BRISBANE Lions coach Leigh Matthews has described tonight’s miraculous win over Port Adelaide as the best comeback he can remember being involved with at the Lions.
Matthews’ side overturned a 47-point third-term deficit with an 11 goals to one finishing burst to win running away.
“Yeah, it’s the best (comeback) we’ve had,” a still stunned Matthews said after the match.
“No-one could have expected the last quarter – amazing. It just goes to show you never know what’s going to happen.
“No-one would have thought it possible you were going to go and kick 9.6 in the last quarter.
“We were making a lot of errors and things weren’t going for us.
“I guess it was a victory for perseverance and keeping at it when things aren’t necessarily going well.”
Matthews said the win rested on two other key factors – a turnaround in winning the contested ball and his forwards being able to convert.
At three-quarter time Port led the clearances 25 to 24, but in the last quarter the Lions dominated with 19 clearances to 10. Five of those were to Simon Black. The turnaround came despite Port ruck duo Brendan Lade and Dean Brogan dominating the hit-outs.
“In the ruck art, just because you get your hands to the ball doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to clear it,” Matthews said, praising the role of Black.
“But two things happened – we won the contested ball better and our forwards – Daniel Bradshaw and Browny (Jonathan Brown) and others – got on the end of it and we kicked goals, rather than it bouncing out of our forward 50.”
Matthews praised the continued excellent form of Bradshaw (five goals) in his return from a knee reconstruction, but was even more pleased with the fact that his side had 11 individual goal scorers.
“He’s (Bradshaw) very important. Obviously tonight in difficult conditions he and Jonathan Brown kicked the nine between them.
“But the best part I’ve got to say is that we had 11 goal scorers.
“Most of the time between them Jonathan (Brown) and Daniel have got their six to eight goals, if not more. But the fact there were nine other goal scorers is important, because we need more than just the two big forwards.”
Matthews also said the half-time move of Justin Sherman onto Port’s David Rodan, who had been rampant with 20 possessions and two goals to that point, was a critical juncture in the game.
“That was very important. Rodan was just cutting up the players he was on in the first half, so we put Shermo on him in the third quarter and that stopped the drive that Rodan was giving them.
“And that maybe started to turn the game a little bit, and other guys joined in … that was a very valuable role.”
In the longer term Matthews said the game would be another important step in his young players gaining belief.
“To win in those circumstances, hopefully that’s a good morale booster,” he said.
“It says a lot about the players fight and spunk to keep at it, and fitness too. All of those things are good for their belief systems.
“(It means) they believe that just because the game isn’t going well for them doesn’t mean it can’t turn around later on.
“Apart from that … we’re now 2-2 (win-loss) so our season’s kind of stabilised a little.”
