BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss sat down with Scott Beveridge to reflect on what the side has achieved at the halfway point of the season.

Going into the mid season break, how do you rate the Lions’ performance so far?
Largely disappointing. We let go of a pretty good start. We’ve had some near misses along the way and some very close losses and because we’ve lost those they’ve put us on the back foot a little bit.

Did you have any stated aims as a team before the start of the season?
No we didn’t really, there was probably enough spoken about in the general public without speaking about the end outcome. It was more about trying to apply a new game style and making sure we could execute that properly and we certainly did for a little while but we haven’t been able to do that as well or as consistently since.

Have you had to change that game style based on losing a few games in the last couple of months?
No. We’ve had a good chat about that as a coaching group and thought that due to personnel do we change it and we think that it’s worthwhile to persist with it and make sure that the players come in and they learn what they have to do within it so that it becomes instinctive. Worst case scenario is that we’ve spent 12 months being able to learn what to do and then we get to practice it over a pre-season. Best case scenario is getting newer players into the group, they get to learn our system and they will learn within it.

Did you have too much of a focus on the first four games because you won all four of them but things have gone downhill after that?
No, I don’t think so. We certainly were in a lull, I think for a month there. We were flagging physically. I think the first four games for a number of reasons took it out of us, but more recently it has been because we haven’t been able to finish off our work.

You’ve spoken a lot about the players regaining their competitiveness, is that something you can coach or does it have to come from within them?
A bit of both, but we’ve just got to be able to see out games. At times when things aren’t going for you we’ve got to be able to make sure we can lock the game down, we don’t seem to be able to do that.

It has been said a number of times you recruited to win a premiership, drafting Brendan Fevola, Matt Maguire, Amon Buchanan, Brent Staker, Xavier Clarke and Andrew Raines. Overall has it been a successful recruiting drive for you?
It has been used a lot that term, recruiting for a premiership. I actually don’t believe that was the motive. The end outcome was hopefully that would happen, but I don’t think that’s the premise of what we recruited for. I don’t think I have ever communicated that, other than to be able to compete against some of the best teams we need to be able to change some of the things on our list. I felt there were some gaps there. The guys that we recruited were never meant to be part of our core. In essence because of some of the injuries we have had they have become that. I think they have applied themselves wonderfully well and have been really good contributors to our club.

Xavier Clarke seems to be getting closer, certainly on the injury list every week, are you hoping to see him in the second half of the season?
He will play in the second week after the bye. He is very excited by that and he wants to ramp up his game time pretty quickly in the reserves. I would have thought it would be quite reasonable to have an aim for Xavier to try and get some senior footy under his belt again (this year) and just give him some momentum coming into next year. He’s desperate to get back, he’s certainly moving very well and we can’t wait to get him back out there.

You’re missing some of your key players, including Jonathan Brown, Matt Maguire, Josh Drummond and Ash McGrath, how different do you think the side will look in the latter part of the season?
I don’t think you’ll see much difference, we’ve been able to get a number of games into some other boys, which has been good. You might also see Pearce Hanley, hopefully he will come back into the fold, he’s been very close, but at the same time we would like to get some old heads back in the team again.

Jonathan Brown was playing at 90 per cent fitness for a few weeks there. Do you think he was played for a bit too long while he wasn’t 100 per cent?
Probably. Certainly his initial program changed from what he was originally doing and then we went down a path that made some good ground quickly. When he made some ground that looked promising. But then he hovered for a couple of weeks and because of that it clearly showed he needed a rest to be able to recover. There is probably a fair element to suggest that we took a couple of weeks longer than what we perhaps should have but we had to make the call on the information that was in front of us.

Looking ahead can you expect any significant change to the game plan or the strategies in the latter part of the season to make sure that you get some more wins on the board?
Not really, we’ve got to be able to raise the intensity. That’s the biggest thing at the moment, how do we raise our intensity regularly, how do we do it more often. The players believe in what we are trying to do. Now it’s about being able to have the application week in, week out.

In your second year as a senior coach, are you working out the best ways to motivate your players and do you have to tailor your coaching style for each individual player?
You are always tailoring based on the moment, a win, a loss, where you want to take the players, what you want to teach. We are lucky that we have got a really positive group and despite the fact we’ve had some challenges and some of the results haven’t gone our way, I’ve been really pleased that the players have stuck to the task.

There have been some rumours that Michael Rischitelli is being targeted by Gold Coast for next season. Is that the case and have you spoken to Michael about it?
No I haven’t but I’m comfortable with the contribution Michael is making. One of the things he stated was that he wanted to stay at our club and that he wanted to represent our club. He didn’t want to go anywhere else. I’m sure Gold Coast has been talking to a lot of players and maybe Michael has been one of them but I know where his heart is and I know where his head is and that is all I’m concerned about.

Jamie Charman is out for the season after undergoing ankle surgery, is he still in your plans for next season?
Well he has to be, he is contracted so he will be. We were looking forward to seeing Charmo bounce back because he had a massive pre-season and was looking really ominous. Now he has spent a couple of years out of the game it’s going to be harder for him but I’m sure that given a lucky break he might actually come back and prove a lot of people wrong.

A couple of key forwards you could probably use at the moment are Daniel Bradshaw and Lachie Henderson. Do you keep any particular eye on how they are going at their new clubs?
No, not really. I watch them like I do a lot of other teams and follow them. You’ve got your head space so much in what your team is doing it’s a little hard to track the progress of other players at other clubs. We obviously pass on our best to all of them and we hope that they maximise their opportunities elsewhere.

Do you think your midfielders have to be less Fevola-focused, particularly without Jonathan Brown there as it is easier to double team him?
Yeah, we have got to lower our eyes a lot and look for those other options. Hopefully now having two weeks where we haven’t had him (Brown) we just get a little bit more used to what we can expect and we can train for it and the players get used to being able to adjust their eyes to other areas.

Have you got any aims for the last nine games of the season?
No, for us, outcome goes out the window a little bit. We’ve got to make sure that we get our competitiveness back, the thirst for the contest. Their training has improved dramatically over the last month and I just believe that if we keep to task and we get our preparation right that it will turn. We just hope that we have got enough time up our sleeve to make that happen.