\n Craig Starcevich is confident Brisbane can push back up the ladder quickly, with a new deal as coach imminent\n <\/p>\n
Craig Starcevich speaks to his players during Brisbane’s clash with Adelaide in AFLW round six, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
BRISBANE coach Craig Starcevich says “things are looking good” for him to re-sign for 2027 and beyond, believing the Lions can propel themselves back up the ladder quickly.<\/p>\n
Brisbane’s inaugural coach, Starcevich is out of contract at season’s end with an extension expected to be announced imminently.<\/p>\n
When asked on Wednesday whether his future had been inked, he was tight lipped.<\/p>\n
“I can’t really (clarify). Sorry about that,” he smiled.<\/p>\n
“Things are looking good.”<\/p>\n
The two-time premiership coach has endured one of his more difficult seasons in charge, currently navigating a team that is 3-7 and about to miss finals for just the second time in its history.<\/p>\n
Brisbane players look dejected after their defeat during the round eight AFLW match against Gold Coast at Brighton Homes Arena, on October 3, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Starcevich is a firm believer they have a bright future, and one that could involve and almost immediate turnaround.<\/p>\n
“A lot of the stuff this year is out of our control, so having a year like that you can bounce pretty quickly,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got some exceptional talent coming through our academy at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’ve got five or six players the market tell us are in the top 30, so that’s exciting.<\/p>\n
“There’s some stuff going on behind the scenes that makes the next year or two super exciting.”<\/p>\n
In a season that has seen All-Australian Courtney Hodder unavailable through pregnancy and lengthy injuries to Neasa Dooley, Ruby Svarc and Ally Anderson, Starcevich says he’s learnt how resilient his team is.<\/p>\n
Participants in the past four Grand Finals, Brisbane snapped a five-game losing streak at the weekend with a win over Port Adelaide and faces St Kilda and Carlton to round out its season.<\/p>\n
“It’s been one of those years where our players, our leaders, have been so resilient across the group,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The absolute silver lining has been getting games into the younger crop.<\/p>\n
Brisbane players sing the team song after the AFLW Round 10 match against Port Adelaide at Brighton Homes Arena on October 17, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
“We’ve poured through statistics every Monday or Tuesday to find nuggets in there where you’re actually going better than the outside analysis is telling you.<\/p>\n
“It’s often foundation stuff like one-percenters \u2026 where you know if you keep persevering in those areas sooner or later when the wheel turns you’ll be in good shape and can take advantage with ball movement and scoring.<\/p>\n
“You’ve just got to make sure everyone’s well aware things are not as bad as they seem.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Starcevich is confident Brisbane can push back up the ladder quickly, with a new deal as coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-935829","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\/935829","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=935829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}