BRISBANE Lions midfielder Cheynee Stiller is confident the team can overcome the loss of full forward Daniel Bradshaw for Saturday night’s match against North Melbourne.

Bradshaw injured his hamstring in last week’s 15-point win over Fremantle and has been replaced in the Lions team by Irishman Pearce Hanley.

However despite the absence of the man who has kicked 40 goals this season, Stiller believes the Lions can fill the void.

‘’He’s a great player and hard to replace, but we have a lot of options and we’ve been good at finding other avenues to goal this year so hopefully we can cover him,’’ he said.

‘’We’ve had a lot of injuries but it’s how you cover them that counts. When we had defenders out, we didn’t make excuses, you just do the best you can with the players you’ve got.’’

Utility Jared Brennan has been named despite injuring his ankle last week, and rookie ruckman Joel Tippett has been elevated on to the senior list after Bart McCulloch was put on the long-term injury list this week.

Tippett, younger brother of Adelaide Crow Kurt, has been named as an emergency for the match against North Melbourne.

Meanwhile the Kangaroos have recalled Queenslander Gavin Urquhart, Matt Campbell and Ben Ross at the expense of former Lion Daniel Pratt, Leigh Adams and Nathan Grima.

The teams
Brisbane Lions
B: Ashley McGrath, Daniel Merrett, Tom Collier
HB: Joel Patfull, Josh Drummond, Joel Macdonald
C: Jared Brennan, Simon Black, Daniel Rich
HF: Michael Rischitelli, Jonathan Brown, James Polkinghorne
F: Sam Sheldon, Tim Notting, Luke Power
Foll: Mitch Clark, Cheynee Stiller, Justin Sherman
Int: Albert Proud, Bradd Dalziell, Pearce Hanley, Jack Reddan
 
In: Hanley
Out: Daniel Bradshaw (hamstring)

North Melbourne
B: Michael Firrito, Lachie Hansen, Levi Greenwood
HB: Leigh Harding, Scott Thompson, Gavin Urquhart
C: Brent Harvey, Liam Anthony, Scott McMahon
HF: Lindsay Thomas, Drew Petrie, Adam Simpson
F: Matt Campbell, David Hale, Corey Jones
Foll: Hamish McIntosh, Brady Rawlings, Josh Gibson
Int: Sam Power, Andrew Swallow, Ben Ross, Todd Goldstein

In: Urquhart, Ross, Campbell
Out: Leigh Adams, Nathan Grima, Daniel Pratt

On the punt
On paper the Lions-Kangaroos match is the most one-sided of the round, with the Lions installed as strong $1.12 favourites to the Kangaroos’ price of $6. Elsewhere around the league bookies can’t split Friday night’s opponents Carlton and Collingwood who have been installed $1.85 each of two. And in the grand final rematch Geelong ($1.50), despite still missing Steve Johnson, James Kelly and Darren Milburn, is strongly favoured to defeat premier Hawthorn ($2.50). In Coleman Medal betting, it might be a good time for Lions fans to put some cash on Jonathan Brown. The Lions skipper is a $3.60 second favourite and lies just five goals behind Carlton’s Brendan Fevola ($1.45).

Key match-up
Daniel Merrett (Lions) v David Hale (North Melbourne). The two former Gold Coast products are critical to Saturday night’s outcome. Hale is the key to the Kangaroos spluttering attack, with his good hands and strong kicking always a danger at full-forward. He is capable of kicking bags of goals, like his eight on All-Australian fullback Matthew Scarlett last season. Merrett has been his usual rock in defence for the Lions this season, and despite giving up 5cm in height to Hale, is the home team’s best match-up for him.

Odds and sods
North Melbourne is statistically the worst attacking team in the AFL. After 16 rounds they have averaged only 74 points a contest and only once in the past 15 weeks have topped the hundred. They are coming up against a Lions defensive unit that is the fourth best in points against, conceding just 84 a game.

These two teams are two of the best in the league with their tackling pressure. Four Lions players and three Kangaroos are in the top-25 tacklers in the AFL. The Lions are led by Luke Power (83), Michael Rischitelli (78), Simon Black (77) and Daniel Rich (73), while the Kangaroos’ Andrew Swallow (107) is fourth in the league, and teammates Michael Firrito (83) and Drew Petrie (75) are also right up there.

Lions captain Jonathan Brown is having another sensational season. He has kicked between two and five goals in every one of his 16 matches and sits on 55 for the season – second in the race for the Coleman Medal. Brown leads the AFL in contested marks (39) and is third for marks inside the forward 50 (74).

And the winner is ...
Despite the huge loss of Daniel Bradshaw, it’s hard to go past the Lions. North Melbourne will be more easily able to double team Brown, but the highly skilled Brennan will go forward and with consistent goalkickers Polkinghorne and Sherman also forward, the Lions should have enough avenues to goal. The midfield battle between Harvey, Simpson and Anthony up against the in-form Black, Rich and Power will go a long way to deciding the outcome. North Melbourne has a tall forward line with Hale, Petrie and the skilful Corey Jones, but the Roos are just struggling to kick goals. Lions by 35.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club