Lions short on time to fix kicking woes

LIONS coach Chris Fagan is getting tired of answering questions about Brisbane’s goalkicking woes.

But it’s a problem the Lions – who kicked 17 behinds and just four goals in their 41-point loss to Richmond on Tuesday night – must rectify if they are to win the premiership.

Fagan would have liked more time to work on Brisbane’s accuracy problems but with the Lions in action again on Saturday against the Western Bulldogs at the Gabba, training has been extremely limited.

“We’ve only had four days to train, so do you reckon we’ve done much?” Fagan asked. “All you can do is recover. This is a first for AFL football playing games four days apart, and doing that back-to-back ... you can’t do too much.”

Fagan said the Lions’ poor accuracy statistics were amplified by the Tigers clash and a game against Adelaide earlier this season when they kicked 23 behinds and 10 goals in a 37point win.

“It’s on the back of two really poor games and we shouldn’t carry on like the club kicks 15 more points than goals each week,” he said. “Outside of that we’ve kicked more goals than points (overall) in the other eight games.

“It fluctuates but I wouldn’t like the image out there that we just kick poorly every week.

“You lot (the media) have probably talked about it more than what we have.”

One name missing from the Lions’ team list on Saturday will be young forward Cameron Rayner, whose run of 55 consecutive games since debuting in Round 1 of 2018 will end due to a hamstring injury.

“He takes most things in his stride. He was just keen to get on with his rehab,” Fagan said.