Fagan defends call to rest young Lions
Jul 28, 2017 - 5:18 AM Brisbane coach Chris Fagan is adamant the Lions are not admitting AFL defeat against West Coast by resting three of their young guns.Eric Hipwood, Jarrod Berry and Hugh McCluggage have been spared from the long trip to Perth for Sunday's clash at Domain Stadium while Dayne Zorko (suspended) and Daniel McStay (shoulder) will also miss out.
Fagan said the decision to rest players this weekend had been planned months ago with an eye to Brisbane's run home, given three of their last four games are at the Gabba and all of them are winnable.
"It just made absolute sense to give those blokes a break. I'd hate to get to the last two or three games and they're cooked," Fagan told reporters on Friday.
"By managing them in this manner, they've got their best chance to play their best footy in the last three to four weeks and that helps our team as well.
"We're very serious about trying to win our last four games."
The Lions take on the Western Bulldogs at home next weekend, followed by matches against Gold Coast (home), Melbourne (away) and what shapes as a wooden spoon play-off in the final around against 17th-placed North Melbourne (home).
Brisbane recorded their fourth win of the season last Sunday against Carlton, putting them level on points with the Kangaroos.
Asked if there was a danger resting players could inadvertently send a message to the team that the Eagles game wasn't important, Fagan said: "Not at all."
"We're very clear, I said to them yesterday ... those five blokes are coming back in next week but there's no guarantee who the five blokes are who will go out.
"The pressure's there to perform. If we want to be a great footy club we've got to have depth."
Michael Close, Jarrad Jansen, Nick Robertson, Jacob Allison and Sam Skinner are Brisbane's inclusions this week, with the latter two players to make their AFL debuts.
Skinner was poised to play his first game in the same round last year against Port Adelaide, but was cruelly denied after tearing his ACL at a training session two days out from the match.
Source: AAP
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