Brisbane coach Chris Fagan reviews his team’s 80-point loss to the Crows at The Gabba on Saturday.
Comparing the last two performances against the Crows…
“It was a 140-point belting last year and I think it was 80 points tonight. 42 shots to nine last year and 35 to 25 tonight. So, I think we played a bit better by comparison. Had we taken our chances in the first half, there would have been a fair bit more pressure on them at half-time than what there actually was.
“There were some good things in the first half. We were positive on contested possession, the clearances were about equal and our pressure and tackling was better than theirs. Then we gave them two silly goals, one at the end of the first quarter and one at the end of the second. So, there’s some blue sky there.”
On maintaining their first quarter pressure…
“We put a spare player behind the ball for a while, but that sort of fuels them too. They use the spare well, a bit like when we played Port Adelaide here. As soon as you do that, they continually counter attack and kick the ball inside 50. It just comes down to consistency of effort and being able to apply all the things that we’ve asked our players to work on for a full match.
“They’re not yet at that stage – our young blokes get a bit tired – and sometimes the blokes in the middle of our list don’t put in enough effort given the amount of games that they’ve played.”
On missed opportunities in front of goal…
“When you put that effort in and you don’t finish… we missed four or five really easy shots in that second quarter. Admittedly, they played well, but when you kick those goals, the ball goes back to the middle and it’s a whole different ball game.
On tagging the opposition…
“All the teams that have played Adelaide recently have had good success tagging Rory Sloane. So, we thought we’d try the same. Nick (Robertson) did a terrific job on Isaac Smith last week against Hawthorn, so he’s a dogged person who will stick to a task. Sloane was okay tonight, he had 17 touches at 53 per cent… so Nick was there putting a bit of pressure on him. We went in with a plan to try and win, and the plan looked pretty good at quarter time...”
On Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron…
“Players like those are wonderfully valuable players. They help you with pressure and they obviously help you with scoring.
“I thought Jake Barrett tonight did a really good job up forward. He played a defensive forward role on Brodie Smith, kept him to 13 touches and kicked a few goals himself… so that was a bit of a bright light. We all love those quick forwards that can score and create goals, we’d love to have a couple in our team.”
