‘He’s at peace’: Inside two Lions’ desperate race for premiership place

Brisbane Lions star Hugh McCluggage insists the defending champions can cast aside their limp collapse against Geelong less than three weeks ago, even if two key men fail in their recovery hopes.

Two-time Brownlow Medal winner Lachie Neale is launching a desperate bid to overcome a calf injury sustained when the two sides clashed in a 38-point Cats triumph that left Brisbane’s prospects of a third-straight grand final appearance in doubt.

But the Lions responded emphatically – comfortable wins against the Gold Coast and Collingwood booking their place at the MCG – and McCluggage pointed to other season victories against Fremantle and Hawthorn without Neale as a sign they would not be deterred.

“Any time you add a player of that quality to your team, it’s going to make your team better. But we know that we can perform really well without him,” McCluggage said.

“Whichever way it falls, we’ll go in and do our best, and we’ll be confident that we can put in a better performance than what we did last time.”

McCluggage has been at the heart of the Neale-free wins.

The 27-year-old amassed 70 disposals, 20 clearances and 12 inside 50s in the two games since his heavily scrutinised tagging by Geelong rival Oisin Mullin, in which he was kept to just 14 touches.

McCluggage was adamant he harboured no demons heading into Saturday’s showpiece should Mullin be deployed against him again. Instead, he relished the idea of Brisbane’s brains trust formulating plans to rewrite the narrative of their past encounter.

“I won’t get too caught up in it early in the week because they’ve got a lot of guys that can play different roles,” McCluggage said.

“Nothing’s guaranteed. If it happens again, I’ll definitely have a look at a few things that I can do better, but I think we’re all going to be like that.

“I was disappointed, but I just reviewed it. Emotion itself isn’t going to get you that improvement, and I looked at what I needed to do differently the following week.

“Whether I was getting tagged or not, I was just disappointed with my performance holistically in that match. I got to work and worked with [Lions midfield coach] Cam Bruce on a few different things that I could improve on, and worked on being a better teammate when I’m in that situation.”

Brisbane will already be without several key men, with Jack Payne, Noah Answerth, Lincoln McCarthy, Eric Hipwood, Tom Doedee, and Keidean Coleman ruled out with season-ending injuries.

But hope remains for wingman Jarrod Berry to make a miraculous comeback from a dislocated shoulder, despite the harrowing scenes of him being helped off the field in agony against Collingwood.

It was the second time in five weeks Berry’s shoulder had popped out, but McCluggage confirmed “he still hasn’t been ruled out”.

If he could not overcome the setback, the Lions vice-captain was confident his close mate would replicate the team-first mentality embodied by ruckman Oscar McInerney, who suffered the same fate before last year’s decider.

“He’s going to do everything he can, like Lachie, to prove himself,” McCluggage said.

“It’s not really in ours or his hands any more … speaking to him, he’s at peace with whatever result happens. It’s really disappointing for guys that miss out, but you hear these stories every year.

“We had Big O last year, who handled himself really well, so I’m sure that for the boys who miss out, they’ll look to that and make sure they’re great teammates throughout the week for us.”

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