{"id":671216,"date":"2026-05-14T21:39:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671216\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T21:39:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:39:33","slug":"afl-2026-analysis-after-brisbane-lions-loss-to-geelong-cats-chris-fagan-press-conference-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671216\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Analysis after Brisbane Lions loss to Geelong Cats, Chris Fagan press conference, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerns over a particular aspect of Brisbane\u2019s game have emerged following its 41-point loss at the hands of Geelong at the Gabba<\/a> on Thursday night. <\/p>\n

But two-time Lions premiership coach Chris Fagan is \u201cnot that quick to press the panic button\u201d, urging pundits to \u201clook at the vision and decide whether they are a real concern or not\u201d. <\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aside from a resurgent second quarter, Brisbane was dominated from start to finish by a blistering Cats outfit that was damaging in transition at almost every opportunity. <\/p>\n

\u201cGeelong just sieved them. It has been a chink (of Brisbane\u2019s) all season long,\u201d dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna told Fox Footy\u2019s post-match coverage. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at Brisbane, there is a little bit of a weakness – it has been defending ball movement. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been a strength of theirs this year, and Geelong were able to expose that with one of their best performances scoring out of the back half in a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, there are some things for Brisbane to work on. (But) I\u2019m not worried \u2026 it was only three weeks ago that Geelong had a horrible performance against Port Adelaide, and now look what we\u2019re saying about the Cats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were off, Brisbane, right from the start. They looked sluggish. Some work to do, particularly defensive ball movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the Lions have sat third-last for defending transition, allowing an opposition defensive-50-to-inside-50 rate of 35 per cent. Against Geelong, it was 51 per cent – Brisbane\u2019s worst result in a game since 2017. <\/p>\n

RELATED: Big question for \u2018embarrassed\u2019 Lions as \u2018ridiculous\u2019 masterclass stuns \u2014 3-2-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Mannagh hits three in four minutes! | 00:31<\/p>\n

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan isn\u2019t about to \u201cpress the panic button\u201d, though. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be a quick reaction to have deep concerns,\u201d Fagan said after his team\u2019s fourth loss of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we have an off night? I think Geelong had an on night. They were fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lots of areas of our game that were not at the usual standard tonight. I think you can put that down to their hunger, their hunt on the footy, and their pressure on us, (which) was very, very good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty good for a few weeks, but just tonight, they were terrific.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought tonight, too, a lot of our really good players didn\u2019t play as well as they normally do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those players included key forward Logan Morris, who finished as the lowest-rated player on the ground, Jaspa Fletcher (ranked 39th), Hugh McCluggage (38th) and Will Ashcroft (33rd). <\/p>\n

Fagan hinted that three successive six-day turnarounds had perhaps caught up with his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just probably need to suck a little bit of air in, get a bit of a rest and get ready to go again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not that quick to press the panic button. Obviously there were some things that weren\u2019t good tonight, but we just need to have a look at the vision and decide whether they are a real concern or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lions veteran Dayne Zorko was a late withdrawal from Thursday\u2019s match, with Brisbane deciding to \u201cmanage\u201d the 37-year-old defender.<\/p>\n

Morris hits horror shank against Cats | 00:30<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just pulled up sore from the game last week (against Carlton), and he wasn\u2019t feeling 100 per cent at training on Tuesday, and he wasn\u2019t any better (on Thursday) at the captain\u2019s run, so we just decided to rest him,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s 37, he\u2019s played (311) games. We\u2019ve gone (with the match scheduling) from a Sunday to Saturday to a Friday to a Thursday in the last month, and sometimes it catches up with older guys, so we just wanted to be careful with him. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be sensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brisbane\u2019s next clash is against the Giants on Sunday week at Engie Stadium, with Fagan hopeful of having Zorko, Jarrod Berry (calf), Noah Answerth (concussion), Ty Gallop (concussion\/hamstring) and Lincoln McCarthy (hamstring) available for selection. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be a few guys coming back for us … but I couldn\u2019t give you an exact answer on who will be back for the next game,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns over a particular aspect of Brisbane\u2019s game have emerged following its 41-point loss at the hands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,16716,3237,49774,3244,28963,323874,323872,323871,13659,12138,3231,54621,19101,71117,323878,36862,184080,323877,677,8244,323870,323876,6082,668,45739,323875,1124,323873,85,5338,71127],"class_list":["post-671216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ball-movement","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-charlie-cameron","tag-chris-fagan","tag-defending-ball-movement","tag-defensive-ball-movement","tag-defiant-coach","tag-fronts-reporters","tag-geelong-cats","tag-hugh-mccluggage","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jarrod-berry","tag-jaspa-fletcher","tag-lincoln-mccarthy","tag-lions-veteran","tag-logan-morris","tag-marco-monteverde","tag-match-scheduling","tag-oceania","tag-panic-button","tag-particular-aspect","tag-performances-scoring","tag-port-adelaide","tag-press-conference","tag-real-concern","tag-soccer-style-volley","tag-south-australia","tag-spectacular-soccer-style","tag-sports","tag-the-gabba","tag-ty-gallop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671216","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=671216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}