COACH Justin Leppitsch is standing by the fact that forecasted rain will not dampen the Lions’ chances when they take on the Gold Coast Suns this Saturday at Metricon Stadium.

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“We get simple games in the wet, and the game itself, becomes its purest in the wet”, he said.

Leppitsch acknowledged that the rain makes it harder for fans, as they’re not good games to watch when it’s pouring down, but that fans should stay loyal to the team and the game saying it’s just part of the cycle.

“You enjoy the good times, as happened to the Bears in the early ‘90s, they got to enjoy it in the early 2000s. That’s the reality of the cycle.

“The team has been working on a lot of things this week, and we actually saw some improvements on this week.

“It’s been baby steps, but they’ve trained hard this week, we had some really good sessions last week and the guys are really focused.

“They’ve been really good, this group is really upbeat and want to improve”, he said.

Leppitsch acknowledged that it can be difficult to encourage fans, when the two Queensland teams are at the bottom of the ladder, decimated with injuries and the best players are out.

“Gold Coast is almost more decimated than us, it’s hard when a lot of your good players are going down, but that’s what happens and it just means that players need to be mentally resilient.

“The team needs to rally in and not look at the scoreboard, sometimes emotion can get to the players and they can use the scoreboard to shape their next actions. You shouldn’t you, you should put it behind you and keep going. This is what we’re trying to tell the team. 

“It’s gonna be a tough game mentally for a lot of players and whoever toughs it out, wins the game”, he said. 

“We just need to stay upbeat, positive and know where the improvements are. We’ll just continue this cycle and hope things turn around, as they did last year.