Chris Fagan says he simply couldn’t pick Jack Payne to play in Saturday’s Grand Final given the Brisbane defender’s lack of training in recent weeks.
Payne missed the Preliminary Final win with an ankle injury he had been battling in recent weeks and was thought to be right in the mix to play on Saturday.
But Fagan revealed the 23-year-old only trained fully on Thursday and a risk couldn’t be taken.
“There’s always hard luck stories in Grand Finals. For Jack, it was just difficult because it’s all about timing sometimes and the truth is if he played tomorrow, it’d be his second game in five weeks… and he wasn’t able to train fully until Thursday,” Fagan told SEN Tassie Breakfast
“He worked his backside off to give himself a chance, there’s no doubt about that, but when you’re a coach… it just felt like not the right thing to do to throw him into a Grand Final on the back of one full training session in three weeks.
“As tough as that call is, we had to make it.”
The selection news is heartbreak for Payne, who has played 23 in 2023, his first season consistently in the best 22.
“I think Jack Payne will become one of the really good, top line key defenders in the competition over the next 10 years and I’m pretty sure he understands why we made the call we did,” Fagan continued.
But the Brisbane coach did add that Darcy Gardiner’s form last week made it an easier decision.
Gardiner has played 157 games for the Lions and the experienced campaigner held Coleman Medallist Charlie Curnow to just one goal in Brisbane’s 16-point win.
“Darcy played well, there’s no doubt about that. He kept the best goalkicker in the country to one goal… it’s our team defence (too),” Fagan said.
Payne joins Collingwood’s Dan McStay and Taylor Adams as first choice players who will miss the Grand Final.
Billy Frampton replacing McStay is one of the Magpies’ two changes, with Patrick Lipinski relegated to sub and Jack Ginnivan in the 22 Craig McRae’s other decision.
Brisbane enters its biggest game in over a decade unchanged.