Despite a gutsy win over Gold Coast on Sunday night, Brisbane’s season is in turmoil as injuries hit the club hard.
They had already lost Tom Doedee and Keidean Coleman to torn ACLs this year, while Will Ashcroft suffered his last season. Now, Lincoln McCarthy and Darcy Gardiner have also fallen to the significant knee injury.
With five players on the long-term injury list and already sitting two games out of the eight, David King wonders if Sunday night was one the Lions won’t recover from this year.
“It just feels like they’re just having that year. They’ve had pretty much a clean bill of health for five or six years,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“They’ve probably had the best injury profile of anyone, and now they’re on the flip side. Now they’re living what they’ve played against for a while.
“McCarthy is a big out. Like, he doesn’t always jump off the page as a must-have when you look at their line-up, but he’s a significant contributor, he’s an awkward matchup, if you get the matchup wrong he hits the scoreboard.
“He often takes the intercept defender, the Tom Stewart types, he can play a role on those guys.
“To me, it’s a night you don’t recover from. Some of their kids look really good. Bruce Reville looked terrific. Logan Morris he looked really good. Sometimes the kids can surprise you and Chris Fagan has no other option but to play them.
“Who knows. Sometimes you can just unearth something that wasn’t really in the planning. There’s genius found through desperation at times. He’s got no other option but to trust these kids.”
Their crosstown rivals Gold Coast have a different conundrum given they not only weren’t able to beat a Brisbane side smashed by injuries, but they didn’t even get close.
It continues an up-and-down season for the Suns, who have looked excellent at home and listless away.
Coach Damien Hardwick continues to preach patience in his post-match press conference, saying it was always going to take some time for him to stamp his imprint on the club.
King believes that Hardwick is using this season to work out who his long-term pieces are, and who he will be moving on from.
“It’s not the ‘same old Suns’. Damien Hardwick is eight weeks in. He’s publicly said that he’s got 80 per cent of the premiership list there, and I reckon he’s working out who the 20 per cent are,” King added.
“I look at a Jack Lukosius and ‘are you in the 80 or in the 20?’ We’ve had a couple already fall by the wayside. Guys who have been around for a while and struggling to find some form should be nervous.
“He’s there to win them a premiership. He’s not there to make friends. He’ll be demanding more out of David Swallow, Ben King or a Ben Long or a Charlie Ballard – ‘are you guys going to be the reason we win a Preliminary Final?’ If they’re not delivering now, are they going to deliver in a Prelim in 2026, for example.
“That’s where I think he’s at. You’ve got to give him some time under the heat of game day who the 20 per cent are that need to be purged.
“And if you get something for them, great. If not, so be it.
“They were awful last night. We’re talking about one game versus the long term. I think Hardwick is talking about the long term. They were awful. They played with no energy, their intercept game was awful.
“They needed to be better. It was their top liners too. Matt Rowell couldn’t get his hands on the ball, he had two clearances.”
The Lions will look to back up their Q-Clash win when they meet the Crows in Adelaide on Sunday.
