LEIGH Matthews will again go looking for ways to find more goalkickers, as his Brisbane Lions prepare for a tough round-four road assignment against Port Adelaide.
Matthews has previously lamented the Lions’ over-reliance on Jonathan Brown, and in Saturday night’s 17-point loss to the Sydney Swans, it was Daniel Bradshaw who bore the biggest forward line burden – kicking five of his team's 10 goals.
The Lions’ only other multiple goalkicker was second-gamer Lachie Henderson, with two. Brown was tightly checked by former teammate Craig Bolton and booted only one major.
"Again we didn’t have anyone to mop up in the forward line when ball went to ground," Matthews said.
"We just weren’t able to generate enough goals up there, We had only five goalkickers on the night and kicked only 10 goals.
"The Swans kicked 13.11, which isn’t a massive score, but we couldn’t even match that."
While Matthews was disappointed by the production levels of his own forward line, he was effusive in his praise of star Swan Barry Hall.
Hall kicked only a single goal but had a monstrous game in all other respects, leading far and wide to pull in 14 marks and gather 23 possessions.
"Barry Hall was fantastic, probably the best player on the ground," Matthews said.
"He didn’t put the goals on the board but he had 14 marks and was just that really good running centre-half-forward.
"Their good players played well, better than ours. Kirk, Goodes and Kennelly – all the usual suspects, we couldn’t stop them doing what they do well."
Despite a result that reduces the Lions’ season record to 1-2, Matthews is confident of one thing – that his team will not go down without a fight.
That spirit will be needed over the next month, which features matches against the Power, the in-form Hawthorn and the red-hot Geelong.
"We’ve been competitive and we keep at it," Matthews said.
"We haven’t played wonderfully fantastic footy in terms of skill but the persistence been good.
"If we can get a little better in terms of execution with our ball handling and disposal, then we have a good base to build from."
