\n IN-FORM Brisbane defender Jade Ellenger says the Lions must cover the loss of skipper Bre Koenen by committee against Melbourne.\n <\/p>\n
IN-FORM Brisbane defender Jade Ellenger<\/a> says the Lions must cover the loss of skipper Bre Koenen<\/a> by committee in Saturday night’s blockbuster against Melbourne<\/a> at Brighton Homes Arena.<\/p>\n Koenen is recovering from a hamstring injury that kept her out of Sunday’s 38-point win over Essendon<\/a> and is likely to keep her sidelined until the finals.<\/p>\n Not only has it robbed Brisbane of 100 games of leadership and experience, but also one of its best players, with the 30-year-old hitting peak form just prior to her setback.<\/p>\n Ahead of facing the fellow top-four Demons, Ellenger said Brisbane learned plenty against the Bombers in how to cover for Koenen.<\/p>\n “The team stood up really well,” she said.<\/p>\n “Obviously, we’d love to have our captain out there, but we’ve been playing well as a defensive line throughout the season and were able to fill her shoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We all just had to step up five per cent.<\/p>\n “We all want to play for her as well because we know how much she would want to be out on the field.”<\/p>\n Ellenger is in career-best form, with Shanae Davison<\/a> playing her best game in Lions colours with 11 intercepts from her 13 disposals.<\/p>\n Jen Dunne<\/a> was also superb against Essendon, Shannon Campbell<\/a> her usual reliable self, while stand-in skipper Nat Grider<\/a> continued an excellent patch of form over recent weeks.<\/p>\n Ellenger said Grider’s transition to the top leadership role on-field was seamless.<\/p>\n “She has been a Brisbane Lions fan for as long as I can remember,” she said.<\/p>\n “For her to lead the team that she grew up supporting is incredible.<\/p>\n “She was vice-captain at 21, so she really has grown up with this team. It’s incredible to see her journey and I’m really proud of her.”<\/p>\n Despite its two premierships and sustained success since the inception of the AFLW competition, Brisbane has a losing record against Melbourne, with the Demons winning six of their 10 contests, including the 2022 Grand Final.<\/p>\n “We’ll all never forget that Grand Final out here,” Ellenger said.<\/p>\n “They’re a really good side having a really good year. When all their key players are fit and firing and playing as well as they are, they’re very dangerous.<\/p>\n “We’re going to have to be on our A game.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IN-FORM Brisbane defender Jade Ellenger says the Lions must cover the loss of skipper Bre Koenen by committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-230094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230094","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=230094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}