The Lions missed seven or eight sets shots in posting their second lowest score of the year – 10-16-76 to Sydney’s 14-6-90 – and stunned a record crowd for a day game at the Gabba of 32,988.
The fact that the Lions dominated the ruck 51 hitouts to 27, smashed the Swans in the clearances 44-29 and went inside the attacking 50m arc 52 times to Sydney’s 43 counted for nothing in the end.
“The opposition kicked very accurately and if you’re sloppy (in front of goal), you’ll lose,” said disappointed Lions coach Leigh Matthews.
“We’ve actually had two carbon copy games against the Swans. We’ve had more scoring shots both times we’ve played them, only we’ve kicked 21-29 and they’ve kicked 29-14….conversion, conversion, conversion!
“You can pick out the less obvious if you want to – the fact was we had 26 scoring shots to 20, that’s why we lost the game. Everything else is pure speculation. If we had kicked more accurately and they had kicked half less accurately, we would have won the game.”
It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Lions, who now have to rely on some unlikely upset results to grab the second place on the AFL table that they had coveted, and that would have been theirs had they won today.
The Lions led by 20 points at the 24-minute mark of the opening term and 22 points nine minutes into the second, enjoying by far the better of the first half, yet led by just nine points at the interval.
Again they opened a 21-point break five minutes into the third term, but watched on in frustration as the opposition booted the last six goals straight of the quarter. The Lions actually went goalless for 36 minutes, before two in three minutes at the 11 and 14 minute marks of the final term put them back in front.
But as has been a disturbing trend through the second half of the season, it was the opposition who surged through to victory in the dying minutes.
“It’s not simple – I’m not sure what you make of that but it’s not good,” Matthews said.
The loss was extra galling for inspirational Lions skipper Michael Voss, who was by far the best player on the ground. Voss did everything in his power to lead his side to second place, constantly throwing himself headfirst into packs, tackling ferociously, and collecting 34 possessions along the way. He made seven clearances and a game high 10 inside 50s.
It was a Voss tackle at half-back that was the catalyst for the Lions to go four kicks clear early in the third term. Minutes later he ran down Paul Williams to prevent what seemed a certain goal but, typical of the day, the ball came rebounding back from half-forward for Michael O’Loughlin to kick a running banana goal on the boundary line.
O’Loughlin started across the full-forward line with Barry Hall and was quiet through the first quarter and a half as the Lions’ willingness to run back into defence made space hard to find for the Swans.
It was Lions centre-half-forward Jonathan Brown who did all the early damage, claiming three contested marks and booting three goals in the opening term. He was too good for Jason Saddington, and then found himself marked by former teammate Craig Bolton, who had started against Martin Pike on a wing.
With the help of his midfielders flooding back – and ruckman-forward Adam Goodes constantly dropping back in front of Brown – Bolton held the matchwinning Lion goalless and to 11 possessions over the final three quarters.
Nonetheless, Brown worked incredibly hard as he always does and could have finished with better than his final tally of 3-4. Normally a true kick under pressure as his goals in grand finals testify, Brown had a chance to reclaim the lead for the Lions at the 19-minute mark of the final term, but his shot from 45m on an angle pulled left.
The Swans did a super job of suffocating the Lions’ run out of defence as the game wore on, doing to the Lions what they had themselves been on the receiving end early. It made life particularly difficult for leading full-forward Alastair Lynch, who could not shake Andrew Schauble and finished without a goal for the day.
It was left to ruckman Clark Keating to float forward and kick two early goals in the third quarter, and then regular back pocket Chris Johnson to boot two good goals from strong marks in the final term to find a way home.
Ultimately it wasn’t enough, although in the end the result came down to a think coat of varnish on the eastern goalpost. Lively midfielder Luke Power let fly with a shot from the boundary near the 50m line in the last 90 seconds and the home crowd behind the goals rose as one. The Lions trailed by two points at that stage, but the ball just touched the inside of the post.
The Swans then swept the ball forward and goalled twice in the dying seconds.
It was fitting that Williams should goal on the siren because he was one of the midfield generals in the win and celebrated his 250 game milestone in the finest of fashions.
The gamebreaker was his full-forward Hall, who worked his way into the game after a slow start against Mal Michael and came into it strongly late in the second term. He finished with 11 marks, 14 kicks, three handballs and 5-2 in what turned out to be a dominant effort against the miserly Michael and Daniel Bradshaw, who held O’Loughlin early.
“He’s a very high class player, Barry Hall, and so is Michael O’Loughlin,” Matthews said. “He led into space and our defenders just couldn’t get the front position – and he converted accurately. He was certainly a thorn in our side.”
The bright part of an otherwise black day that was as bleak as the at-times drizzly weather was the return of Nigel Lappin. Having missed four weeks with a badly corked thigh, Lappin collected 25 possessions in the final three quarters of the game and finished full of running.
