AFL Round 3 results: Zac Bailey goal after siren earns Brisbane Lions win over Collingwood
Scott Pendlebury was screaming at Brayden Sier to make a move, but the young Magpie ignored his captain’s orders – and it could make for an awkward review this week.
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Brayden Sier won’t like the post-game review.
While there are hundreds of mistakes in each game of football, one defensive lapse from the Collingwood midfielder in the frantic final minutes stood out as Brisbane pinched a thrilling after-the-siren win on Friday night.
The ball was bouncing around the Collingwood forward line with four minutes and 50 seconds remaining, Pies up by seven points.
On the wing, Brody Mihocek and Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury moved into their defensive positions to repel Brisbane’s rebound kick.
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But one Lions’ player was dangerously free close to the boundary line, Jarryd Lyons.
Pendlebury could be seen and heard from over the fence screaming at Sier to get to Lyons. Quick.
But Sier didn’t move.
Pendlebury tried again, even louder this time, pointing at the open Lyons. Get over to him, the skipper begged. Again, no movement.
Then, as young Lion Brandon Starcevic slipped through a Jack Crisp tackle on the back flank and Marcus Adams sent a high ball up to the wing, guess who was all by himself to mop up a bouncing ball close to the boundary line?
Brisbane’s leading-possession winner, Jarryd Lyons.
The ball ended up with Joe Daniher taking a mark only 20m out which is when Pendlebury, it can be seen on the replay, charged straight up to his teammate to deliver the blunt feedback.
Pendlebury can be seen holding up two fingers, one for each time he told Sier to man up.
The camera panned to coach Nathan Buckley who looked equally unhappy.
It is one thing to not be in the right spot, but it is even more unwise to ignore your captain when, in those crazy last few minutes, he is asking you to shift 10 metres to your left as the Lions tried to stretch and spread the ground late.
Not once, but twice.
St Kilda great Brendon Goddard said recently he would not sleep at night knowing one of his errors was a certainty to be highlighted in the post-match review the following morning.
But importantly, that sort of accountability is exactly what helped build the discipline and trust for their premiership tilt in 2009-10.
For Sier, this must be a lesson as he strives to re-establish himself in Collingwood’s senior side following the departure of Adam Treloar.
But Treloar has wheels, Sier not so much.
Afterwards the situation didn’t seem lost on Buckley who said in the opening 30 seconds of his post-siren press conference “We didn’t defend the ground well enough in the second half”.
“They were able to get territory through us too easy from our forward line,” Buckley said.
But to be fair, there is also considerably more fatigue in the game this season, helping break down defensive structures like Collingwood’s to help open gaps in general play and increase scoring.
“The game definitely gets bigger,” Buckley said.
“As the game goes longer and the quarters go longer the game opens up.
“The sides that see those gaps, work for those gaps and use the ball more effectively - and of course you need to defend it on the other side as well – but they’re the sides that will take an advantage in the contest.”
The momentous shift in the game early this season has put an added premium on midfielders who can cover the ground, like Richmond’s Shai Bolton, over strong-bodied clearance winners such as North Melbourne’s Ben Cunnington and indeed, Collingwood’s Sier.
Buckley was a frustrated man after the game. The Magpies look like a mid-table team following a 1-2 start and Sier’s brain-fade was not the only late error that Collingwood will rue in the pulsating few minutes.
When Collingwood’s Callum Brown was paid a late free kick 30m out directly in front of goal he would back himself to slot it nine times out of 10.
Instead, it drifted to the right.
And when Mihocek turned with the footy in hand at half forward he had a wide open Jordan De Goey leading straight at him, begging for the ball to be sent in his direction for the easiest of marks.
But strangely Mihocek ignored De Goey’s lead and kicked longer to Will-Hoskin Elliott who was outbodied by Adams at the top of the square.
That is precisely the moment when Pendlebury began to setup the defensive grid on the wing to stop the outlet kick which, only a few moments later, came straight out in the predicted direction as Lyons waited to ferry the ball quickly back into the Brisbane forward line.
The Lions, and indeed Lyons, was able to stretch the ground in the crucial last few minutes and it was the Pies, despite leading for almost the entire match, who got caught out.
GRUNDY PROBLEM PIES CAN’T ESCAPE
It’s the issue which continues to haunt Collingwood and last night’s horror one-point loss is only going to inflame the Brodie Grundy debate.
As expected Grundy dominated against an inexperienced Brisbane ruck division but once again his influence didn’t equate to a Magpies victory.
