Brisbane are steeling themselves for a down and dirty physical battle with GWS in Saturday’s AFL semi-final at the Gabba.
The Giants battered Western Bulldogs in last Saturday’s elimination final win.
That physical approach has sent Toby Greene straight to the tribunal on Monday night on a serious misconduct charge for an incident involving Marcus Bontempelli, while forward Harry Himmelberg was fined $2000 for delivering a gut punch to the Western Bulldogs star.
Ruckman Stef Martin says the Lions are expecting nothing different from the Giants this weekend.
“That’s sort of the way they go about their business,” Martin said.
“They’ve got some tough guys who like to throw their weight around and on a finals stage I’m sure, if that worked for them on the weekend, they’ll probably want to replicate that.”
While admitting the mood had been pretty flat in the Lions’ dressing room after their 47-point qualifying final loss to Richmond, Martin was confident he and his teammates wouldn’t shrink from the Giants bruising approach.
Following a round 17 win over Port Adelaide, Lions coach Chris Fagan labelled the attention on star midfielder Lachie Neale “over the top” but Martin said the 48-point victory margin showed he and his teammates had risen above the physical confrontation to focus on the game.
“We were pretty proud that we just got on with the job and watched the footy and did what we needed to do,” Martin said.
“That peripheral sort of stuff we don’t want to get sucked into that.
“We don’t mind if we lose the off the ball battles as long as we win the on the ball battles.”
One way the Lions can fight fire with fire is with their own firebrand midfielder Mitch Robinson.
The enforcer is under an injury cloud however after hurting a hamstring late in the loss to the Tigers and underwent scans on Monday.
If he is ruled out, Martin is confident the Lions’ have the depth to replace Robinson.
“If he does (play), great, if not we’ve had a NEAFL team that’s performed incredibly well this year which has given us a lot of depth,” Martin said.
“If need be we’ve got soldiers ready to stand up.”
