Seeing the excitement on some of the younger guys’ faces after we came from behind to beat North Melbourne last weekend at the Gabba was priceless.
We had four players who had never experienced an AFL senior win before - Rohan Bewick, Bryce Retzlaff, Josh Green and Jesse O’Brien - and it was only the fourth time in 20 matches that Pearce Hanley has been able to sing the Club song after the game.
It’s also great to walk off the ground and finally see some smiles on the face of Lions fans who, like us players, have endured a pretty tough couple of months.
But we always knew a win wasn’t far away - we just hoped it had come sooner. While it was heart-breaking to lose four of our first seven games by two goals or less, the guys stayed positive and approached every match with the belief that we could get the four points.
The win against the Kangaroos just reaffirms that belief and can hopefully now drive us towards some more success in the near future.
It obviously it helped that we had the big fella back up forward who really led the way in that second half. He’s just an amazing player.
To kick four goals and take half a dozen contested marks in the wet on his first game back in eight weeks was just unbelievable.
Browny also proved that his facial injury won’t stop the way he plays the game. He was as courageous as ever and went head-first into every contest.
He tells me his face is 10 times stronger now than it was before the surgery, so I guess he has no problem in testing it out.
The team faces a pretty big challenge this Sunday afternoon when we play Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.
The Crows were awesome for three quarters against Collingwood last weekend and are probably unlucky not to be further up the ladder at the moment.
So we will have to be on our game if we’re to come home with a second win.
It will be made a bit tougher considering Tommy Rockliff looks like he’ll be out of the side, but I’m sure there are plenty of blokes in the Reserves who are ready to step up and take his place.
