Lions look for answers with season on brink, Giants' confidence rising (2024)

BRISBANE coach Chris fa*gan isn't ready to write off the Lions' season just yet and has backed his side to respond after a "well below par" performance against Greater Western Sydney.

The 54-point loss to the Giants on Anzac Day was the Lions' biggest defeat for the year and has left them precariously placed with just two wins from their first seven games.

GIANTS v LIONS Full match coverage and stats

"The second half was well below par ... I have no excuse, we just didn't work as hard as they did," fa*gan said.

"We can play a lot better than that, we know that. We know we can play footy, and I've got to help those boys find their confidence and connection again.

"It's not so much about what happened in a game like this, it's what you do about it."

The Lions are quickly losing touch with the pack as they look to push towards another finals run after last year's heartbreaking Grand Final loss to Collingwood.

They now face a season-shaping stretch of games, with the QClash against Gold Coast next weekend, followed by games against Adelaide (away), Richmond (home), Hawthorn (away) and the Western Bulldogs (away).

"It sounds all doom and gloom but this group has been so good for the past five years, I admire and respect them for the efforts that they've put in over the past five seasons," fa*gan said.

"I'm not going to sit here and bag the team for the way they performed tonight. I'm in it with them and the way forward is together.

"That was how we became a good team in the first place. In my first couple of years with them as coach we won five games in each of the first two years, but we learned from our mistakes and we stuck together and we became a good team.

"The way out of the situation we are in at the moment is that exact same way.

"We've just got to work on getting better next week. It's a one week at a time approach."

Greater Western Sydney coach Adam Kingsley said knocking off the Lions did plenty for the team's psyche despite their poor start to the season.

"They're a really good team, we know that, even though the results haven't been necessarily going their way this year," he said.

"They're really strong in the transition phase, they're a strong stoppage team, given the opportunity they've punished teams and they certainly did that for a small period to us.

"So we'll get tremendous confidence out of that, that was a really strong win."

While there were standouts all over the ground, Kingsley had plenty of praise for debutant Darcy Jones who was electric in his first game.

The livewire forward lit up Manuka Oval with a brilliant running goal in the first term before finding another major late in the piece.

Drafted with pick No.21 in the 2022 draft, Jones' first season was cruelled by injury after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his first appearance for the Giants' VFL side.

After toiling away in the VFL to start this season, the speedy forward finally earned the call-up this week to replace suspended skipper Toby Greene.

"He looked electric, he looked like every time he was near the ball something was going to happen," Kingsley said.

"I think he showed really good composure for a guy playing his first game. He played half a VFL game last year before he did his knee, then he's played three games this year.

"It's not a lot of footy and for him to come in, he's got real class, he's got speed, he's very skilful. I was really pleased for him because it's been a challenging 12 months and for him to finally break his way into the team and have an impact on the night, I was really pleased for him."

The Giants expect to regain All-Australian defender Sam Taylor (concussion) for the Sydney Derby next week.