BRISBANE AFLW players were told to have a bag packed and be ready to leave quickly during the city's brief lockdown last week.
In the end, the three-day lockdown actually finished a few hours early, the team was able to train and is now set to take on Collingwood in a preliminary final at the Gabba.
Lions midfielder Ally Anderson was able to continue to work in her role as a high school teacher, but it didn't make life much easier.
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"It was mentally tough, because you were wondering what was going to happen, and I'm someone who likes to know what's happening," Anderson told Credit to the Girls.
"With this whole season, that hasn't been possible, so I've had to adjust a lot and a lot of the girls have too. I think I've done pretty well considering all the changes that have happened, and I think as a team we've done really well to adjust.
"After the lockdown, when we were seeing how the cases were going, we were pretty much told to have a bag in case we do need to get out of Brisbane.
"There were then a few days of zero cases, so that was pretty lucky that we were able to stay in Brisbane and have the prelim final at the Gabba, which is pretty exciting."
Last weekend marked the first "bye" in the five years of the AFLW competition, with Adelaide and Brisbane given a week off after qualifying for a preliminary final as a consequence of their top-two finishes.
While byes can occasionally lead to a loss of momentum, Anderson said it came at a perfect time for the Lions.
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"We changed a little bit with how we prepared for the week. We had some good match practice on Friday morning, then had a good weekend off, and then some more training last night," Anderson said.
"Going into the week the same sort of way (as normal), but it's really beneficial for us, and we're really lucky to have the week off, especially with our three travel games and the fatigue starting to kick in. It was a good chance to step away from footy, relax and get the body ready to go again.
"The way we play in general is very high pressure and an intense game style, so I feel like we will bring that regardless of the week off. I have faith in the team that we'll start the way we've been starting the last few weeks."
EPISODE GUIDE
1:00 – Tarni Brown's redemption and Maddi Gay's icing on the cake caught our eye in the qualifying finals
3:35 – ICYMI: Melbourne masters the Casey wind
7:28 – ICYMI: Pies' redemption over North Melbourne
10:00 – Quick Hands with Ally Anderson
13:30 – Brisbane's brief lockdown
17:27 – Lessons from Brisbane's loss to Melbourne
21:02 – Cathy Svarc v Bri Davey
25:15 – The stat Craig Starcevich has told Ally Anderson not to talk about
27:00 – The Agenda: Adelaide v Melbourne preview
34:23 – The Agenda: Brisbane v Collingwood preview
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