Agonising defeat will harden Lions up: Fagan
LIONS coach Chris Fagan is confident the heartbreaking one-point loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday night will strengthen the pack to better handle big-game clashes in the future.
Brisbane fell short of this year’s preliminary finals after bowing out of finals contention at the Gabba in a demoralising 11.13 (79) to 11.12 (78) loss to the Bulldogs.
It was the Lions’ fifth finals loss in three years and the second time they’ve been beaten in a semi-final clash by the narrowest of margins, but Fagan said it would only help the club improve next season.
“We’re all flat,” Fagan said. “We put in a good contest tonight and to not come away with the points is disappointing for us. “It will harden us going forward. All these things, in the end, help you and make sure you take the lessons out of the result and figure out what you could have done better.
“To lose a close one tonight, after losing a close one by three points two years ago … it eats away at us a little bit and makes us better in the future.”
The Lions lost fill-in forward Jack Payne early in the game to a nasty head gash, which will now require facial surgery, after the cut proved too significant for stitches after the game.
The rest of the club are in lockdown until Tuesday, as they continue to recover from the loss. When asked what he thought of the club’s finals record in the past three years – one win and five losses – Fagan said the players were “a whisker away” from being in three consecutive preliminary finals.
“We got beaten by three points in a semi-final, three years ago in 2019; tonight we got beaten by a point,” he said.
“I don’t think we played well last week and I don’t think we played well in the preliminary final last year against Geelong, but the other four finals we’ve actually played really well.”