Senior Assistant Gary O’Donnell says the Lions must focus on identified key areas of improvement if they are to limit the impact of Carlton on Saturday at The Gabba.
The Lions are one win (and less than two percentage points) behind the Blues and could leapfrog them with a victory.
“More importantly we’re thinking about what we’ll need to do and how we need to finish the year off in the last four weeks from a Brisbane team point of view.
“Offensive has been a big point for us the last couple of weeks, that will continue.
“The defensive side of our game and our stoppages we just need to tinker with and try to find improvement going into the end of the year.”
Carlton captain Marc Murphy has averaged more than 27 disposals in 2015 and leads a Blues outfit that we be without Levi Casboult (knee), Simon White (knee) and Cameron Wood (omitted) but regains David Ellard, Kristian Jaksch and Matthew Dick.
“Murphy is obviously a good player and will need to be covered well.
“Patrick Cripps, as a first year player is doing very well also, he’s in line for the Rising Star – so we’ll have to look after him.
“He’s a good clearance player, I think he had 11 last week.
“They’ve got a host of players we’ll have to cover.”
Former Blue Mitch Robinson will also come up against his old side for the second time this year.
Robinson was solid when the teams met in round six, and despite the Lions' struggles, he has got better and better as the season has worn on.
Moving to the midfield after the mid-season bye, the 26-year-old has excelled, averaging 22 disposals and 10 tackles the past five weeks.
Trent West will make his senior return for the first time since round 11, 2014. The 27-year old suffered an ACL injury requiring a knee reconstruction.
“It’s really exciting to have Westy back, he’ll be able to fill in, in the ruck for us, but he’ll probably mainly play forward with Stefan Martin in the ruck.
“If he (West) can go as well as McGuane did last week it’ll be really good and they can work in tandem along with Jono Freeman.
“It probably just puts another big body up there with Jono and hopefully they can take a few grabs and kick a few goals for us.”
