\n Midfielder Zac Bailey says Brisbane must deliver on this key area if it is to win through to another Grand Final\n <\/p>\n
Zac Bailey in action during the R6 match between Brisbane and Collingwood at the Gabba on April 17, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
THE GAMEPLAN is important, but Brisbane dynamo Zac Bailey says beating Collingwood on Saturday will come down to doing the simple things better.<\/p>\n
The Lions and Magpies are no strangers to playing one another, with the preliminary final their eighth clash in the past three seasons, including the 2023 Grand Final.<\/p>\n
Bailey said there had been a clear pattern for success during September, and the Lions would have to adhere to it at the MCG if they want to qualify for a third straight decider.<\/p>\n
“It’s all around pressure,” Bailey said.<\/p>\n
“If you look at all the finals, the team that’s won that area is going on to win the game.<\/p>\n
“Collingwood are the No.1 pressure side in the game, so it’s a big area (of focus).<\/p>\n
“We played Gold Coast last week, who plays similar to Collingwood, so we can take a bit from that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s good to get a little bit of experience playing against that sort of game style that we can take into this week.”<\/p>\n
Despite playing without injured two-time Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, Brisbane got the better of Gold Coast through the middle of the ground last weekend.<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale is seen running during a Brisbane training session at Brighton Homes Arena on September 18, 2025. Picture: Getty Images\/AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Josh Dunkley played a huge role in that, setting the tone with his finals-record 18 tackles.<\/p>\n
He was able to quell the influence of Matt Rowell and could be set for another mighty challenge against Nick Daicos.<\/p>\n
“We don’t usually tag, but I think in the past Josh Dunkley has gone to him around stoppages, so if he does get off the chain a little bit, I’m sure we’ll have some plans in place to solve that,” Bailey said.<\/p>\n
“The midfield is a massive battle, even just getting territory from centre bounce is really important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They’ve got the quality midfield, as do we, so it’s going to be a really good battle.”<\/p>\n
Brisbane will fly to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon, a day earlier than it would during the home and away season, to prepare for the match.<\/p>\n
The Lions will hold their captain’s run at Marvel Stadium on Friday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midfielder Zac Bailey says Brisbane must deliver on this key area if it is to win through to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-151320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}