BRISBANE Lions’ star Jonathan Brown has admitted the weekend off didn’t really sit well with him after the club’s shock loss to Melbourne in round 14.
Brown was speaking alongside Bomber Brent Stanton on Friday at Telstra Dome ahead of Saturday night’s clash at that venue between the Brisbane Lions and Essendon.
“It (the loss) has been a hard pill to swallow for the last two weeks, especially having the weekend off,” Brown said.
“Hopefully it will galvanise the guys going into tomorrow night …Melbourne was a big disappointment for us. We could have been knocking on the door of the top four I suppose, but it wasn’t to be.
“It was a big lesson for us to show that we’ve got to turn up every week.”
Brown said the Lions will be attempting to find the intensity they lacked against the Dees when they run out against the Bombers tomorrow night.
“We missed twice as many tackles as we normally do. Our intensity all around the ground wasn’t great as a team so that was disappointing because that’s been a terrific aspect of our game for pretty much the whole season.”
Brent Stanton said Essendon is also looking to maintain the intensity it has found over the past few weeks, an improvement which has seen the Bombers record three consecutive victories over West Coast, Carlton and Fremantle.
“It’s been the main focus for us to try and smarten up our defensive actions and our intensity,” the dashing midfielder said.
“We want to go out there again on Saturday night and pick up our intensity and tackles and put pressure on the midfield so it doesn’t float too quickly down to Jonathan and Daniel Bradshaw.”
Stanton also expressed relief that key defender Dustin Fletcher won’t miss Saturday’s clash after it was feared he had broken his hand during the victory over Fremantle.
“It’s great that the news came back that his hand isn’t broken so it’s handy to have him back down there.”
The Bombers will benefit from the return of backman Henry Slattery after he missed round 14. The 22-year-old was badly concussed after he courageously attempted to spoil a charging Brendan Fevola in the victory over Carlton the previous week.
“To see that sacrificial act that Henry put in, it really did boost us for that match and then went into Fremantle. It’s good to get him back, he’s a strong defender,” Stanton said.
