DANIEL Rich is safe at the moment, but Brisbane Lions coach Justin Leppitsch has put the onus on the midfielder to start working his way through tags.
Rich was a first quarter star in Saturday's 49-point loss to West Coast, racking up 13 influential disposals as the Lions trailed by a single point, before the Eagles sent stopper Mark Hutchings to him.
For the final three quarters, Rich had just seven touches, including three when the Lions were blown away in the second term.
It's become a disturbing trend for the 2009 NAB AFL Rising Star winner, who was kept quiet by Michael Barlow last week, Ed Curnow two weeks ago and had a career-low seven touches against North Melbourne's Ben Jacobs earlier in the year.
Leppitsch stood behind his vice captain, but said collectively he, Rich and his teammates had to find a solution to the problem.
"He has to drive it there's no doubt," Leppitsch said.
"There's no secret we have a good first quarter and he's heavily involved and (then) he drops away.
"It's something he has to overcome and we have to help him do it, no doubt.
"I think he has got the physical capabilities, everyone does.
"Sometimes it's not always run, sometimes you use your body against your opposition if you don't have the run, as Sam Mitchell does.
"There's different ways to do it, you just have to find a plan and stick to it."
Despite his struggles, Leppitsch said Rich was not in danger of being dropped.
"He's got a lot of credits in the bank," he said.
"I think life's about ticks and crosses. You build up a heap of ticks and build up some crosses and they have to weigh up together.
"He wasn't the only one that came in and out of the game. We had some guys that were really poor in the contest that were probably worse than Daniel.
"I know he cops most of the heat because you see the high end and the low end. We still have to build some more consistency around the fringes of our team."
While Rich faded out of the game, that wasn't the worst news for the Lions.
Leppitsch confirmed midfielder Tom Bell – who missed the Eagles match – would need to undergo knee surgery and could miss the rest of the season.
Leppitsch said the Lions had to fix up their basic errors if they were to improve.
"Our handballing is a real issue at the moment," he said.
"It's alarming how many basic handball errors we made today.
"Funny enough we do an extra session than most of the teams (on it).
"When the pressure's on your vision shrinks sometimes and the most basic of errors happen.
"Our job's to fix it and train it."
