“I’d do it for free”: Lions great offers to solve Brisbane’s goal kicking woes

Jason Akermanis has offered to work for Chris Fagan for free in order to solve Brisbane’s goal kicking issues.

The Lions finished with 11.21 in their 20-point win over Essendon on Saturday night in a game they could have won comfortably had they kicked straight.

It came off the back of their one-point loss to Collingwood on Round 23 when they kicked 11.12 and missed some absolute sitters in the third quarter. They also kicked 8.16 in a loss to GWS in Round 22 and have kicked more points than goals in five of their last six games.

While there were eight rushed behinds against the Bombers, there were again some misses by Lions players that they’d love to get right now that the finals are on their doorstep.

Three-time premiership Lion and Brownlow Medallist Akermanis, who is good friends with Lions backline coach Dale Morris, believes he could change things quickly if given the chance.

“One of my great mates and closest mate when I was at the Bulldogs, Dale Morris, is now assistant coach there,” Akermanis said on SENQ Breakfast.

“I have been saying consistently all year, I said, ‘Listen mate, for free. I know you guys don’t know how to kick goals because I can tell in your run-up’.

“There’s actually a way to do it. Not only is there a way to do it, there’s probably three guys in Australia that can teach both kicking and goal kicking.

“I’ve been sitting here for four years and if it wasn’t for a couple of those people in there, that will remain nameless, and their egos. You should have rung me a long time ago. I’ve got a degree in coaching, I know what I’m doing, I know how to kick goals, particularly set shots.

“Which is now not only costing you games… if you get it right now you can win a premiership. It’s amazing if you can just fix up that one part of your game.

“I’m still waiting and it’s such a shame because I said I’d do it for free. I just need a bit of time with each one of the guys who kick a lot of set shots and it will fix them up. They’ve been missing shots on the run that they could easily get.

“I’m here and they’ve never used me which is always a shame.”

Joe Daniher, who kicked 1.2 in his 200th game on the weekend, is one Lion in particular that Akermanis would like to work with.

He can see a distinct difference in Daniher’s set shot kicking versus his more fluid action when on the run.

“When he goes for set shots they’re a bit like ‘Buddy’ Franklin’s,” he said of Daniher who has kicked 50.44 in 2024.

“You couldn’t get Buddy in a straight line because of his natural, beautiful arc where he can utilise that bit of physics and his levers.

“Joey kicks it almost identically opposite to when he kicks it really well on the run. That’s easy to fix, just give me 20 minutes and we can fix that.

“But it wasn’t just Joe by the way. The game they should have won against Collingwood they had Zac Bailey miss a sitter, Cam Rayner miss a sitter, stuff that they should never do at that level.”

Akermanis also questioned the goal kicking prowess of Fagan’s coaching staff which is made up of Morris, Cam Bruce and Daniel Lloyd, among others.

“I said to ‘Moz’ that none of your coaches were good kicks and how on earth do you think that now all of a sudden they’re going to become good teachers of kicks,” Akermanis said further.

“None of them would take a lot of set shots so how on earth do you expect your players to be any good if you don’t have the coaches that were any good.”

Across the home and away season, the Lions kicked 304 goals and 306 behinds as one of only three teams (alongside Port Adelaide and Richmond) to finish with more behinds than goals.

They will hope to rediscover their accuracy when they meet Carlton in an Elimination Final at the Gabba on Saturday, September 7.