BRISBANE coach Chris Fagan says football pundits should "reserve judgement" on Joe Daniher after the tall forward's rollercoaster start to the season.
Daniher and Eric Hipwood have been at the centre of heavy criticism following the Lions' 15-point loss to the Western Bulldogs last Thursday, with former champion Jonathan Brown among those to question their effort.
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Fagan said he had spoken to both players about their lack of competitiveness against the Dogs, but believed there needed to be more balance in the commentary around Daniher.
"It's an interesting one, isn't it?" he told reporters on Wednesday morning.
"The week before he kicks four goals and no one's talking about him then, and last week he kicks 0.4 and suddenly it's 'let's pick on Joey Daniher week'.
"He's not the only one up there, we need all our other tall forwards to be playing a little bit better and our forward line in general wasn't at its best last week.
"Just reserve judgement; we tend to jump on his back pretty quickly, we're much slower to pat him on the back when he plays well."
Daniher kicked 4.2 in a big Friday night win over Melbourne but, like many of his teammates, has sandwiched that performance with below-par outings against Port Adelaide and the Bulldogs.
Fagan said it was both contesting the ball and then equally importantly applying defensive pressure if they didn't win it that was a focus for the forward line ahead of playing Collingwood on Thursday night.
Brisbane is likely to be without Daniel Rich for a second successive week, although the defender hasn't been ruled out just yet as he battles a mild quad injury.
MEDICAL ROOM Check out the full injury list
Fagan was tight-lipped on whether the Lions would stick with their two-ruck policy of recent weeks against a Magpies team that will play without a recognised ruckman.
He stayed in Melbourne last week to watch Craig McRae's men defeat Richmond and had nothing but high praise for their 3-0 start.
"Their ability to turn up in numbers at contests, I think that's been the greatest strength this year," Fagan said.
"They just outnumber the opposition and then win the ball away and they keep it in motion and supply their forwards pretty well, so and they all seem to be on the one page with that."
