Fagan’s keen to cut spite in QClash

BRISBANE coach Chris Fagan says Gold Coast rival Rodney Eade did not need to give the umpires a public rocket ahead of tonight’s QClash13 at Metricon Stadium.

Fagan said he was a “little surprised” that Eade voiced his concerns on how Lions defender Harris Andrews manhandled Suns co- captain Tom Lynch last month and put pressure on the whistleblowers.

Directly after the pre- season derby at Broadbeach, Eade said Andrews’ actions negating Lynch were akin to a “sleeper hold” and “world championship wrestling” and indicated he may contact the AFL umpires department for clarification.

Eade was more measured when he spoke about the issue on Thursday but Fagan said Andrews was just giving as good as he was getting.

“I watch a lot of football and I’ve watched a lot of football over the years and what I see in clashes against tall backs and tall forwards is that sometimes forwards are holding on and wrestling and sometimes backs are holding on and wrestling,” Fagan said.

“I trust that the umpires are going to look at each situation and umpire it fairly.

“To be honest, I’m a little surprised that Rocket decided to go down that pathway and try and influence the way that umpires might make their decision.

“I’m very confident they’ll umpire the game on their merits.”

Fagan wants his players to steer clear of the spite that has become part of the Sunshine Stoush.

“We’ve just really talked about playing with effort and commitment and doing whatever it takes to play the best that we can play,” he said.

“We want to be hard at the footy but obviously we want to play within the rules.

“We don’t want to get guys rubbed out by the match review panel. We can ill- afford that.”