QClash history: The results, talking points and why this is the biggest Gold Coast-Brisbane Lions match yet

Gold Coast is on the march. Brisbane Lions’ season is fading away — and it’s why there’s never been a QClash with so much on the line. CALLUM DICK examines whether a changing of the guard is imminent.

David Swallow Dayne Zorko QClash

We’ve seen close contests, controversial moments and spectacular scenes of individual brilliance.

But never has there been a bigger QClash than this.

The 26th running of a one-sided rivalry that has often promised much and only rarely delivered will write its next chapter at the Gabba on Sunday night.

This time, no matter which narrative thread you pull, the story that unravels will be fascinating.

Brisbane will either right its season with a win or watch it slip away in defeat. A Gold Coast victory would be a statement of intent and signal of a possible finals berth, but a loss would temper expectations once again.

Hosts Brisbane became the talking point of the AFL world this week, after an embarrassing defeat at the hands of GWS saw Chris Fagan’s side slump to 2-5.

Matt Rowell and Jarrod Berry with the QClash cup last year. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Last season’s runners-up lost just seven games in all of 2023, including a grand final in which they went within minutes of winning the flag.

Now they are staring down the barrel of a 0-4 home record – unheard of in the five years since Fagan’s Lions laid the foundations for becoming the AFL’s winningest home-and-away side, built largely on their Gabba dominance.

Many pundits pick for premier this season, Brisbane all-but watched its top four hopes disintegrate at the hands of the Giants last weekend.

Lose this one and it could be time to put a line through their finals dreams entirely.

Where and how has it all gone so wrong?

For the first 20 minutes of the season opener against Carlton, the Gabba witnessed the best footy any Brisbane side had played since the glory years of the three-peat era more than two decades ago.

Since then the Lions have largely looked a shell of their former self.

Dayne Zorko and Touk Miller clash.

The infamous Miller-Zorko ‘squirrel grip’ incident.

The Blues stormed back from a 46-point deficit to steal the win by a solitary point and inflict on Brisbane its first home defeat in 567 days.

A one-way win over AFL whipping boys North Melbourne aside, the only glimpse of the Lions of old so far this season came against Melbourne at the MCG in round 5 – ironically, at the only venue under Fagan they have historically struggled.

We had been waiting for the penny to drop and hoped the win over Melbourne was it – it wasn’t. Just a teasing reminder.

Everything about the Lions this season has been flipped on its head.

From the second-highest scoring team in the competition to among the worst in 2024, Brisbane’s forward line – the envy of the AFL for years – has failed to fire.

Brisbane boasted the best clearance differential of any side in 2023 and dominated the territory battle. Both statistics became staples of Fagan’s Lions over the past five seasons.

Yet against Geelong they were beaten at the source, while the Giants bested them both at stoppage and inside 50s. Rarefied, unwanted air.

Gary Ablett watched by Andrew Raines during the first QClash.

The Lions have unquestionably endured the toughest draw of any club to start the year. But they have been well below the standard to which we have become accustomed.

The fans know it. Fagan knows it. And Gold Coast knows it.

While Brisbane’s back is against the wall the Suns can smell blood.

Telling has been the change of tack from the Gold Coast club, which for years has sought to spice up the rivalry with a midweek war of words but on this occasion has chosen to mostly remain silent.

It suggests that, for the first time in a long time, the Suns feel they are a genuine chance to walk into the Lions’ den and leave with the four points.

Damien Hardwick’s players have played everything with a straight bat but the coach’s comments on Friday hinted he felt the Lions were now gettable at the Gabba.

“If we want to be a football club on the rise, these are the games we need to start winning and that’s firmly our aim this week,” Hardwick declared.

“We want to be Kings of the North.”

Damien Hardwick says the Suns want to be kings of the north.

Brisbane Lions have had a stuttering start to 2024. Picture: Jason McCawley/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

The triple-premiership coach has Gold Coast playing perhaps the best brand of football in club history and still he says they are far from the finished product.

The Suns are unbeaten at home but winless on the road this season. It contrasts almost perfectly with the Lions’ 2024 record.

Barring an anticlimactic draw, one of those droughts will end on Sunday.

Why is this the biggest QClash of them all? Because perhaps for the first time ever, the result has genuine ramifications for both clubs.

The Suns’ shock 41-point upset at Carrara last year may have come with the club still in finals contention, but only mathematically. It was a win for pride but in the context of the season, meant naught. Meanwhile the Lions had all-but assured themselves of a top four berth at that point.

Gold Coast won the inaugural QClash in May 2011 and the most recent in July 2023. In-between, the silverware has only travelled south on the M1 five times.

Between 2014 and 2018 the Suns owned the head-to-head 5-4. But Brisbane leads the overall count 18-7 and 11-2 under Fagan.

Tempers flare in a QClash.

The rivalry has to this point largely been manufactured, spurred on by individual spats and spot fires headlined by Steven May’s diabolic bump on Stefan Martin in 2016 and the ongoing feud between Touk Miller and Dayne Zorko.

This time the Lions need a win, lest their season go up in smoke. The Suns want to make a statement on the road and there would be no better than against Big Brother in Brisbane.

Fagan is a master at manufacturing a reaction from his playing group. This week his coaching method has been called into question by some sections of the AFL world.

Few playing groups play for their coach like the Lions do for Fagan. That, coupled with the threat of a season-defining defeat – at the hands of the Suns no less – is a recipe for a seriously spicy battle between the two Queensland clubs.

The Lions’ commitment and camaraderie has been questioned. The jury is still out on the Suns’ finals credentials.

We’ll get all those answers and more on Sunday night.