The Lions back to their premiership best, sending stern warning to the competition
Photo: Oscar Allen and Conor Mckenna celebrates with teammate Kai Lohmann after kicking a goal (photo by Albert Perez/AFL photos)
Form can swing fast in footy. Just six days after our second-worst loss of the season, our Brisbane Lions have responded in a massive way with a 67-point win over the third-placed Hawks.
After the boys’ disappointing performance last weekend, bouncing back was their top priority as the top 4 race heats up with two more rounds to go. Our Lions showed once again why they are the reigning premiers, silencing all the critics surrounding our defensive profile and lack of intent in a big way.
From the opening moments, it was obvious that the boys were switched on from the first bounce, as the Lions’ pressure overwhelmed the hawks’ defence early, by getting repeat forward 50 entries within the first quarter. According to Lions coach Chris Fagan “You could tell our energy was up, where last week it wasn’t.” Logan Morris set the tone up forward kicking two goals in the first quarter. The young superstar kicked another 2 goals in the second quarter, and finished with 4 goals for the game, with all of them coming in the 1st half, but it wasn’t just his impact on the scoreboard, it was ultimately his brilliant forward craft that we all know and love that shone for us.
It was a huge day last Friday for one of our very own, Froggy Lester, playing game 250, the boys wanted to put on a show for him, and we did just that. It was even more special when recruit Sam Draper handballed the ball off to Froggy to kick a special goal, for a man who has been so loyal and courageous for so many years, and the man just keeps delivering every year. Fagan said it “will go down as one of my favourite moments of coaching the Brisbane Lions”, highlighting how much joy the moment brought him.
Kai Lohmann was another story coming out of our emphatic win, booting a career high five goals’, along with his 24 disposals, by far the best Lion on the night. Along with our two-time Norm Smith medallist Will Ashcroft with a career high 39 disposals and veteran Lachie Neale with 35 disposals led the boys to an outstanding win.
The two big inclusions of veteran defender Darcy Gardiner and Dayne Zorko had a clear effect on the boys, and particularly the defensive structure, which was down in last week’s loss to Carlton. Fagan stated, “Our defenders played well tonight, they had a bad night last week.” Zorko’s slick ball movement just has an effect on the team, and, as some might agree, we could have been off because of our great Dayne. Additionally, the inclusion of youngster Dan Annable gave the group a lift as he scored his first ever AFL goal, which is the one of the highlights from the night.
With our team defence being under scrutiny all week, allowing Hawthorn to score 58 points was an excellent result for the team, now averaging 90.7 points against for the year, tracking in the right direction, and heading into finals in a few weeks is great for our chances of a historical three-peat.
Another good result for the boys was on the injury front, with no serious injuries for the group, despite Zorko having some cramping during the game, but he should be right for next week. Looking forward we have the Suns back at home for Q clash 31. The Lions will be looking for back-to-back wins and to cement their top-four spot with 2 games to go. As far as team selection goes, it will be another small headache for Fagan. I think the Coach will keep the team the same, because why would you change a winning team? and we know the faith that Fagan has in this team, so the team should be unchanged going into next Saturday’s game. While saying that, Keidean Coleman has been given all clear from HIA protocols which gives us options in the defence.
After getting back on the winners’ list, we look forward to the last two games of the home -and-away season. We have one more home game against the Suns who have had a disappointing year and look to finish another failed season on the right foot. Then we have one more away game against the pies, who are threatening in the final games of the season. We just need to win both and get to finals now and we know how good this team is in finals! Keep believing, Lions Fans!
