Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Charlie Cameron has credited the Brisbane Lions’ coaching staff with lifting the club’s under-fire small forwards off the canvas after their “embarrassing” AFL finals flop.
Coach Chris Fagan put the blowtorch on the group – Zac Bailey, Cam Rayner, Kai Lohmann and Cameron – in his review of the qualifying final horror show against Sydney.
All four went goalless that night as the undermanned Swans engineered a stunning upset amid the fallout from their Pullman Hotel saga.
But the Lions quartet responded in fine fashion, combining for a dozen goals in last week’s semi-final smashing of Adelaide.
It set up a preliminary final with Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday, and kept alive Brisbane’s dream of a premiership three-peat.
“I felt embarrassed and disappointed,” Cameron said, reflecting on his own four-disposal effort against the Swans.
“But I took a lot of confidence (from the fact) that we had backing from coaches and everyone at the club.
“We got shown in the meetings that we weren’t good enough and we put a price on it the next week.
“It was good to see most of the boys that were down on form performed on the weekend.”
Cameron booted a season-best five goals against Adelaide, becoming the third player in Lions history behind Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw to kick 400-plus majors for the merged entity.
In doing so, Cameron, who spent four seasons with the Crows before heading north, also took his career tally in finals to 58 goals.
Only Hawthorn and Sydney legend Lance Franklin (74) has kicked more goals in finals this century, with Cameron the only small forward in the top seven on the list.
“It’s about moments in finals. Especially as a small forward, you don’t get many looks,” Cameron said.
“I pride myself on taking opportunities and moments throughout the game.”
Brisbane ran riot in a 67-point thumping of Hawthorn when they met at the Gabba last month, but Sam Mitchell’s men have since shown vast improvement.
The Hawks responded with a draw against Collingwood and big win over West Coast to round out the home-and-away season, before shocking minor premiers Fremantle in Perth to advance directly to a home preliminary final.
“We’re looking forward to the match-up and it’s probably different circumstances now,” Cameron said.
“We’re at the MCG, their home ground, and they’ve got an advantage there.
“We know what our best is and hopefully we can bring it this weekend.
“If we can show what we did against Adelaide instead of against the Swans, it will go a long way.”
As always, Cameron expects plenty of ‘Old Fitzroy’ supporters on hand to back the Lions at the MCG.
“We know we’ve got a good supporter base,” he said.
“It’s going to be exciting. I enjoy playing in front of 80-90,000 people and you don’t take those things for granted.
“I’ll probably look back when I’m retired and think, ‘How cool was that?'”
