IT HAS been 13 years since Brisbane won more contested ball than it lost over a season and coach Chris Fagan has endured some nervous moments this summer to fix his team's biggest weakness.
The Lions ranked 18th for contested possession differential last season (-11.0), with club champion Dayne Zorko the only player in the top 50 for overall contested possessions.
It's a trend that dates back to 2005, when Leigh Matthews' triple-premiership Lions went from the best contested team in the AFL to the third worst, and the club has spent the past 13 seasons averaging 8.7 fewer contested balls a game than their opponents.
After making significant ground with the team's ball movement last season, Fagan has targeted contested ball for improvement this season, and the resulting bash and crash at training has not been comfortable to watch.
"Obviously you teach technique, but then you put it to the test under physical pressure and that's a bit risky, because you've got to go hard to improve contested ball," Fagan told AFL.com.au.
"So our practice games have been fairly willing affairs in the last two or three weeks, where you sort of smile and you're pleased, but you're also nervous as a coach hoping no one gets hurt.
"But it has to be a focus … the club hasn't been good at that for seven or eight years."
It's been so far so good for the Lions as they ramp up the physicality, with Sam Skinner (knee) and Marco Paparone (sciatic nerve) the only players sidelined through injury as the JLT Community Series approaches.
It is a medical landscape in complete contrast to the one Fagan walked into at the end of 2016 as a first-time AFL senior coach, estimating that no more than 40 per cent of his group last year completed full or close to full pre-seasons.
"I would say right now we've had 90 per cent of our players or more who have done 95 per cent of the pre-season. That's really exciting," the coach said.
"The medical team, the fitness team and the footy coaches have worked together really well over the last 16-18 months to build that physical resilience in our group.
"We've used all the science that we can with GPS and we've trained a lot more football specific, as opposed to running around the oval, and I think all of that has just prepared the players a lot better to play the game."
Midfielder Tom Bell was typical of a player group that Fagan said had honed in on its weaknesses this pre-season, with the big-bodied Lion accepting feedback that his contested game was inconsistent and working religiously to improve it.
Second-year midfielder Hugh McCluggage, meanwhile, had prioritised time in the gym and was now more confident in match play and making his tackles stick.
The sum of the parts is a positive group where "grit and resilience" are becoming common traits and expectations to improve in 2018 are being embraced.
"At all levels in the footy club, I think there's a sense of optimism that we'll continue to improve," Fagan said.
"We've got an expectation to improve, so the natural conclusion from that is we're hoping we win more games this season than we did last season.
"How many, we haven't put a figure on it. We just want to get better."
Brisbane has been going hard on the training track. Picture: AFL Photos
