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"This is now significant." | First Thoughts - Brisbane's struggles (01.06.26)
31 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the current standings of the Brisbane Lions?
I wouldn't mind getting on to the Brisbane Lions because this is now significant. They are in ninth position. Kingy, of course, they've played one more game as well as a couple of the other teams, four other teams. They've played 12 games. They have lost their last three by big margins. Smashed by Geelong at home. Smashed by the Giants away. Essentially smashed by Fremantle.
I know the scoreline in the end doesn't say that, but they were absolutely dominated. They've lost their last three games. Six and six.
Chapter 2: How have the Brisbane Lions performed in recent games?
When's it over? When are we calling it?
Well, I went with the She'll Be Right thing three weeks ago, right? And... People laugh at you. And it wasn't well received up north. I know that. So it's always a tricky one to say they can't win it because they're so stacked with talent.
Yeah, well, you still had them in your seedings on Friday. Yep, yep. Are they still there?
Well, they've been replaced by daylight, really.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Brisbane's recent losses?
There's not a lot of teams that can win it this year, in my opinion. Really? Who are they? Are you prepared to say? We'll get to that later. We'll do our seedings later. Are you prepared to say? Absolutely. We'll do it later.
Don't get ahead of the run sheet, my man. It's only 7.15.
When do we put a line through Brisbane? Because I'm with you. I was reluctant. I wasn't putting a line. I didn't have them in my seedings, but I wasn't going to write them off. I don't know. I'm starting to think we need to put a big red line through the back-to-back champs.
If you can't defend, you can't win big games of footy. And against the best teams, they've played six games against the top eight teams. They're one and five. That's enough for me. You're not competitive against the top eight and you're not getting better. You're not looking better. They've had the powwow. They didn't get the response.
I was blown away that they didn't get the response this weekend. I just felt like their leaders would have sat down, read the riot act to a few. Come on. We've got to get physical again. We've got to get our game back. We've got to play with a bit of dare. Yeah. And I don't know if it's because Zorko's not at halfback, but they look like they can't move the ball all of a sudden.
I watched Darcy Wilmot, and I said on Saturday night, I'd be throwing him in the middle. He's the only one that's running with any genuine intent to do everything for everyone. I think you've got to take the reward of prime time positions off that midfield group at the moment.
They, they, they, we talk about the one way runners, the little Burke street that they are, their midfield is little Burke street at the moment. There's a tiny bit of two way, but it's pretty much one way.
Yeah, so after the Geelong game, I said, look, Faggs never drops anyone, but is it time for a bit of a shake-up? And I had my eyes on Fletcher because he just had five kicked on him and he just looks a shell of himself.
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Chapter 4: When should we consider writing off the Brisbane Lions this season?
No, back in the same guys. Okay, Giants, 14 goals in one quarter. Is he going to drop anyone? No, no, no. It'll be Zalewski or whoever he drops every single week. I guarantee you who will get dropped this week. Guarantee. We'll address this on Friday. It'll be Curtin and... And it'll be McKenna. They're the two players that Faze will drop this week.
When is anyone of note at Brisbane going to pay the price for poor performance? And everyone will say, well, it's worked for them before. And it has. And credits are... Fade for his loyalty, absolutely. But maybe times are different.
Chapter 5: What changes need to be made to the Brisbane Lions' strategy?
Maybe in the chase for three, you do need to shake the group up a little bit, and they just can't keep wheeling out these performances. So Curtin's out this week. McKenna's out. Now, Brucey Revel, he may lose his place, but I guarantee it won't be Rainer. Brucey's going nowhere. It won't be Lyman. It won't be Rayner. It won't be Fletcher. It won't be any of the Ashcrofts.
This will be of no one of significance this week, and let's see if the same results continue to happen.
I've got a question for you. Draper and Oscar Allen, are they the taller Taranto and Hopper?
It's looking like it. The only thing I would say to that is they didn't give up four first-round picks. which is what Richmond gave up for Hopper and Taranto. But they've walked into the back end of a bad deal. On a big contract, which may have the flying effects of losing Zach Bailey if you can't pay him. I think if they had their time again, they wouldn't have been doing that deal.
And Lockheel, do you think he'd vacate as well? I would think so. What do you do with McCluggage? He's the one. They're just missing McCluggage more than any other player.
So McCluggage needs a danger-filled preseason. He needs a – have a spell for – you're not playing VFL, but we're going to get you really confident in your body here. Now, he has enough credits in the bank where you go, okay, we've got to respect this guy. He's in the All-Australian squad for five years in a row. He was an All-Australian last year, and he's incredible.
But he's not running with the same power. He's fumbly. He just needs a mini preseason for me. And if we're still alive, when you come back in four to five weeks super sharp and super fit, then that's a bonus. If not, then we might put a line through you for the rest of the year if there's no point us being in a position to win it again.
That's, I think, the conversation you need to have with Hugh McCluggage because he's fumbly and he doesn't look like he's got any confidence in his body at all. Let's have a listen to Chris Fagan just on how he saw that performance in the last three weeks.
I thought we got a bit of confidence back in the last quarter, but there seemed to be a lot of lack of confidence in the first three. So there's a positive there. Yeah. Too many of our really good players down. You only have to look at their numbers to identify who they are. And that's obvious.
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