Lions star Lachie Neale is ready to be “managed” by means of the rest of Brisbane’s pre-season marketing campaign after struggling a corked quad and dislocated finger in his aspect’s 45-point win over the Sydney Swans on Friday.
The 2020 Brownlow medallist didn’t play within the remaining quarter of Brisbane’s spectacular 15.9 (99) to eight.6 (54) observe match win in Sydney.
The Lions have one pre-season conflict remaining – subsequent Thursday’s assembly with reigning premiers Geelong – and a cautious strategy is more likely to be taken with Neale to make sure he’s absolutely match for Brisbane’s spherical one conflict with Port Adelaide on March 18.
“We’re making an attempt to handle him by means of … spherical one’s a few weeks away,” Lions assistant coach Jed Adcock stated.
Neale was a part of a dominant midfield show on Friday, with father-son decide Will Ashcroft the standout in Brisbane’s engine room.
“He’s an amazing child. He’s extremely aggressive and extremely skilled. We’re very fortunate to have him,” Adcock stated of the son of Lions nice Marcus Ashcroft.
One other low season recruit to impress was former Hawthorn ahead Jack Gunston, who kicked three targets.
“Jack’s a wise participant,” Adcock stated.
“He’s performed in three premierships, so once you add gamers like that to your listing, it’s high quality.
“The membership’s completed an amazing job with the listing over the previous few years.
The Lions additionally continued their pre-season experimentation of utilizing Cam Rayner throughout the half-back line.
“He’s educated there in order that’s an choice for us,” Adcock stated.
“We spoke at the beginning of pre-season about giving him some flexibility and seeing how he went at half-back. He performed quite a lot of half-back as a junior.
“We’re all the time making an attempt to provide all our gamers choices to play a number of positions. He’s performed there many of the pre-season and regarded fairly strong.”
Adcock described Brisbane’s win – which was arrange by a medical third-quarter efficiency which included 5 targets to Sydney’s none – as a “good efficiency”.
“It was good to come back up towards high quality opposition in Sydney, after which subsequent week we’ve bought Geelong as properly,” he stated.
