No excuses. Plain and simple.
That is the strong mantra that new Brisbane Lions Senior Coach Chris Fagan will bring to the halls of the Hyundai Centre.
“Let’s be honest, a 10kg weight is the same if it is in the bottom of a woodshed or in the Lexus Centre at Collingwood," Fagan told The Courier-Mail.
"You can’t tell me those Kenyans that can run marathons like they do get to train in the best conditions, they just put their runners on and go and run in the mountains.
"I think footy is like that, you just need an oval to train on, footballs, a gym to lift weights in and good people around.
“You can have an excuse mentality or you can make the most of what you have got.’’
Players will be asked to contribute to establishing new non-negotiable standards and then be expected to hold each other to account, said Fagan.
“That is the sort of culture we are trying to develop and that’s the sort of culture I have come from, you step out of line you get told,’’ he said.
"But ultimately, if any player doesn’t want to play by the rules that we set up and the culture that we set up, then we are better off not to have them.’’
Introducing defensive values into the football side is another key plank of his plan to making the Brisbane Lions relevant again in the AFL world.
“The team's defence is a massive outlier and it needs to be fixed,’’ he said.
“The defensive side of things is a priority, you have got to measure the things that really matter and you have got to make the guys that do it the heroes of the team and really put a value on it."
Listen to Fagan on RSN:
