35-year-old Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko has lauded senior coach Chris Fagan for the Lions' two-and-five turnaround to preliminary final weekend, crediting his way of providing stability in what looked like a tumultuous period for the club.
The Lions sat 13th on the ladder as late as Round 14 this season before beginning their rampage into the top eight, eventually falling just short of a top four spot.
The former skipper shared glowing praise of his coach, declaring this year to be his most impressive yet.
"I reckon it's been his best coaching performance for the entirety of his coaching career thus far," Zorko said on Friday ahead of the penultimate clash with Geelong.
"His ability to just steady the ship, hold down, put a lot of trust in us to dig ourselves out of it, keep our game plan really simple.
"We didn't reinvent the wheel. For him it was just a simple message; just keep doing what you're doing, it's going to turn... ultimately it did."
Despite the satisfaction of reversing the slump and advancing in last week's semi-final thriller, the Lions will not be complacent with a premiership on the line, being well aware of their own pain suffered just last season.
Their 2022 preliminary final loss to the Cats at the MCG was a demoralising result for the club two years ago, but despite being in the exact same scenario this season, Brisbane have not reflected on that night in their preparation for Saturday.
"Too far gone, so many things have happened, such an unpredictable season, different teams... you can't really look back on it too much," Zorko claimed.
"We've pretty much focussed on the back half of this season and our mantra behind that... we haven't looked back any further than that."
The Cats have had the wood over the Lions dating beyond 2022, succeeding in six of their last eight encounters.
"That's a good statistic to have, we're not really reading into it too much," he added.
"When we set out on our journey, we wanted to be like a Geelong and the Richmonds that were really dominant in those eras."
"They've got some really extraordinary players that have played in big moments... we certainly look up to them but ultimately we need to get the result tomorrow night."
The Lions and Cats kick off proceedings on Saturday from 5:15pm (AEST) at the MCG, with a spot in the 2024 AFL Grand Final up for grabs.
