Weather Woes
After wild winds heavily impacted their game against Collingwood at Maroochydore and strong gusts played a role in Saturday’s clash against St Kilda, the Lions will be looking forward to calmer conditions at Metricon on Thursday night.
Known as a venue that often facilitates conditions perfect for football, the Lions will be hoping to make the most of the sheltered venue as they hunt for their fifth win in a row.
Lions young gun Sophie Conway told media on Wednesday that her side is looking forward to getting back to playing their style of football that fans know and love.
“When the conditions provide challenges, it can be a little hard to play our game style,” Conway said.
“I think any team would love to play in perfect conditions, but the reality is we haven’t had those in the last few weeks.”
“[Tonight] we’re playing at Metricon, it’s a really good stadium and has a little bit of coverage so hopefully there isn’t too much wind.”
Red Hot Suns
The Gold Coast Suns will come into the third QClash in red hot form, winning three of their last four matches.
Pushing contention into the top six in recent weeks with vital wins over Geelong and Richmond, the Lions will need to prepare accordingly if they want to walk away with the four points.
Their recent dominance comes from a raft of Suns stars putting together breakout seasons, including key forwards Tori Groves-Little, Tara Bohanna and Sarah Perkins.
While No.1 Draft Pick Charlie Rowbottom and Round 6 Rising Star nominee Ellie Hampson have also been influential in several of the Suns’ recent wins.
With plenty of Lions talents are also in career-best form, including midfielders Emily Bates, Orla O’Dwyer and Jade Ellenger, this year’s QClash is shaping up to be another close one.
Test of Endurance
It’ll be a challenge of endurance and stamina over the next fortnight for the Lions, with QClash the second of three games in nine days for the defending Premiers.
Arriving at Metricon off the back a difficult win over St Kilda in Melbourne on Sunday, the Lions will then turn around after Thursday’s clash to play Premiership contenders Melbourne on Monday.
With the revised fixture seeing the Lions ultimately play four games in 15 days, they’ll need to be on top of everything from preparation to recovery to perform at their best.
Speaking on the revised fixture, Brisbane Lions AFLW Head Coach Craig Starcevich said his team is just looking forward to playing lots of footy.
“The initial reaction from the squad [when we were told the fixture] was fantastic, I mean they love playing football,” Starcevich said.
“From our point of view, we get to play a lot of footy in the next two weeks against opposition like this who will want to test us, and that’s fantastic.”
The Brisbane Lions will play the Gold Coast Suns on Thursday February 17 at Metricon Stadium at 6:40pm. You can catch all the action live on Kayo or womens.afl.
