after an ACL rupture in 2021.<\/a><\/p>\nIt ended his 2025 campaign, meaning he missed the second of the Lions\u2019 Grand Final victories.<\/p>\n
Hipwood returned in Round 14 this year and has played all 12 games since. And while a defensive experiment late in the home and away season was short-lived, the left-footer has returned a different and more imposing player.<\/p>\n
Lion racing to be fit to face Hawks | 01:33<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old has kicked 10.5 from his past five matches, including two goals from 12 disposals and seven marks in the 53-point semi-final win over Adelaide where he showed great offensive and defensive prowess. At one stage, Brisbane fans at the Gabba were chanting Hipwood\u2019s name \u2014 a far cry from his previous status as a Brisbane whipping boy.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Lions coach Chris Fagan said Hipwood was around \u201ceight kilos heavier than he\u2019s ever been\u201d, which had paid dividends for both player and team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been great hasn\u2019t he?\u201d Fagan said when asked about Hipwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe managed to put some weight on that stringbean of a body of his while he was out \u2014 and I think it\u2019s helped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a good moment in the game on Saturday night where the crowd was chanting his name. I actually love that, because he\u2019s copped a fair bit of flack over the years from our supporters and from opposition supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought that was a real sign that in the eyes of everyone, he\u2019s turned the corner as a player and they now trust him and respect him.<\/p>\n
“We needed a statement” Chris Fagan | 06:43<\/p>\n
\u201cI did talk about that moment in our team meeting on Monday and said how good I thought that was, because it hasn\u2019t been easy for him. He\u2019s copped a fair bit of stick online, criticism about the way he plays the game and stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been here for 10 years now and I\u2019ve never not picked him when he\u2019s been available, so I\u2019ve got a lot of time for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just good to hear the fans get behind him the other night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how Hipwood had coped with the negative fan treatment over the years, Fagan said: \u201cI think he\u2019s felt it, there\u2019s no doubt about that. We\u2019ve had little chats about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a few years ago he got off social media because it wasn\u2019t worth reading, really. Some of the armchair warriors out there, the courageous people who hide in the dark places make comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s matured and probably doesn\u2019t listen to that all that much anymore, but it was great to hear the crowd chanting his name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fagan said there was \u201cno doubt\u201d Hipwood\u2019s bigger frame had helped him on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always helps you to be a little bit bigger and stronger,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a good thing to come out of having two knee reconstructions, that\u2019s probably been it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s used that time positively to improve himself, so that\u2019s good to see that he\u2019s got a result from that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heartbreaking injury setback has turned into a significant blessing in disguise for Brisbane forward Eric Hipwood, whose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-894928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894928","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=894928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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