Ex-Cat finding new lease on life in Lions den
AFTER seven luckless years in Geelong, Brisbane recruit Lincoln McCarthy looks to have carved himself a Round 1 starting berth in just two-and-ahalf hours.
The 25-year-old was among Brisbane’s best in their 42point win over Hawthorn, bagging two goals along with 17 disposals, eight tackles and a goal assist in a commanding half forward performance.
The stats belie a sorry tale for McCarthy, whose horror injury run saw him restricted to just 29 AFL games with the Cats between 2012 and 2018.
He failed to feature in Geelong’s 2013 and 2015 campaigns, but looked a future star after booting 19 goals for the navy and white hoops in 2016.
An early flurry in 2017 followed before injury struck again, ruling him out for more than 12 months and crippling his AFL dreams yet again.
It’s no surprise, then, to hear the South Australian’s relief at emerging from pre-season unscathed and finding early form in the Lions strip.
“I’ve finally been able to put a pre-season together, so I was pretty excited to get out in the colours and have a bit of a crack, so it was good fun,” he said of their JLT Series win.
“As a forward, it’s always nice to kick goals, so you take them when you can get them, especially on a small field (at Burpengary).”
Though McCarthy’s efforts were overshadowed by highprofile recruit Lachie Neale (31 disposals, 10 clearances), coach Chris Fagan will be pleased to see his forward line clicking into gear.
The likes of Daniel McStay, Dayne Zorko and Gold Coast Suns recruit Jarryd Lyons add genuine scoring options to their arsenal and McCarthy says it’s just a matter of finding the right mix. “We’ve got a lot of guys who have different strengths, so we’re trying to gel them all together and make sure that we can still play as a unit while still maximising everyone’s strengths,” he said.
“We’ve been building on that synergy for the past three or four months and we’ll continue to build that over the year.”