Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has criticised the person who leaked a photo from the club’s inner sanctum and addressed the sledge about Essendon player Jaxon Prior.
A leaked photo of Brisbane’s team whiteboard analysis emerged on Saturday, revealing the scathing reality of how the AFL premiers view Essendon.
The Lions claimed a 22.11 (143) to 11.13 (79) win over the Bombers at Marvel Stadium on Saturday afternoon to move up the ladder and keep their quest for a premiership three-peat on track.
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Code Sports reported a photo of whiteboard notes that captured brutal assessments of Essendon players had been taken by a parent of an Auskick player and uploaded to social media via an Essendon fan page on Facebook.
The Lions are disappointed the whiteboard image was made public.
The photo shows each Essendon player listed on the whiteboard with a comment for a strength and weakness for each of them.
Defender Jaxon Prior, who played 39 games for Brisbane between 2020 and 2024, was listed as having “no right foot” and a “temper”.
Prior’s girlfriend, model Bronte Thompson, was listed as his only strength. Prior played 39 games for Brisbane between 2020-24.
‘Illegal’: Lions coach addresses photo leak
Chris Fagan labelled the leaking of private club information as “unfair” and “disappointing”, but refused to comment on how it reflects upon Brisbane’s culture.
Fagan took aim at the person responsible for the leaking the photo from inside Brisbane’s inner sanctum.
“That man was there with his children, using our facility, and he decides to do that because he’s an Essendon supporter and be a hero,” he said.
“From our perspective, it’s private information. Somebody illegally took photos of information that was on a whiteboard and decided to make a hero of themselves and put it out in the public domain.
“I reckon it’s a little unfair when it’s your workplace and it’s what you do every day. It’s information we keep internal and we’ve been doing it for nine years — writing strengths and vulnerabilities of opposition players up on a whiteboard.
“I can promise you that nothing that was written up there that had anything sinister in mind or degrading in mind at all.
“That’s where I’ll stay with that.”
Fagan said he had spoken to Jaxon Prior about the incident and suggested there was no ill feelings.
“I’m not going to comment on isolated things that were written on it,” he added.
“That player played at our club and the players all know him and we know his partner as well, and there was nothing bad intended at all with that comment, not at all, zero.
“I spoke to Jaxon on the field after the game, as did a lot of our players and had a bit of a laugh and a joke together.
“I’m happy for you to go and ask Jaxon what he thinks.”
Essendon coach Brad Scott said it’s a problem for Brisbane to deal with, but didn’t seem phased by their scathing assessment.
“They do that for every team, I imagine,” he said.
“It’s a problem for them to deal with, not for us. I wouldn’t want that coming out of our building.
“It’s a tough game and it’s sometimes a psychological game too.
“If that’s what’s identified about you, then if you’re a competitor, you respond to it.”
“Some juice in this game, some spice between the two clubs, fair to say,” The Herald Sun’s Jay Clark on Kayo Sports’ Super Saturday coverage.
“Some embarrassment at Brisbane over this leaked team analysis, which listed strengths of Essendon players and was pretty savage on some of the Bombers players to be honest.
“This was leaked to social media today. I am told it was the Brisbane players who drew up this list of Essendon’s strengths and weakness, and then it was a parent of an Auskick child who got access to the football department, took a photo through a window and put it up on Facebook.
“There’s some savage assessments here.
“One of the players’ strengths was listed as his girlfriend’s name.”
Host Sarah Jones said there was “quite a personal nature” to some of the player weaknesses.
Zach Merrett was complemented for his kicking skills but labelled “selfish”, as was forward Kyle Langford.
Midfielder Sam Durham was dubbed a “hothead” and captain Andrew McGrath’s weakness was highlighted as “kicking cough up”. Durham was praised for his work rate, hunt and leg power.
Ben McKay, who came under fire for a poor performance against Collingwood on Anzac Day, was described as “low on confidence”. The Lions tellingly left the “strength” comment for McKay blank.
McKay, Archer May and Elijah Tsatas were the three players listed without strengths.
Tsatas, who was a surprise omission for the clash against Brisbane, was labelled “fumbly”.
Midfielder Darcy Parish, who was managed for the game, was listed as having a tendency to “cough up under pressure” and had a question over his “defensive transition”.
However strengths were listed for most of the Essendon players, notably forward Nate Caddy’s “run and jump”, rookie Sullivan Robey’s “power” and Jacob Farrow’s composed kicking.
Lions co-captain Josh Dunkley told Kayo Sports post-game: “It’s something that happens inside every four walls, strengths of opposition players.
“That’s what we do as footballers, talk about the opposition.
“It probably shouldn’t say weaknesses, it should say growths. That’s the way we do it.
“I spoke to Jaxon Prior before and after the game, and he’s all good, which is nice.
“We love ‘Prirs’, he spent a lot of time at our footy club and it’s good to see him going well for the Bombers.”
Dunkley added: “It’s obviously disappointing that inside the four walls something’s leaked out of the inner sanctum, but that’s footy.
“We know we’re under the microscope every day and we love to get people in an around the footy club and share that experience. Someone’s obviously got in there and taken a picture.
“We’ll learn from the experience and maybe the whiteboard might not be facing that way next time.
“It’s something we’ll carry on because it’s great for our young fellas to learn.”
Clark added: “They’re (Brisbane) are really unhappy. I think it’s part of their normal weekly prep, but never intended for it to go public.”
Former West Coast coach Adam Simpson said: “It’s just not what you need. An unwelcome controversy you don’t need, even if you’re Brisbane.
“It’s just distracting when these things get out. Disappointing the photo was taken in the first place.”
Essendon sits 17th on the AFL ladder and are set to continue their unwanted streak of not winning a finals game since 2004.
The Bombers put together a solid few weeks after a rough start to the season but came back to Earth with a brutal 77-point loss to Collingwood on ANZAC Day.
Coach Brad Scott is in his fourth year in charge at the club and is contracted until the end of the 2027 season.
– With NewsWire
