Brisbane’s hopes of defending their premiership have taken a massive hit with captain Lachie Neale ruled out for the remainder of the finals.
Scans have confirmed the dual Brownlow Medallist tore his calf against Geelong, sidelining him for six weeks and ending any chance of a September return.
It was a cruel twist for Neale, who had only just returned from a quad strain. His frustration was plain to see as he trudged from the field and sat dejected on the bench, knowing his season was done.
MORE: AFL Qualifying Final Brisbane player ratings: Lachie Neale's dominant night done early with injury
Fagan cautious on flag talk
The Lions now face a semi-final against either Fremantle or Gold Coast, but coach Chris Fagan stopped short of making bold declarations about their chances without his star midfielder.
“God, I haven’t even thought about that,” he said post-match. “He’s a pretty good player … we’ll continue to play with spirit and go at the game and try and deliver a better performance.”
Pressed on whether Brisbane could still win the flag, Fagan was careful: “I’ll probably stay neutral on (whether we can win the flag). They’re hard things to win, premierships. We’re not even talking about that. We’ll knuckle down and hopefully give a better performance than we did tonight.”
Lions great Jonathan Brown felt Fagan’s tone revealed more than the words themselves. Speaking on Fox Footy, he said: “Normally he’d bristle at that question about winning the flag without Lachie Neale, but even he was very circumspect about it all. I don’t mind the approach of not even talking about a premiership and just worrying about next week.”