THE BRISBANE Lions are ready for any forward line tricks Melbourne might throw their way on Saturday night according to coach Michael Voss.
The fifth-placed Lions have welcomed back key position men Daniel Merrett (ankle) and Joel Patfull (jaw) from injury but also retained fellow talls Lachlan Henderson and Jason Roe who were outstanding in the round 12 win over Hawthorn.
They are likely to be matched up against a smaller forward line with strong men Brad Miller and Russell Robertson complemented by the likes of the quicker Colin Sylvia who has been named as the Demons’ full forward.
Voss said he was not concerned about any potential match-up issues and believed his back six could cope with whatever was thrown their way.
“We expect they’ll do different things down there,” he said.
Voss said he had discussed the various scenarios with his backmen and the most preferred match-ups.
‘’It’s the same every week,” Voss said. “You can never be guaranteed what the opposition will do and you’ve got to focus on how you want your structure to be.
“We’re pretty adamant we play better when we’re prepared to hold our structures.
“If there’s anything we’ve had to do over the last month it’s show flexibility and without those key position players like Merrett, we’ve had to have that degree of flexibility.”
While Josh Drummond has not recovered from a calf injury sustained in round 11 against Carlton, Voss said he was more than happy to bring both Merrett and Patfull straight back into the line-up.
Earlier in the season he gave returning injured player Jared Brennan, Jamie Charman and Rhan Hooper time in the reserves before playing seniors, but said the defensive duo had weeks of continuous training and a good base to fall back on.
He said it was also important to reward Henderson and Roe, who blanketed Hawks duo Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin in their last start.
“They might spend some time in key positions,” he said.
“The great thing about Patfull is he can play on talls or smalls and he does it well. He could play on Aaron Davey, he could also play on Robertson, that’s the good thing about the defence at the moment.”
Voss said the Lions had returned to training on Monday in a good frame of mind after the mid-season break and saw no signs of complacency ahead of the battle with the last-placed Demons.
He said the 7-5 Lions were not getting ahead of themselves just yet.
“All we’ve really done is put ourselves in a good position to attack the second half of the year,” he said.
In good news for the Lions’ depleted ruck stocks, Voss said Matthew Leuenberger would commence running in the next week or two and was still hopeful of a return by round 20.
