Saturday’s game was about playing a role and capitalizing on the Eagles’ weaknesses, according to Forwards Coach Jed Adcock.
The 48-point win over the weekend, saw the Lions’ forwards stand up to the mark, and nullify their defenders.
“As we know, they like to mark the ball and they start their offence from that, so we pretty much just brought the ball to ground at every occasion,” Adcock said.
“That brought our smalls into the game and allowed us to pressure the game.”
Exploiting the Lions strength in their small forwards, Lincoln McCarthy kicked a career-high four goals and Charlie Cameron utilised his speed, coming away with three.
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“It’s not always going to be a night for the talls… so the smalls were able to pop up and kick a few goals.”
“As forwards you have to let them do their own thing and put their natural flare on the game.”
The Lions enjoyed a run of nine unanswered goals from early in the second quarter to the fourth term, killing off the match to their advantage.
Adcock said the Forward pressure was impressive, especially during the third quarter where the Lions left the Eagles scoreless.
“We adapted in the last three quarters really well, we played a bit more surge ball and got the ball in forward,” Adcock said.
“That was really the main change.
“Our mids and defenders did a really good job of squeezing the ground and turning the ball back over and reset our forward line back in.”
The Lions hope to build on the momentum from Round 1, when they face North Melbourne on Sunday at Marvel Stadium.
Adcock said the Lions are focusing on their game this week yet also learning from mistakes made in previous years.
“Last year they really got the jump on us early, I think by half time they were 50 points up”
“We can’t give a team like North that kind of lead.”