to progress to their first decider in almost two decades.

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Schofield said given the fact Docherty – who dislocated his shoulder before half time in the semi final win over Melbourne but bravely played out the match – will head north with a known injury concern, it’s an area the Lions need to target.

“What courage that was from Sam Docherty – he set up two goals in that last quarter and gets them into a prelim,” the Eagles premiership player said.

“That shoulder will be sore, heavily strapped and he’ll have some assistance to be out there on the weekend.

“I think he’s fair game – I think Brisbane should be targeting it.

“Nothing untoward, but if you’re putting him a tackle, you’re going to be put him on that shoulder aren’t you?

“I think Sam would agree … Once you’re out there, you’re fair game. He wouldn’t want any special treatment from Brisbane.

“If Brisbane are serious, Sam Docherty one of the best players, you’d be targeting him.

“He’s not going to be 100 per cent.”

And it’s not just Docherty battling ahead of the preliminary final with teammates Blake Acres, Jacob Weitering and Patrick Cripps all pushing through the pain.

Four-time premiership winner Jordan Lewis said the Lions had to plan to put pressure on those injured Blues.

“You can pound a side by scoring – you can absolutely put your foot to their throat. That’s intimidating in itself,” he said on AFL 360.

“I think you’re coming up against a side in Carlton … sometimes you have information that you know players are vulnerable. They’ve got information that there’s Carlton players that are hurt.

“Now it’s always a fine balance with the coaching staff to wind their players up to be physical and go after a team, but then also keep what’s important at the forefront.”

When asked directly if his former Hawks side would go after an injured player, not to bash them but to make sure there’s a “a high level of pressure on them” for every touch, Lewis replied: “Absolutely we would!”

“And so would Geelong in those days. I’ve got vivid memories of Hodgey (Luke Hodge) having sore ribs and I think it was Cam Stokes going up and giving it to Hodgey in the ribs!” he recalled.

“That’s probably frowned upon in this day and age. But there’s absolutely ways you can target players fairly and squarely to make sure if they do have an injury coming into the game – which we know they’ve got – they might not participate at their best.”

Bulldogs great Brad Johnson weighed in on the debate, arguing an increased physical attack could have the opposite effect and galvanise the tested player and team.

“You’ve got to test them,” he said.

“I remember coming back from a shoulder one time – I put the long sleeve on trying to hide it from the Adelaide Crows and the first bounce, Mark Ricciuto nailed me exactly in the shoulder. He tested it out in the right way – fairly but strong.

“He tested it out, you get through that.

“As a player, you get the test early, (you think) ‘hey that’s held up OK’, so you get some confidence yourself to go and play. It could go the other way.”

AFL 360 co-host Mark Robinson said Brisbane needed to show some fight and “kill in them” if they wanted to break their preliminary finals hoodoo.

“The pressure on this mob, Brisbane – they haven’t been able to get through preliminary finals under Chris Fagan,” he warned.

“They wouldn’t want to lose it.

“How much do they go after the injured trio at Carlton? How much do they put the foot to the throat? Are they a ruthless team, Brisbane?

“Have they got the kill in them? Not to kill players, but just to kill off all aspirations with their methods and their mentality. Footy is a funny game and Carlton are riding a big wave of momentum.”

It’s not just Carlton taking injured players into the preliminary finals with Collingwood confirming star Nick Daicos would make his return from a serious knee injury.

Schofield said he had no doubt there’d be “physical attention” applied to him from GWS.

“I would think most GWS players will be going to him and going to him early and letting him know exactly where he is,” he said.