Assistant coach Josh Francou gives us his preview of Sunday's clash against Brisbane in the Cellarbrations Coaches Column for this week.

Our preparation has been thrown around with a six-day break before the Port game and now a 10-day break before Sunday's match. Will it work for us having the extra time, or can it work against us?

I guess there is a danger of slipping into a relaxed mode, but our guys are too professional to let that happen.

We, the coaches, won't let that happen and we'd like to think the playing group won't either. It hasn't been bought up and we're confident it won't be an issue.

You're dealt the fixture way before the season starts and it's up to how well you adjust your schedule.

It's a good chance for guys with niggling injuries to rest up and recover?

At this stage of the season, there a lot of players out there from every side dealing with niggling injuries.

To have the extra few days is definitely beneficial for guys that have niggles by giving them some time to get over them and put their hand up for selection.

What can we take away from our win against Port Adelaide? It was a gutsy win considering we were two players down for the second half in the wake of Gary Rohan (hamstring) and Ted Richards' (concussion) injuries.

No doubt when you've got your two key forwards not playing, one of those who also plays as our second ruck option, it does throw our structure around and was a challenge in itself.

Add to that different dimension, a first gamer in Toby Nankervis who I thought played his role brilliantly.

In regards to the stage of season, you've always got one eye on the ladder. I suppose, in the scheme of things, with us losing to Richmond the week before, it was a crucial game for us.

It was also a critical game for Port who need to win games to stay alive.

How we responded two rotations down, while we were under siege, was a really pleasing.

And, despite its win-loss record to that point, everyone knows what Port Adelaide is capable of so can we hold our heads high?

They've got a lot of game breakers in Chad Wingard, Robbie Gray, Hamish Harlett among others so when they were coming at us you couldn't  help but think 'what's going to happen here'

We can be proud of our effort, certainly.

We welcome back our big key forwards in Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett. We managed to kick a winning score without them last weekend, but I bet you wouldn't say no if those two were primed and ready...

If you had your choice, you'd rather Lance and Kurt in the side than out.

If you look at how the team structures up, Kurt gives us a different dimension in regards to what he offers up forward and in the ruck

We're a different side and a more dangerous side with those two players.

The Lions might be sitting low on the table, but they still possess some dangerous players who can be match-winners. How important is it to be on top of our game?

If you look back to our NAB Challenge game in Coffs Harbour - they were terrific. They were hard in and around the stoppages, and won a lot of the contested ball.

They have a lot of quality players and have welcomed back some experience as well which should bode well for them.

You only have to look at their game against Adelaide and Freo, they were in a winning position at three-quarter-time and for whatever reason couldn't sustain it.

They still pose a massive challenge for us. We've got to be up and about and play well, that message stays the same whether we're playing Brisbane or Fremantle, or on any given day you can get stung.

Does our recent results (Sydney has won the past seven matches against Brisbane) count for anything?

Not really, if you have a look at our record against Port where we've won 10 of the last 11 matches stats are irrelevant.

We never talk about previous games in Match Committee, it's more about this week and how we're going to tackle them on Sunday.