Brisbane coach Chris Fagan admits he could not understand the negativity surrounding his Lions during the week.
There was plenty of reactionary media commentary around the Lions and some of their players in the wake of their Round 3 loss to the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne.
In the gun in particular were forwards Eric Hipwood, Joe Daniher, Charlie Cameron and Cam Rayner, the latter having started the season at half-back.
On Thursday night, the Lions bounced back emphatically by knocking off Collingwood by 33 points at the Gabba and in the aftermath, Fagan further defended his players.
“The Bulldogs aren't a bad side, and they're pretty hard to beat at Marvel Stadium, so in a sense I didn't really understand,” he said of the negative backlash.
“I wasn't disturbed by last week's performance at all.
“I feel like everyone thinks we're going to go out there and win every week. It's not how it works in AFL footy. It's a hard, tough, competition and you have to earn every single win.
“I was glad that we played well tonight, but I didn't think the picture that was painted last week, I didn't think it was as bad as that.”
It was three of the aforementioned players who sparked the Lions against the Magpies with Cameron kicking six goals, Rayner four, and Daniher putting in a near best on ground display with 20 disposals, six marks, six inside 50s and two goals.
Former Adelaide forward Josh Jenkins suggested this was the perfect case in point as to why the media should not overreact when a team has a slightly off performance, proving that a week is a long time in football.
“We are becoming prisoners of the moment in the football media where one performance is judged as the absolute ultimate, that you can’t come back from a performance like this,” Jenkins said on SEN Breakfast.
“We need to do a better job to be able to judge things over the course of longer than one week, one game.”
Co-host Julian De Stoop asked: “That’s just being a prisoner of media saturation, isn’t it?
“There’s that many voices out there that want to have a say that you can’t be vanilla.”
Jenkins continued, saying one poor match or moment shouldn’t necessarily be an event, as quoted by his former Crows coach Don Pyke.
“I think people would probably have a level of respect for those who were a little more measured and said, ‘Let’s just see this play out. We didn’t like what we saw last night’,” he added.
“But if we start to see this as a trend, not an event - to quote the great Don Pyke - then that’s when we can start to jump down people’s throats a little bit.
“It’s interesting because Brisbane will normally claim insulation from commentary. They’ll typically say, ‘We don’t really hear that up here in Brisbane’.
“But clearly it got through to their players and Chris Fagan was a little prickly, as he should be, he’s a coach protecting his players.
“The other thing with those guys is they are that type of player. The way that Rayner, Daniher, Hipwood, Cameron and (Lincoln) McCarthy all play leaves them open to feast or famine. That’s the way I’d describe Brisbane’s forward line - feast or famine.
“Last night was a feast, Charlie kicked six, Rayner kicked four, Daniher had 20 and kicked a couple.
“I think we’ve got to be able to judge them over the course of time rather than one week.”
The Lions have somewhat mixed their form so far in 2023, losing their season opener to Port Adelaide by 54 points in Adelaide before recoiling by defeating Melbourne at the Gabba.
Then followed their loss to the Dogs in Melbourne prior to the impressive victory over the Pies, showing that things are never as bad as they seem after a loss.
Next up for them is North Melbourne in the Adelaide Hills next Saturday during Gather Round.