“You can just tell they think they’re better than us”: Robinson

The AFL have been asked questions and why they haven’t watched the already started NRL draw before concluding their blockbuster Round 2 fight at the Gabba.

The great Brisbane-Melbourne will take on Friday’s inaugural NRL derby between the Dolphins and the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.

Brisbane manager Chris Fagan said it was a bit of a head scratcher.

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“In the ideal world, it would be a nice split for sports lovers if games could be spread out over a weekend,” Fagan said ahead of his team’s monster duel.

“I thought our fans would come to our game and their fans would come to their game.

“(BtThere might be some people who follow both codes and are scratching their heads about where to go. It’s good to have a lot of enthusiasm and activity.”

reckons many AFL observers will see their semi-final win over Melbourne as a stroke of luck.

Combine that with their “terrible” first-round loss to Port Adelaide and the Lions have plenty to prove at Friday’s Gabba.

The Demons beat Brisbane in their three previous encounters before the Lions turned the tables with a hoodoo-busting comeback in the MCG Finals last year.

“I don’t think you really get into the head of an opposing team until you’ve beaten them more than once,” Fagan said.

“There are probably a lot of people in the football world who might think that last year’s win was a bit of a fluke.

“So we want to prove that we’re actually a pretty good football team and more importantly we just want to react to last week.”

A hamstring injury kept former captain Dayne Zorko out of the season opener, which saw the Lions limited to just 130 uncontested possessions compared to Ports 257.

He will return to add pressure and composure, but he will not solve the Lions’ problems alone.

“It turned out that if we don’t show up and play with the effort required, we’re just an ordinary team,” said Fagan of the loss to The Power.

“I know what the numbers are, they’re terrible.

“I haven’t seen numbers like that from us in a long time and I’ve never seen us down so many guys in one day.”

But after an off-season hyped by the addition of key recruits and call-ups, does that affect their faith?

“I don’t think so…(2021) we were 1-3 and everyone wrote us off and we got in the top four…it’s just a game,” he said.

“Round one is a bit like a big finals week; There is so much preparation for the season and the winners are grins and the losers their season is said to be in tatters.

Fagan said the best answer to any defensive concerns is to get your hands on the football more often.

And he explained that the arrival of Collingwood recruit Brodie Grundy as Max Gawn’s jerky offside presented the same challenge as last year’s Gawn-Luke Jackson combination.

“We had to deal with that in the final last year and we managed it well,” said Fagan.

“We learned some things from it and they probably learned some things from it.”

“There was just a little bit of bad blood,” Robinson told SENQ Mornings.

“I think you don’t have to go back too far to the Zorko/Petty incident, that was heavily publicized as to what was going on, Zorko apologized, and he may have overshot the mark, (but) 100 percent (it came from the demons first).

“Sometimes as a player you just have to bite your tongue and do what’s good for the sponsors and good for your image.

“Zorko could have come out right away, ‘Look, these guys have been besotted with me all day and been talking about my relationships, my family or whatever,’ but he didn’t, he took the main road and said, ‘ Look, I apologize for what I said’ and we moved on.

“He didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.”

While that incident was a flashpoint, Robinson says there’s been a strong rivalry between the sides for three or four years as they battle for supremacy near the top of the ladder.

“But it was just one of those fights, we were both at the top of the ladder,” Robinson said.

“We’ve been going back and forth for a while now, like three or four years.

“Results don’t really matter, it was just the way we approached our football.

“They won a big final, they were up there and they beat us in the final, that was kind of our thing against them.

“They’ve always had that kind of complacency, but you can tell they think they’re better than us.”

Robinson is hoping Melbourne come to Brisbane motivated after losing by a big game in last year’s semi-finals.

“So this week is a big game for the Brisbane Lions,” Robinson said.

“We laughed last in the final against them last year,

“Hopefully they come here and bring some animosity and we have a great game.”