The SUNS, meanwhile, get the luxury of an extra day’s break, but have had to travel back to Queensland from Perth where they battled reigning Grand Finalists Fremantle in similarly difficult conditions.
Lions Senior Coach Justin Leppitsch says the shortened break shouldn’t affect the ‘freshness’ of his team so early in the season.
“Normally one six day break is not an issue. It’s when you have consecutive six-day breaks (that it can become a problem),” Leppitsch said.
“I think we should back-up fine. We’re in South-East Queensland as well, so it’s not another travel.
“That shouldn’t be any issue for us on Saturday night.”
Full-back Daniel Merrett echoed his coach’s sentiments on Tuesday, claiming the Lions would benefit from not having to travel interstate.
“It’s good we don’t have to travel again,” Merrett said.
“(With a shortened week) we probably miss out on one conditioning component (of training), but you almost come in a bit fresher.
“We’ll get (Wednesday) off, then have our main session on Thursday.”
Merrett also said that the SUNS deserved their favouritism with betting agencies, despite the Lions showing some promising form against quality opposition.
“We’re going into the weekend as underdogs. They deserve the favouritism at the moment,” Merrett said.
“Our start of the year has been up against maybe two of the strongest teams from the past decade. We’ll take some confidence that we’ve been competitive at times against them.”
