From 7 wins in a row to holding onto a top 4 finish, what went wrong for the Champs?

Photo: Cameron Rayner getting tackled by young Carlton defender Lachlan Cowan (photo by Graham Denholm/AFL Photos)

It was a horror watch for all of us beloved Lions fans as hopes of making it eight wins in a row came crashing down. Josh Fraser’s Blues demolished our champion team by 76 points at our home away from home, Marvel Stadium, on Saturday night. All our worries from earlier in the season came back to haunt us, as a seriously hungry Carlton side proved far too strong for the boys.

The concerns of a ‘leaky defence’ and lack of effort from weeks before all became evident, as the blues put on a stunning 154 points against us. Along with this, injuries came back bite us, and it was clear that the absence of youngster Ty Gallop had the defence in raptures, as Eric Hipwood was pushed into the backline, which was a tactical decision from Lions Head Coach, but one that was ultimately wasn’t the greatest idea. As Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan said after the match “There was more to the loss than that. We lost it in the midfield”.

With the Lions sitting just inside the top 4, percentage is the most vital thing at this stage of the season; the 76-point loss heavily impacted it, as our percentage sat on 120% and now sits on 114%. While the Lions’ shock loss looms, the Crows have snuck into the top 4, just scraping by having a better percentage after their 72-point demolishing of Essendon on Sunday afternoon.

There were clear problems up forward for the boys as neither Logan Morris nor Oscar Allen could impact the game on the scoreboard with only one goal being recorded between them. Meanwhile, Morris was well held out of the game by rising star contender Harry Dean and especially with Logan suffering back problems during the third quarter. There was some telling evidence from some key stats that told the story for the Lions. The most evident are highlighted in the table below:

On the injury front, it was a dirty night for the reigning champs, as the likes of Ryan Lester who left the field with a sore shoulder, Keidean Coleman, failed his concussion test which ended his night. Some people may believe that was the moment the lions switched off late in the second quarter. On top of that, coach Fagan mentioned Morris and McCluggage, with some calf soreness and will have scans later on. In some good news, veteran Dayne Zorko and Darcy Gardiner looks set to return to the side for next week’s top 4 battle with the Hawks. Despite the loss, Will Ashcroft (32 disposals, 2 goals) and Lachie Neale (26 disposals) were arguably the best, along with Kai Lohmann (2 goals) on the scoreboard, continuing his great form into the latter part of the season.

As we look forward to our next step in our race to a historical three-peat, we return to the Gabba to face the red-hot hawks, who have won their past 4 games, with their last loss coming back in round 17 against Melbourne. Our team defence is and has been our biggest problem all year, averaging 92.5 points against a game, which lands the lions 13^th in this stat for the season. If we want to win that three-peat, we should look to improve our defence quickly with only 3 games to go. In contrast, our offense is flourishing, averaging 106 points a game, placing us in second place in points for. This is an excellent result so far. Back home next week, the boys will be looking to respond in a big way against the third-placed hawks and will want to make a statement coming up to finals. Let’s hope we can do it, and let’s cheer on our Lions! Believe!