Brisbane Lions defeat Carlton by 28 points in AFL elimination final

After surging to a preliminary final last year, Carlton was supposed to be a premiership contender. Instead, it dished up 50 minutes of the worst finals football any team has played in a long time, writes SCOTT GULLAN.

Last year Carlton came to the Gabba for the preliminary final and produced the best 20 minutes of football they — or any other team — had played against the Lions in a very, very long time.

It was exhilarating, breath-taking, jaw-dropping, off-the-charts stunning and had everyone suddenly getting very excited about a possible Carlton-Collingwood grand final.

We all know what happened next, the Lions gathered themselves, surged home and denied Victoria its dream GF.

This September the Blues came to the Gabba and produced quite possibly the worst 50 minutes of football any team has played for a very, very long time.

The only point of interest about anything they were doing came from the statisticians who excitedly revealed that it had been 50 years since a team (North Melbourne) had failed to score in the first quarter of a final.

Cam Rayner celebrates a goal in the last quarter of the elimination final between the Brisbane Lions and Carlton at the Gabba. Picture Lachie Millard

They were rapidly heading towards more history in the second quarter before captain Patrick Cripps, who was again really the only Blue having a proper crack, kicked a goal at the 23-minute mark.

That reduced the margin to 50 points and when Orazio Fantasia snapped another goal three minutes later, there were suddenly murmurings about the Opening Round clash between these two teams at the Gabba this year.

Michael Voss admitted as much after the game, that the Blues gave the Lions too much runway, even if they mounted a small fightback.

“Finals footy is about stepping up from minute one - it’s not about stepping up at half-time,” Voss said.

“It would have been an incredible fight back. There was probably a small window, probably about three or four minutes there, where one more goal could have done something, but against good sides in this competition, (it was) too far back. We gave them too much runway.

“Tonight is probably us as a season. Tonight was a really small sample size of what our season’s been. It hasn’t been consistent enough.

“When you’re not consistent enough, it compounds over time, and you come to finals, and it’s put up against the best sides in the competition under the most extreme pressure at an away venue, and you find out a bit about yourselves.

“We didn’t have our pressure at anywhere near the levels that it needed to be. Brisbane ramped that up, and we just couldn’t go with it.”

Patrick Cripps finally gets the Blues on the board 😅#AFLFinals#AFLLionsBluespic.twitter.com/r7bgOR14ia

— AFL (@AFL) September 7, 2024

On that night the Blues came back from 46 points down in the second quarter to win by one.

What do they say about lightning? It never strikes twice in the same spot and despite some heart flutters in the third quarter, the amazing comeback never quite got any momentum this time.

Unfortunately Carlton has been shot for a while.

They limped into September having lost six of their last nine games. And those three wins were against the three worst teams in the competition — West Coast, North Melbourne and Richmond.

And let’s not forget they couldn’t even beat St Kilda to get a finals berth in their own right, rather having to rely on Port Adelaide beating Fremantle to get them in.

Michael Voss threw some Hail Mary’s around in the lead-up, bringing back six players who’d been missing through injury although that didn’t include his best player Charlie Curnow.

It did include Sam Docherty whose story warmed the hearts of all us during the week. This was the third consecutive match he’d played Brisbane at the Gabba given he blew out his ACL in the Opening Round game back in March.

Voss praised Docherty post-game.

“He’s an amazing human being,” Voss said of the 30-year-old defender.

“I’m really proud of what he did. It was incredible. People doubted him, doubted the process, but I watched his bloke go to work over six months

“He’s just got that dogged determination, and he wasn’t going to miss (the game) for quids.

“To see what he was able to do to get back and play, it (shows) the resilience of the man.

“I’m just really pleased he’s got through it. I can breathe now a little bit, and we get to have him next year now, which is great.”

His courageous comeback was supposed to inspire his teammates.

Thankfully Docherty got through and did a few nice things but it was always a big ask for the veteran to be able to have any significant influence.

Tom De Koning was thrown into the game in the second quarter as sub. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

The decision to make ruckman Tom De Koning the sub was a head-scratcher from Voss. As was his decision at the 11-minute mark of the second quarter to sub out Matthew Kennedy - who’d only arrived in Brisbane the night before following the birth of his first child.

Carlton getting back into the game in the third quarter said more about Brisbane than the Blues. It has been a common theme for the Lions this season, not being able to put sides away and then getting very very nervous when they’re challenged.

While their semi-final opponents the GWS Giants won’t be shaking in their boots after watching this, there are more question marks about the Blues.

For starters, do they leave the Gabba in better shape than 12 months ago?

The ladder position says they’ve gone backwards but the injury toll has clearly been a factor. Confused? Don’t worry we all are after another strange night at the Gabba.

RECAP ALL THE ACTION FROM THE GABBA BELOW

Originally published as Brisbane Lions defeat Carlton by 28 points in AFL elimination final