Throughout pre-season, the Brisbane Lions had one main focus at training: improving contested ball.
Coach Chris Fagan was willing to risk injuries at training to improve an area the Lions had been poor in for quite some time.
"We've ramped it up a fair bit this year, the competitive side of our training," Fagan said back in
"We need to win more contested ball so we can supply it to our forward line more regularly and not have to defend so many inside
In 2017 the Lions won the contested ball count in just four games.
Before this year's bye, the tally stood at three wins. Victories in the past three weeks have seen that number rise to six.
Against Hawthorn on Saturday, the Lions won all four quarters in
Winning the ball helped the Lions restrict the Hawks to just 65 points, making it three weeks in a row the opposition has been held under 70 points. The last time this happened three times in a row was back in 2007.
The past three weeks in total have seen a contested ball differential of +78, with all three games ranking in the Lions' top 10 contested ball wins of the past five years.
The spread of contested ball winners on Saturday was very encouraging, with Dayne Beams, Hugh McCluggage, Dayne Zorko, Jarrod Berry, Josh Walker, Stef Martin, Allen Christensen and Rhys Mathieson all collecting 10 or more contested possessions.
In short, the hard work over summer is paying off and the Lions are no longer '
As emerging players like McCluggage, Berry and Cam Rayner continue to mature and find their feet at the Senior level, the Lions are well on track to becoming a team to fear around the ball.
