Fagan knows rewards are close

WINLESS after seven rounds and second bottom on the ladder, it feels like Groundhog Day for Brisbane.

But coach Chris Fagan says he can’t fault the commitment of his players, who keep putting in effort without any reward so far.

The Lions have improved in most facets of performance this season but still don’t have anything to show for it.

The regular maulings seem to have stopped, with premier Richmond the only team to have blown them away — and they’re not alone there.

Fagan has found solace in the fact they’ve at least been in with a chance of victory in the remainder of their matches.

Three of them have been lost by single-digit margins — the most recent being Sunday’s near miss against Collingwood at the Gabba.

“Certainly we’d like to have gotten a bit more reward for our effort because we think our effort’s been really good and we’ve played a good style of footy that’s stood up against some good teams,” Fagan said.

“But we know if we just keep trying to improve and not get too frustrated that we’ll get there in the end.”

Fagan admits the Lions have lacked composure late in matches where the result has still been up for grabs, which is typical of young teams. But he said they only way they could learn from such defeats as their seven-point loss to the Pies is to live through them.