Chris Fagan dismisses previous blowout as Brisbane Lions prepare for Hawthorn preliminary final

Lions coach Chris Fagan is taking little comfort from Brisbane’s thrashing of Hawthorn last month, predicting Saturday’s AFL preliminary final between the same two teams at the MCG will be “entirely different”.

The Lions spanked the Hawks by 67 points at the Gabba on August 7, with Brisbane forwards Kai Lohmann, Logan Morris and Charlie Cameron kicking 12 goals between them.

However, Fagan isn’t getting lulled into a false sense of security because of that win.

“We we’re coming off a really bad loss the week before to Carlton, so we we’re pretty fired up,” the two-time premiership-winning coach said on Thursday.

“They probably had an off game, so you can’t read too much into that performance a few weeks ago.

“It’ll be entirely different this week, and we’re not even talking about or showing any vision from that (August 7) game, to be honest.

“It’s a new contest. It’s a preliminary final. They want what we want, so it’s a different game. “We’re getting ready for the hardest game we’ll ever play this year – that’s our approach.”

Since losing to Brisbane, the Hawks haven’t lost in three games, including a 92-92 draw with Collingwood on August 15.

The Lions have won four of their past five matches, and another victory on Saturday would secure them a fourth consecutive grand final appearance and a chance to clinch a third successive flag.

Fagan was also part of Alastair Clarkson’s coaching unit that led Hawthorn to three consecutive premierships from 2013 to 2015.

“One of the things that was a real strength of Hawthorn (during the period of the Hawks’ hat-trick of flags) was the density of their leadership group,” he said.

“They had a lot of great on-field leaders … (Luke) Hodge, (Jarryd) Roughead, (Sam) Mitchell, those sorts of guys.

“I feel like we’ve got that now with Harris Andrews, Josh Dunkley, Hugh McCluggage, Jarrod Berry … there’s a heap of them.

“That’s definitely one similarity, (having) guys that just know what to do in any given situation in a game.”