A tale of two calves: Pendlebury’s woe, while Neale keeps grand final dream alive

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Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan insists Lachie Neale is a realistic chance to return from injury for next Saturday’s AFL grand final against Geelong, while Jarrod Berry also remains firmly in the selection frame.

The Lions advanced into this year’s showpiece event after ending Collingwood’s season with a 29-point win in Saturday night’s preliminary final at the MCG.

Fagan revealed later the Lions had used redemption for their 2023 grand final defeat to the Magpies as added motivation for their performance.

Lions star Lachie Neale trained well on Saturday.

Neale, the dual Brownlow medallist, has missed the entire finals campaign because of a calf injury, but has been using a hyperbaric chamber to aid to his recovery. He had set himself to be fit for the grand final, should the Lions have made it.

Fagan said Neale was in the selection mix, as the Lions take aim at back-to-back flags.

“Well, he is doing a lot of work, and he had a really good training session this morning, so it’s looking more positive than negative at the moment – we’ll just have to wait and see how he gets through the week,” Fagan said.

“It won’t be long before we are back down here [to Melbourne]. I think we are coming back down on Wednesday. So, we’ll see how he goes. I didn’t think he would be a chance to play, but I [now] think he is a chance to play.”

Midfielder Jarrod Berry was subbed off during the second term with a recurrence of a shoulder issue. However, Fagan said his medical team had not ruled Berry out of the grand final, with a “common sense” decision to be made.

“We’ll wait and see. It didn’t look good and, obviously, he couldn’t continue the game, but, again, the risk will be, if he plays, will it pop out again? [There’s] lots to talk about there,” Fagan said.

“But one thing I do is that you can’t take unfit players into grand finals. It just doesn’t work.”

Jarrod Berry was helped from the field on Saturday night.

Berry later told Seven when asked about his chances of playing: “Might not even scan it, just strap it up and go for it”.

The Lions were crunched by the Cats in their qualifying final a fortnight ago, with star midfielder Hugh McCluggage tagged and held to only 14 disposals. McCluggage was not tagged by Gold Coast last week, and had Steele Sidebottom go to him, at times, on Saturday night, but responded with 37 disposals in a best-on-ground performance.

Fagan said the Lions had learnt their lessons from that defeat.

“We, obviously, have already had a close look at what happened in that game, and we’ll have another close look as a coaching group to what Geelong did to us,” Fagan said.

“It’s pretty obvious they tagged a couple of our better players, and they will probably want to do that again. They tried to tag McCluggage tonight, and he played a magnificent game. So, a part of the response to that is going to be the blokes that got tagged have got to do a better job last time.”

Collingwood coach Craig McRae said Scott Pendlebury’s calf injury minutes into the first term had hurt his team’s set up, but did not think the 425-game veteran had experienced a leg problem in the warm-ups.

“It doesn’t help when you have one of your most experienced players, who just organises things, and he did a calf early. It’s really strange. This is what happens at this time of the year,” McRae said.

Asked if Pendlebury, 37, had experienced any issues in the warm-ups, McRae said: “No, not that I am aware of. I haven’t spoken to him, but not that I am aware of”.

Pendlebury has been given a one-year contract to play on next year.

While the injury-hit Lions were brilliantly led by McCluggage (37 touches, 10 clearances) and full-back Harris Andrews, there was a moment of controversy with about 10 minutes remaining in the final term when umpires opted not to pay Collingwood forward Jamie Elliott a free kick, having taken front-on contact from Brandon Starcevich in a marking contest in the forward pocket. The Magpies trailed by two goals at that point.

McRae said “it looked like that, yeah” when asked whether the incident should have warranted a free kick.

“But it’s no guarantee that he kicks the goal. This is the world I live in – I never make excuses. I don’t want our fans to see a coach that leads our group through excuses, because it just doesn’t get you anywhere. I think losers make excuses, we don’t. We are winners, and we didn’t win today. [We were] clearly beaten by a better team – I think they would have beaten us anyway, the way they were playing.”

Dual-premiership player David King said during commentary on Fox Footy that a free kick should have been paid.

“No doubt, this is a free kick every day of the week – that’s chopping of the arms, front on contact,” he said.

Lions great Alastair Lynch also said in commentary: “That was a free kick every day of the week”.

Given a reprieve, the Lions all but locked up the game minutes later when Charlie Cameron converted a set shot. The floodgates opened from that point, the Lions finishing in a blaze of goals.

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