Assistant Coach Gary O’Donnell said Pearce Hanley is on track to producing some of the best form of his career.
“Pearce looked like he was back to his best, running well.
“He’s overcome his hamstring problems and was a real filler for us playing forward on the ball and a couple of times from behind the ball.
“We’re really buoyed by what he can produce for the next few weeks.”
O’Donnell said there were some pleasing signs despite Saturday’s loss to the Gold Coast Suns.
“All the key indicators had us in front but couldn’t get over the line.
“We had 10 more inside 50s and just couldn’t get the value for our entries.
“Where Gold Coast beat us was their transition from the back half of the ground.
“They were able to get through a number of times and actually then score.
“I think they had 6-8 goals from back half transition and that really hurt us on the night.”
The debut of Billy Evans was another positive to come from the match. The 18-year old is the fifth debutant for the Lions in 2015.
“We were really happy for Billy, he’s got really clean hands and was able to set blokes up with those hands through traffic and release a teammate into space.”
“He hasn’t had a kick yet, hopefully his first kick next week is a goal.”
