Mitch Robinson has established a reputation as the king of pressure, and in Sunday’s clash against the Gold Coast SUNS he played an influential role.

In the last two years Robinson has negated the likes of Matthew Priddis, Lachie Neale, Bryce Gibbs and Sam Mitchell while winning plenty of his own ball. He shapes as an important figure in the Lions’ 2017 team, whether working up forward or through the midfield.

“We’re still working that out,” said Senior Coach Chris Fagan when asked asked about Robinson's role after yesterday's game.

“I think Mitch is a versatile player that could play a role in the midfield for us or a role as a forward.

READ: Match Report

“One of the reasons that we’ve picked him up forward is for his pressure. Our pressure in the first quarter was fantastic – I think we had 12 tackles inside 50 and won the territory battle pretty well, but we didn’t turn that into enough scores, so we’ll keep working at that.”

Speaking to Lions TV after the match, Robinson spoke about the role he expects to play in 2017.

“We sat down when he (Fagan) first arrived and we talked about areas we can get better at as a club, and we spoke about me playing forward in a pressure forward role.

“I bought into that and I’ve played a bit of a tall role down there –  fly for marks, pressure and tackle. We had 20 inside 50 tackles today which is a great effort by the boys, so we’ll keep trying to take that forward.”

“It was good to try and get the structures right against a proper opposition. Obviously we didn’t get the win but there were a lot of things we can take out of it – a young group in today.  

“We spoke after the game and there were a few positives, we’re looking forward to taking on the Bulldogs in a couple of weeks.”

Also see: Chris Fagan