Oscar happy to learn from best

LIONS big man Oscar McInerney hopes the lessons he has learnt from successive assignments against the AFL’s best two ruckmen will lead to a dominant display in Brisbane’s semi-final against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.

McInerney has gone head to head with West Coast’s Nic Naitanui and Melbourne’s Max Gawn in Brisbane’s past two matches.

Despite a strong performance from Naitanui at the Gabba, the Lions beat the Eagles and secured a top-four berth.

Brisbane was not as lucky in last weekend’s qualifying final against the Demons, who with the help of Gawn beat the Lions at Adelaide Oval. The Chris Fagan-coached Lions will now fight to save their season at the Gabba on Saturday against the Bulldogs.

“When you work under ‘Fages’ there’s mantra of either you win or you learn,” McInerney said.

“Obviously, we’re out there to win every week, but we need to make sure we take the learnings and we certainly did that against Melbourne.

“They’re a class outfit but they gave us plenty of learnings (on) where we can improve and what needs to be, to be able to try to beat the best.

“We’ll continue that philosophy for as long as ‘Fages’ is around.”

McInerney described his own learning experience from his recent battles with Naitanui and Gawn as “incredible”.

“Playing against Max in such a big final, he is one of the best rucks of probably the last 20 years,” McInerney said.

“The way he uses his body, the way he creates contests, and marking, and he gets around the ground, it’s been incredible learning watching the tape over the last month.

“There’s nothing better than having a crack against the best. ‘Nic Nat’ is such a powerful beast. Max is so long and strong, and (his) footy IQ is incredible.”