David King believes the Brisbane Lions may have played themselves back into contention in 2024, such was the strength of their win against Melbourne in Round 5.
Only a fortnight ago, Chris Fagan’s Lions were yet to record a victory in season 2024, making a serious wobble after playing in the Grand Final just six months ago.
But recent days have seen the Brisbane Lions boost their hopes with a win against North Melbourne in Gather Round and more importantly a win against fellow premiership contender Melbourne in Round 5.
A 22-point win against Simon Goodwin’s Demons has seen the Lions rise to a 2-3 record and King believes it was a crucial victory.
“I think they made a seismic shift in their outcomes for 2024,” King told SEN’s Whateley of the Lions.
Dual premiership Kangaroo David King was most impressed with several coaching calls from Fagan. Small forward Charlie Cameron had been out of form in 2024 but bounced back to life with 17 touches and three goals on Thursday night, while the Lions also kept Christian Petracca to his quietest game of the year.
“We’re hard on Fages because we all think he’s probably had the best squad for a couple of years,” King explained.
“But to see him coach the way he did, we give him enormous credit. The use of Cameron further from goal, he operated 30-40m from goal and worked back to the goal square rather than out of it.
“He’s a different payer when he’s doing that. He had 10 score involvements, his best return for a while. It forced Steven May and Jake Lever to defend and be straight-lined in their defence of Eric Hipwood and Joe Daniher.
“When you get that, you don’t allow them to couple up and support each other. Then you can get them and that’s what they (Brisbane) did, they picked them apart.
“Then for the very first time in a long time I saw a plan for a skinny side wingman, who normally stands at the back of clearance… he went to Petracca.
“It was Jarrod Berry, it was Callum Ah Chee and it was Jaspa Fletcher. And they went to Petracca and tracked him back. They didn’t let him get forward and get his forward half football where he's so damaging.
“Something like 50 of his 56 score involvements for the year has been in the forward half, so you have to have someone assigned to him and they did it with a wingman.
“Well done, great coaching and it’s good to see they can have that flexibility.”
The Lions have a brutal fortnight ahead, playing Geelong in Round 6 and GWS in Round 6. Both of those clubs are undefeated in 2024.
But Gerard Whateley has faith in Brisbane and put them 4th in his seedings after Round 5. The Lions sit 10th on the ladder.