Voss wants consecutive wins for Lions
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They’ve broken two droughts in an uplifting past month, now the Brisbane Lions are targeting their first back-to-back AFL victories in more than a year.
Lions coach Michael Voss on Monday listed successive wins as the next box his improving club need to tick when they face Melbourne at the Gabba on Sunday.
Brisbane haven’t enjoyed consecutive results since they beat North Melbourne at home and then upset Adelaide at AAMI Stadium 13 months ago but deserve strong favouritism against the Demons.
Their round nine boilover against West Coast ended two years without a win over a top-eight side while Saturday’s 58-point smashing of the Western Bulldogs was also their first victory at Etihad Stadium since 2010.
Voss admitted the follow-up triumph – coming after they took it to Hawthorn for a half – was as important as the display against the Eagles, and now wants the consolidation to continue.
“The one thing we haven’t done, despite the fact we’ve had some consistency (in the past month), is we haven’t got back-to-back wins,” he said.
“The big thing for us is to replicate the effort and being able to get consistency in our execution and be really meticulous in being able to approach that no matter what the opposition is doing to you.
“That’s still something that we haven’t demonstrated and something we have to get right.”
The Lions (5-7) defeated Melbourne by 41 points in round one this season but Voss knows the Demons won’t be a pushover after upsetting Essendon three weeks ago and thumping Greater Western Sydney on the weekend.
Full-back Matt Maguire will undergo scans on his injured elbow and remains a chance to mark up against former Lion Mitch Clark, who is also battling a foot problem, in the goal square.
Veteran midfielder Simon Black will be free to play if he takes an early guilty plea after being charged with striking Bulldog Liam Picken.
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (2) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 26th 2012 @ 11:12am
TomC said | June 26th 2012 @ 11:12am | Report comment
Slightly out of date this article. Mitch Clark was ruled out yesterday afternoon.
Anyway, the Lions should be strong favourites. Both teams are on the improve but with the conditions expected to be dry you’d think the Demons would struggle to contain the Lions and to rack up a winning score themselves without Mitch Clark.
One interesting matchup will be Patfull on Garland. Both are fairly unsung players who’ve been good in recent weeks.
At the other end, Merrett has been Brisbane’s most damaging forward lately, so Neeld is likely to send Frawley to him. That leaves young Tom McDonald on Jonathan Brown. McDonald has been good lately, and deservedly got the rising star nomination for round 13, but that’s a big test.
June 26th 2012 @ 5:50pm
Dingo said | June 26th 2012 @ 5:50pm | Report comment
The Lions should get a massive lift in confidence if they can beat The Dees, even though Melbourne are well off the pace compared to the top eight sides, a win for the Lions puts them at 6-7.
They have winnable games coming up against, St Kilda (H), Gold Coast (A), Richmond (H), Carlton (A), Port (A) and Western Bulldogs (H). Even the game against The Crows at the Gabba could be one to keep an eye on. Even though they beat the Eagles at home recently, playing them at Paterson Stadium is going to be a much tougher ask.
As they say the finals are a mathematical possibility, but to do it they need to put more than 2 consecutive wins together, they need more like 6.
One can always dream.