WITH West Coast's ruck division depleted, the Brisbane Lions can sniff an advantage coming their way when the teams meet at the Gabba on Saturday.
Lions coach Justin Leppitsch says Stefan Martin should win his match-up with journeyman Jonathan Giles, but concedes it means little if his midfield doesn't cash in.
With Nic Naitanui (Achilles) injured and back-up Scott Lycett dropped for disciplinary reasons, the Eagles have resorted to third-stringer Giles for the long trip east.
When West Coast hammered the Lions by 64 points in the opening round, Naitanui was dominant with 46 hitouts, many of them to advantage, along with 22 disposals and two goals.
Leppitsch said Giles filling in was unlikely to alter his team's gameplan.
"I don't know if it changes our gameplan, but it changes theirs," he said.
"When you've got an extremely dominant ruckman that the midfielders have got complete faith that the ball will be going down their throats, it often makes opposition midfielders a bit wary, not knowing what to do next and be on the back foot.
"That's gone for them, so that's a positive for our midfield, it doesn’t mean anything apart from that though, unfortunately.
"There's always potential advantages, but you have to take advantage of it, or it's pointless.
"Stef (Martin’s) form recently hasn't been as good as last year. We should take care of that match-up and get an advantage, but time will tell."
Leppitsch has reverted to using Martin as the sole ruckman after dropping Trent West for the match.
West has played the past four weeks, mainly to take some workload from Martin, but Leppitsch believes his joint best and fairest winner from last year should now feel revitalised.
"I go in every week confident," Leppitsch said.
"Every team has flaws. Every team has players that do good things and bad things.
"Our players can play and they're good players. We just have to work on the staying power of our team."
Leppitsch said he needed more from his senior players, encouraging them to take care of their own performances first and to then worry about helping others.
More on Lions.com.au
