LEIGH Matthews has challenged his midfielders to shake off their Sydney markers, as the Brisbane Lions look to snap a three-year losing run against the Swans.
The Lions have not beaten Sydney since round one of 2004 and Matthews believes the six games since provide a good indication of how the Swans will line up on his running brigade at the Gabba tomorrow night.
The challenge, he says, is for his on-ballers to respond.
“If history is any guide, you are going to see Brett Kirk play on Simon Black, Luke Ablett on Nigel Lapppin and Ben Matthews on Luke Power,” Matthews said.
“On average those guys have done what they’ve set out to do against us.
“The challenge, as always, is for our group to be better than their group, and the past few time we’ve played, we haven’t been.”
The Lions had a re-jigged preparation this week, forgoing their usual two group trainings for a single session on Thursday.
On the basis of that session, Matthews expects his side to benefit from the freshen-up.
“You could train every night or you could train no nights – it’s always a judgment call,” he said.
“You make the call on what you think is the best preparation week to week and sometimes it’s exactly the same as the previous week.
“I didn’t think we had the same bounce in stride (against Hawthorn last week) that we’d shown before - so I thought we’d have a bit of a rejuvenation week with only the one session on the Thursday night.
“And I thought they bounced around well last night.”
Matthews’ decision not to have a hard week on the track could prove vital, with defenders Troy Selwood (general soreness) and Joel Macdonald (virus) both late withdrawals today.
They have been replaced by Matthew Moody and Justin Sherman, the latter of whom is underdone and only returned from illness in the reserves last week.
“(Sherman’s) not ideal. He missed a couple of weeks and then he only played (in the reserves) last week,” Matthews said.
“In terms of the available players, he was one who has got some speed. But he’ll be used off the bench and will have a short game.
“Joel Macdonald should come up next week. He’s had a virus-type thing that was affecting his kidneys and spent a couple of days in hospital I think.
“He’s out now but he wasn’t able to play this week.”
