Brisbane Lions hand Fremantle Dockers a brutal reality check with 57-point win
DON’T be fooled by the ladder positions. The last placed Lions have pulled off a huge upset, smashing the eighth placed Dockers at the Gabba.
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BRISBANE were singing in the rain at the Gabba on Saturday after producing their finest performance under Chris Fagan.
The Lions passed 100 points for the first time this season to record a 57 point victory over Fremantle in front of a poor crowd of 11, 472.
As Fagan, the AFL’s newest coach, got the pressure release he needed with the 18.13 (121) to 9.10 (64) victory, one of the older heads Ross Lyon received a brutal reality check.
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When Fremantle won six from seven after round two the talk was the turnaround was underway and the Dockers were set to start the climb back up the ladder.
But on Saturday they were belted by unbackable wooden spoon favourites.
They were smashed at the contest and turned the ball over with comical regularity.
While Lyon and his brains trust have a long and uncomfortable flight home pondering what can be done to fix the Dockers considerable problems, Fagan and the Lions coaches can enjoy justification they are on the right track.
This was a victory built on the back of their two best players in Dayne Beams (35 possessions) and Dayne Zorko (30) who were superb and backed-up by the next tier Harris Andrews, Sam Mayes and Lewis Taylor.
Andrews didn’t have much work to do but he won every crucial contest against Cam McCarthy.
Taylor booted four goals in an electric display while Mayes produced the best game of his season across half back. His ball use was first class.
For Fremantle Nat Fyfe showed the most fight while Lachie Neale got plenty of the ball and Brad Hill had touches of class.
But there wasn’t much else.
The Dockers lost half forward Brady Grey to a hamstring injury in the first quarter.
What would have pleased Fagan most was how the Lions withstood a fight back.
The theme of their season is they start quarters well but fade in the final ten to fifteen minutes.
On Saturday the Lions were 36 points up midway through the second quarter when Fremantle made their move.
They started to wrestle back ascendancy in the midfield and began to take control of the match but failed to fully capitalise on their chances.
They kicked 4.5 for the quarter.
When Zorko nabbed the first of his two goals on the siren the Lions’ lead was 26 points.
The third quarter was a complete reversal of the second.
Halfway through the quarter the inside 50 count was 14 to zero in favour of the Lions.
But they were also wasteful. After Eric Hipwood opened the scoring with a long range bomb that sailed through the goals midway up the posts they kicked five consecutive behinds before Zorko then Taylor and finally Jake Barrett kicked truly.
At that stage the margin was 57 points and the only thing that could alter the outcome was a Lions fade-out.
It never happened.
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