The elephant in the room regarding the Pies million-dollar big man is the 2019 preliminary final loss to the GWS Giants.
Grundy blew up the stats machine that afternoon at the MCG, having an incredible 73 hit-outs yet the Pies couldn’t capitalise and blew a shot at a premiership.
Last night he was pitted against Tom Fullarton and Connor Ballenden, who had a total of six games experience between them.
It was David v Golaith and then some.
And once again Grundy’s stats looked good – 28 possessions (18 contested) five clearances and a whopping 54 hit-outs.
The Brisbane pair had just four hit-outs in total for the night.
Yet once again that hit-out dominance didn’t amount to what everyone would expect particularly when Grundy has players like Scott Pendlebury, Taylor Adams and Jordan De Goey buzzing around him.
Brisbane actually won the centre clearance count 13-11 and were only five down on clearances overall (30-35).
And when a game comes down the final kick of the night, not capitalising on a total dominance in one key part of the game is a major issue that will have Pies fans shaking their heads over the Easter weekend.
Coach Nathan Buckley dismissed the hitout stat as “a furphy”.
“When you know you’re going to lose the hitouts, you can actually set up pretty well at ground level to be able to buffer that,” Buckley said.
“There were pretty even midfields against one another at ground level.”
Despite the heartbreaking fashion in which Collingwood lost, Buckley was able to take solace from them pushing a premiership favourite right to the end.
“We knew that we were coming up against a team with their backs against the wall and we were going to get their very best,” he said.
“We’re not far away because we’re thereabouts and we went toe-to-toe for most of the game and looked OK ... but we’re smarting a little bit, you want to get the result as well.”
Luckily Chris Mayne will at least get to enjoy some chocolate after avoiding yet another stint on the sidelines because of concussion.
The veteran sent a scare through the Magpies camp when he copped a heavy knock from Lions forward Charlie Cameron.
Mayne was playing his first game for the season after being sidelined with concussion during the pre-season.
The 32-year-old was forced to sit out the Pies two pre-season practice matches after being floored at training in February.
Mayne has a history of concussion issues and missed the end of last season after having his face shattered in a collision with Carlton captain Patrick Cripps.
He suffered a fractured cheekbone in the incident and was hospitalised after the game.
Last night Mayne had his head down over the ball when Cameron came flying through and appeared to collect him in the head.
The Pies midfielder went down and took several moments to get to his feet before shrugging off the Collingwood doctor and insisting he took the free-kick.
Mayne played on for a couple of more minutes as the Pies medical staff watched replays of the incident before being summoned to the bench.
He was then involved in a heated discussion with the doctor before eventually going downstairs for further examination in the Pies rooms.
Mayne then sat out the final 10 minutes of the third quarter before being cleared to continue, coming back onto the ground five minutes into the final term.
His recovery meant Beau McCreery joined the illustrious group of making his debut as a medical sub and not actually getting on the ground.
A KICK TO REMEMBER
Brisbane youngster Zac Bailey fulfilled every young footballer’s dream by kicking a goal after the siren to secure the thrilling one-point victory.
The Lions looked like they had blown their chances for victory after fighting back from 25 points down, with two wasted chances very late to put themselves in a position to win.
Joe Daniher missed a simple set shot from 25m out which would’ve cut the deficit to one point, and at the 25-minute mark of the final term, Jarryd Lyons also missed a set shot from 48m out which would’ve levelled the scores.
But just seconds before the final siren sounded, it was a case of third time lucky as Daniel Rich spotted up Bailey, who ran the clock down, went back and slotted the set shot beautifully to send his side into delirium.
The result saw Brisbane put a week full of disruption behind them to get their top-four hopes back on track.
ZAC BAILEY WINS IT AFTER THE SIREN 🚨#AFLPiesLionspic.twitter.com/g6YtNHNDnY
— AFL (@AFL) April 1, 2021
This game was originally meant to be staged at the Gabba, but due to Brisbane going into lockdown this week, it was switched to Marvel Stadium, with the Lions forced to stay on the road for longer than planned.
In many respects the Lions were playing for their season because since 2000, 58 sides have started a season 0-3, with only six of them making the finals and just two finishing in the top four.
Lions coach Chris Fagan admitted he could not bring himself to watch the kick.
But there weren’t many other players that Fagan would’ve wanted to take the shot from 45m out directly in front of goal.
“Well, I couldn’t look,” Fagan said post-match.
“And I reckon my mum would’ve been at home saying a ‘Hail Mary’ as the ball went through.