Shaun Hart was another good contributor, being involved in the majority of the Lions’ goals, while Power and Keating did their bit. Robbie Copeland didn’t get a lot of the ball, but he had the dangerous Adam Schneider moved off him after the first quarter and produced some strong work under pressure during the final term.
While Goodes did some good things and collected 16 possessions, Keating and Jamie Charman collectively matched him, and produced three goals between them. They were also the catalysts for a 14-6 centre break advantage.
But in the end, it all came back to the kicking at goal.
“The reality was that we had eight scoring shots in the first quarter (against Collingwood last week) and kicked eight goals. Conversion is an incredibly important (thing), the most important part (of the game) by a long, long way,” Matthews said.
“This week we missed a few and when they seemed to have shots they were pretty accurate. We couldn’t hold them off.
“In the second half when the game was relatively even, we’ve kicked 4-8 and they’ve kicked 9-1 – they win the game.”
Matthews wasn’t interested in the side issues, such as the Swans blocking off supply to the Lions forwards a touch better than the Magpies last week.
“We still had the shots, but we were inaccurate with our conversion,” he said. “It’s hard to stop an opposition having less than 20 shots at goal. Last week Collingwood kicked 8-14, so the circumstances of the game are worth noting. As I said, last week we had four more scoring shots, which was pretty good, but it wasn’t a 39-point win if you know what I mean.”
Matthews was quick to point out that the Swans have been remarkable with their goalkicking all season.
“The Swans have been magnificent at it all year,” he said. “The Swans have kicked 280 goals and 197 behinds (before today). Their conversion has put them up where they are on the ladder.
“Everything else – they run well – but their accuracy has been a magnificent part of their season, it’s the reason why they’ve won four or five games I suspect.”
In contrast, the Lions have now mustered 290-262 for the year, which a cause of concern for the coach.
“Over a period of time our conversion has not been good enough, often enough. The Swans conversely and the opposition have been very good very often. That’s a big difference in your end result,” Matthews said.
”There’s very little chance we’ll finish second now. If we win the next two we’ll probably finish fourth, but we’ve still got to win those two. The fact is there’s no certainties with us. Our reputation is certainly better than our performance at this point of the club’s evolution.”
Matthews added that Port Adelaide was the side that should be considered the most powerful in the competition at the moment.
“I think everyone’s a genuine premiership contender, but Port Adelaide is so far ahead because of where they are,” he said. “They are going to finish on top of the ladder and twiddle their thumbs for a couple of weeks I guess.
“Port Adelaide, on performance and again as they were last year, is the best side in the competition. For three years Port Adelaide have had a fantastic win-loss ratio.”
Matthews also indicated the selection committee would be having a long, hard think about the team to meet Geelong at the Gabba on Saturday night.
“We’ve got to be really careful that we don’t pick our players on reputation, we’ve got to be careful on what can they do against Geelong on Saturday night, not what can they do if they are fit, well and match hardened,” he said.
“That’s a real issue for us to get our mind around. It’s hard to do. What effect it had on the game today I’m not sure but it’s certainly an issue.”
How they started:
B: Johnson, Bradshaw, Michael
J Bolton, O’Loughlin, Hall
HB: Copeland, White, Ashcroft
Schneider, Goodes, Davis
C: B Scott, Voss, Pike
Creswell, Williams, C Bolton
HF: C Scott, Brown, Hart
Barry, Saddington, Maxfield
F: Power, Lynch, Caracella
Matthews, Schauble, Kennelly
R: Keating, Black, Akermanis
Meiklejohn, Kirk, Crouch
I/C: McGrath, Charman, Shattock, Lappin
O’Keefe, Fosdike, James, Roberts-Thompson
Scores:
Sydney Swans, 2-1, 5-5, 11-5, 14-6-90
Brisbane Lions, 4-3, 6-8, 8-12, 10-16-76
Goals, Swans: Hall 5, O’Loughlin 2, Williams 2, O’Keefe, Kirk, Goodes, Cresswell, J Bolton. Lions: Brown 3, Johnson 2, Keating 2, Charman, Akermanis, Black.
Possessions, Swans: Barry 23, Williams 21, Cresswell 18, Hall 17, O’Loughlin 17, Kennelly 16, Kirk 16, Goodes 16, Fosdike 16, J Bolton 15, Davis 15, C Bolton 14. Lions: Voss 34, Lappin 25, B Scott 22, Power 22, Black 19, Akermanis 18, Hart 17, Brown 16.
Best, Swans: Hall, C Bolton, O’Loughlin, Schauble, Williams, Kennelly, Barry, Goodes, Fosdike. Lions: Voss, Lappin, Black, Brown, Hart, Keating.
Umpires: James, Allen, Kennedy
At the Gabba
Crowd: 32,988
