DESPITE some inaccurate goal kicking across the first three quarters, the Brisbane Lions cruised to a 68 point win against the Sydney Swans on the weekend.

At three quarter time, the Lions were ahead of the Swans by 32 points, having kicked 5.9. This was blown out to 11.12.78 to close the match.

Sticking with the Lions early, the Swans were unfortunately undone by what is one of the premiership favourites.

Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich spoke post-match about the way his side handled the pressure applied by Sydney.

“The way they built the game today, our players, was really pleasing,” Starcevich said.

“You are not going to bust a team open early, sometimes you’ve got to play the arm wrestle right to the end and then wait for the old dam wall to burst and then you can start some scoring so it was pleasing from that point of view.”

His side kicked two goals in the first quarter and one in the third, illustrating the fact that there was a clear scoring end due to the conditions at Brighton Homes Arena.

Starcevich described the effect that both the wind and then the Swans had on his team and their accuracy.

“Both the first [quarter] and the third, because you’re pushing up into that breeze so, you can’t really get any great penetration with your disposals at times,” he said.

“Having said that we weren’t particularly clean and precise, so that didn’t help either but it was a little bit to do with pushing up into the breeze.

“Sydney were [also] a pretty good pressure team so kudos to them for holding us.”

One player that has started to stand out amongst the competition’s young talents is Lion Charlotte Mullins, who finished with 18 disposals, four marks, two tackles, two clearances and 316 metres gained as well as slotted a goal in the win.

Her coach was full of praise for the midfielder, stating that “she’s got a lot of great attributes”.

“[She’s] not so secret anymore,” Starcevich chuckled.

“She’s got a good reputation around the comp now but she’s still only young, she’s still in her early 20’s and finding her way through footy.

“She’s got high footy IQ as you can probably tell and she generally does the right thing at the right time when you need her, when you need it so she can work and she can run. She’s got a lot of great attributes, Charlie.”

By winning this game, the Lions have all but secured a double chance come finals. When prompted after the game about how his side will prepare for the finals campaign, their coach was clear that their focus is next week only.

“Our focus is to get ready for St Kilda next week, we didn’t have such a good time of it last year so obviously there’s a bit of trepidation going back because of what we encountered last time around,” he said.

“I don’t think they can make [finals] by the looks of things so I’m not sure that they’ll have a whole lot to play for other than spoiling the day for us so we’ve got to be on.

“We’re still alive for top two if it pans out that way but we’ve just got to keep charging along and keep all of the things we want humming along for November.

“We want to get all of that going over the next week or so, there were good signs today, our ball movement, particularly in the last quarter was terrific, so there’s been bits and pieces of that over the last month and a half I reckon without actually nailing it from go to woah, so that’s the challenge for us.”