“But with Zac with the ball in his hands, he’s actually a cool customer, so I’m not surprised that he kicked it through.”
The twist of fate that saw Bailey kick the winning goal for the Lions a week after he should’ve done the same thing against Geelong, if not for a terrible holding-the-ball non-decision that he should’ve been paid, floored Fagan.
“You wouldn’t read about that, would you?” Fagan said.
“It was so, so crazy. He could’ve been the hero two weeks in a row. Who gets to do that? You’re lucky to get to do it once in your life.”
Fagan was full of praise for his players who he said could’ve easily dropped their bundles after losing to the Cats in controversial circumstances before having their lives “turned upside down” as a result of the Brisbane lockdown which forced them to stay on the road for longer than planned.
“We’ve had a pretty good run the last couple years, won a lot of games in a row, hadn’t really hit a bump in the road road like we had over the last couple of weeks, so it was always going to be an interesting scenario tonight as to how our boys would respond,” Fagan said.
“When they look back on their careers at that game tonight, that’ll put a smile on their faces.”
Great scenes. Those who didn’t play just as pumped #AFLPiesLions@FOXFOOTYpic.twitter.com/xzMez48xTj
— Kath Loughnan (@KathLoughnan) April 1, 2021
HOWE GOOD WAS THAT?
Early in the final quarter with only eight points separating both sides, Jeremy Howe took it upon himself to extend Collingwood’s lead with a long bomb from inside the centre square.
It was his first goal since the 2019 qualifying final after a serious knee injury ruined his 2020 season and he was mobbed by his teammates in recognition of what he has endured over the past 12 months.
And later in the quarter, he took a trademark speccy over Tom Berry deep in defence at a crucial time with scores level to not only deny the Lions a goalscoring chance, but help get the ball down the other end of the ground where Josh Daicos put the Magpies up by seven points a few minutes later.
SPECCY, SPECCY, GOAL!
A remarkable sequence of play saw the Lions cut the deficit to two points early in the third quarter.
Firstly, Joe Daniher flew over Jordan Roughead on the half-forward flank before sending a long ball deep into attack.
Not to be outdone by the former Bomber, Charlie Cameron got on the end of Daniher’s roost and took a hanger of his own over Jeremy Howe before converting the easy set shot from the goalsquare.
MAD MITCH MOUTHS OFF
Fifteen minutes later, Mitch Robinson was at his fiery best after spotting up teammate Hugh McCluggage 45m out from goal.
So happy was Robinson with his kick that he walked over to Steele Sidebottom and let him know all about for a good minute or so.
Based on how animated he was, it’s safe to assume that he wasn’t asking for gardening tips.
Luckily for Robinson, McCluggage kept up his end of the bargain and defied his poor goalkicking record by slotting the set shot, otherwise the ex-Blue would’ve looked rather foolish.
EARLY PAYNE FOR LIONS
Jack Payne’s high-risk, low-percentage play in the first quarter would’ve raised more than the odd eyebrow in the Brisbane coaching box.
For some reason, the young Lions defender decided to kick the ball across goal to Daniel Rich who had to contend with Magpies Mason Cox and Jack Crisp. The result was predictable as the Collingwood pair executed the turnover, providing the crumbs for Josh Thomas who coolly slotted home the goal from the pocket.
Charlie is taking ankles 😤
— AFL (@AFL) April 1, 2021
You can't catch him as he gives the Lions an important goal! #AFLPiesLionspic.twitter.com/4mQAdsVkHc
Brayden Sier bends it in from 45 METRES OUT 🚀#ColesGoals | #AFLPiesLionspic.twitter.com/7g0JyBJQcH
— AFL (@AFL) April 1, 2021
MAGPIES 4.2 7.3 9.5 11.6 (72)
LIONS 2.1 6.1 8.3 11.7 (73)
LERNER’S BEST
Magpies: Grundy, Pendlebury, Quaynor, Roughead, Sidebottom, Adams.
Lions: Daniher, J.Lyons, McCluggage, Rich, Andrews, Neale.
GOALS
Magpies: Cox 2, Mihocek 2, Daicos 2, Sier, Sidebottom, Thomas, De Goey, Howe.
Lions: Daniher 3, Cameron 2, Neale, T.Berry, Hipwood, McCluggage, Rich, Bailey.
RONNY LERNER’S VOTES
3 B.Grundy (Coll)
2 J.Daniher (BL)
1 J.Lyons (BL)
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Originally published as AFL Round 3 results: Zac Bailey goal after siren earns Brisbane Lions win over Collingwood
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