Luke Hodge suggests the Brisbane Lions might have been fairly happy with their own performance at half-time of their season opener against Carlton last Friday night.
At one stage in the second quarter, the Lions led the Blues by 46 points before entering the main break with a comfortable and deserved 31-point lead.
Fast forward to full-time and that advantage had been whittled away to a one-point disadvantage as Chris Fagan’s side succumbed to Michael Voss’ rampaging Blues.
In the aftermath, Brisbane co-captain Lachie Neale did not take a backwards step in his assessment of the defeat. He described the team as “a little bit lazy” and “selfish”, and that their “intensity and hunger” had dropped away.
Former Lions defender Hodge agrees with Neale, believing they might have got ahead of themselves in the Opening Round clash.
“I think they drank their own bathwater at half-time,” Hodge said on SENQ Breakfast.
“I actually like what Lachie said. I would have been disappointed if they had have come back and said, ‘Carlton are a really good team and they just outplayed us in the second half’.
“Because then you would have sat back and thought, ‘Hang on, he is covering over the flaws of the third quarter’.
“What Lachie said was spot on. They’ve identified it, they’re not making excuses for themselves.”
Hodge says it is a great lesson to learn and something they can refer to as a cautionary tale as the season progresses.
“So now Chris Fagan and the coaches are thinking, ‘This is perfect’. He can raise this and say, ‘How embarrassed were you guys after the first game? You were selfish’,” he continued.
“This could be a motivator for them for the next 5-10 weeks.
“People always sort of say it’s good have a loss late in the season going into finals, so then you can touch on all those little flaws. It’s similar at the start of the season.
“Would they have wanted to win that game? 100 per cent. It’s important to win these games, but also to have this loss. If they had have won by three points it probably could have covered over it.
“What he (Neale) said was good, it has put everyone on notice and now everyone is going to be watching this weekend going ‘are they doing selfish things?’
“It’s keeping them all accountable which I’m all for. It’s a good response from a captain.”
This Sunday the Lions meet Fremantle in Perth and after suffering such a defeat should really be primed to come out firing.
“They’re on notice internally from Lachie putting it on them,” Hodge added.
“At least everyone now, they’re held accountable externally. We’re going to be watching the Fremantle game this Sunday (very closely).
“I would expect a pretty fired up Lions team on Sunday after the feedback and what they’ve put out to the media.”
The 2023 Grand Finalists clash with the Dockers at 6:50pm AEDT at Optus Stadium to bring Round 1 to a close.
