The return of captain Jonathan Brown would usually be enough to spark the Brisbane Lions.
But that looked set to become a subplot ahead of Saturday’s AFL clash at Fremantle after defender Ash McGrath revealed assistant coach Mark Harvey was “fired up” about taking on his ex-club.
The Lions need all the inspiration they can get after veteran midfielder Simon Black (broken hand) was ruled out for up to a month following their 91-point Easter Thursday shellacking from Carlton.
And a medical clearance for Brown – back from his third facial operation in 11 months – seemed to provide it.
However, McGrath said Harvey looked set to provide plenty of spark before they took on his former club.
Harvey was controversially dumped by Fremantle last September with a season left on his contract and replaced by former St Kilda mentor Ross Lyon.
Harvey earlier this year delivered a thinly veiled barb at Lyon by saying he would never unseat a contracted coach.
And Lyon made it clear he would not have changed a thing about how he usurped Harvey.
“He is going to come up against his former team. There’s naturally going to be some fire there the way he left,” McGrath said of Harvey’s mindframe ahead of the trip west.
“But Harves is here now. He is a part of us and has to do a job like everyone else.”
McGrath said the Lions would relish the inspirational Brown’s return to the forward line.
He said fears for Brown’s mental state after yet another facial fracture were dismissed days after the training clash that broke his cheekbone.
“The good thing about Brownie is that four or five days after his last injury he turned up to training and you could see the look in his eye,” he said.
“There won’t be any mental scars.
“He is chomping at the bit to come back.
“He has a presence. He gives the boys a lift. He’s our captain – it’s good to know he is down there.”
McGrath made the surprise admission that they could done more “homework” on Carlton after their disappointing round two loss.
But that’s won’t be a problem for Fremantle with Harvey in tow.
“We probably didn’t do our homework on Carlton as much as we should have – Carlton did their homework on us and pulled us apart,” he said.
“But we got over it by Friday. We had a meeting, had a good look at the vision but we can’t dwell on it too much.
“It was a bad loss but we have to bounce back in Perth this week.
“We have to show our supporters our brand of footy.
“We played frantic footy (against Carlton). We need to hold on to the footy, hit a target and slow the pace down.”
