‘In our court’: Lions’ honest admission on wild surge... and the selection gamble that could follow

The fight for a spot in Brisbane’s best 23 is heating up as the club searches for an incredible third straight premiership.

Saturday night’s win over West Coast makes it six straight for Chris Fagan’s men - something even the coach admits he didn’t see coming.

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“I thought we were in a bit of trouble when we were six wins and six losses - if you had of told me we would be 12-6 six weeks later, I might not have believed you at that point in time,” he said.

“We have found some form – but there’s still a long way to go in the season.

“The good thing is we’ve got ourselves up and going again. The ball is now in our court.”

One of those players fighting to hold his spot is West Aussie James Tunstill, who was an emergency in last year’s grand final win.

He came into the side this week after Bruce Reville missed the trip west for personal reasons.

“That’s the tough thing with this team – there’s so much competition for spots,” he said.

“There’s a lot of boys coming back from injury. That’s the tough thing about being in a top four side. But that’s what makes us a good club.

“It’s always been like that. I enjoy the challenge.

“You learn a lot off these guys – I keep trying to get better every year.”

Recruit Oscar Allen and Lincoln McCarthy both played their first VFL matches this weekend, joining teammate Keidean Coleman in a bid to return to AFL level.

While Fagan said Allen could join the likes of Logan Morris and Eric Hipwood in a three tall attack set up, it was up to players to force their way back into this winning line up.

“Oscar played in the twos simply because he hadn’t played football since Round 6 and he hasn’t played much football over the last three years full stop,” the coach shared.

“When he comes back to this ground to play against his old team, I want him to be in peak fitness and peak shape – I didn’t think that would be fair to him tonight, even though he desperately wanted to play.

“Eric (Hipwood) is not holding Oscar out.

“We might end up playing with Logan, Oscar and Eric in the same forward line – and that’s something we’d try to have a look at over the next few weeks to see if that can work for us.

“See if it makes us better or it doesn’t.

“Linc, through form has just got to force his way back into the team.

“We’ve won the last six games in a row so it’s pretty hard to change a team that’s doing that.”

The Lions aren’t shying away from the pressure of trying to become just the third team this century to win three straight flags - following on from the Brisbane of 2001-2003 and Hawthorn of 2013-2015.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance to finish top four which is where you want to be ideally,” he said.

“There’s a lot of teams in competition for that (top four) spot – but you’ve got to be in the hunt.

“Destiny is in our own hands.

“Everyone knows the ladder and percentage and all that stuff so why shy away from it?

“We’ve definitely used that as motivation over the last two or three weeks. It’s so tight, we’ve got to stay in the hunt and get that top four spot.

“I think it’s OK to use that as motivation – I think our group is mature enough for me to say that to them. If you had a younger group maybe you wouldn’t? You’d just just keep making it week to week.”

And it was a sentiment Tunstill agreed with.

“We’re hitting our stride nicely,” he said.

“Just want to keep it going all the way through to September.

“We realise that it’s a hard thing to do (winning a threepeat), but we’ve embraced that.

“To get there again would be awesome.”

The Lions still have games to come against Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Gold Coast at home along with Carlton and Collingwood in Melbourne.

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