Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko wants the Lions to take a leaf out of Collingwood’s book in 2024.
The Lions were defeated by four points by the Magpies in last year’s Grand Final and Zorko was impressed by a few tricks Collingwood threw at them in the big decider.
While Zorko is happy with 99 per cent of Brisbane’s game style, he says they’ll focus on gaining that extra one percent by adding a few moves to their playbook.
He referenced Collingwood’s willingness to throw Nick Daicos forward and Brody Mihocek back at stages throughout the Grand Final as what the Lions could try and emulate this campaign.
“I think we're just probably missing a couple more tricks,” Zorko said on SENQ Breakfast.
“It is something that we, as players, identified and the coaching group identified that we could do throughout games that the opposition team hasn't necessarily seen.
“I think we saw that in the Grand Final with Collingwood. They did a couple of moves that I certainly hadn't seen them do.
“I think they played Nick Daicos as a forward and he came around and played at halfback or he just floated and did his own thing. Brody Mihocek went back as an eighth defender at times to win the ball back.
“Then they just used the ball so well going forward and almost made our spares null and void.”
Zorko says the Lions will begin trialling throwing players into new positions in the next six to eight weeks to see what works ahead of the 2024 season.
“There are little things there that I think that we can pick up on and we can bring out and use,” Zorko said.
“There's no doubt, fundamentally, our game plan is in a really good position, but we certainly do need to tweak it.
“Whatever that looks like, we'll probably discuss over the next six to eight weeks as pre-season goes on.
“I think that's our x-factor and that's where we're going to get it from because individually, we have a lot of talent on our list.
“But we do need something else just to sort of push that one percent further.”
Brisbane will hope to build through a strong pre-season before they host Carlton in an Opening Round clash at the Gabba on Friday, March 8.