BRISBANE escaped its week five AFLW clash on the weekend with a narrow win, kicking a late goal to pick up a three point win over Adelaide and end the Crows’ undefeated start to the year.

Lions coach Craig Starcevich was full of praise for the fight his players showed.

“To Adelaide’s credit we obviously played with one short for most of the day, and it really looked like we were out of gas there at the end, so they found enormous fight and courage to come back and steal it at the end, so really pleased with that,” he said. “These games against the Crows and teams of that echelon are really tough games and arm wrestles to the end. Just rapt that they’re able to find something and obviously a little bit on the back of some inspiration from yesterday, they were super to keep going.”

One move that helped Brisbane get the win was a position change for Jade Ellenger, who went into the midfield for longer than usual to put the clamps on Ebony Marinoff.

“I’m not sure what Marinoff had in the last quarter, but we know she had a quieter than usual third quarter,” he said. “But yeah, Jade’s got a nice ability to stop you, but also get off you and be creative. So it’s a nice luxury for us to have.”

Starcevich has spent the past few weeks talking about wanting his side to play a “Lions” brand of footy, and he said that it is starting to happen on the field but there’s still some basic fundamentals they need to improve.

“So that bit still needs a lot of work and a lot of attention,” he said. “But the bones of what we’re trying to do, the switch back in the middle from Poppy that didn’t quite get to Jade and they end up going back the other way and scoring, that sort of stuff will wear as a coaching group because there’s a style of footy that we want to play and nine times out of ten that comes off and when it doesn’t, you get hurt, but that’s life.”

One of the players that benefitted from this is Taylor Smith, who Starcevich said has had a good month.

“She’s playing with real presence,” he said. “So anytime the ball’s in that part of the ground, she looks dangerous. Her hands have been good. Her kicking generally has been okay. So yeah, while Dakota’s sort of finding her way a little bit over the last few weeks, Tay’s been the one that’s sort of held it together.”