AFL 2024: Lions restore faith, put doubts in Dees in 82-60 win
22 points isn’t usually a drubbing but Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has conceded his team was “punished” by the rampaging Lions for most of Thursday night’s match at the MCG.
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Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says Brisbane “exposed” ongoing deficiencies in the Demons’ game as their winning run screeched to a halt at the MCG on Thursday night.
Goodwin was pleased by how his side rallied with five final-quarter goals but said the Lions were harder and hungrier as he conceded a relentless schedule may have taken its toll.
It was Melbourne’s third game in 13 days leading into its round 6 bye, but the coach said fatigue was not an excuse for how the opposition dictated terms for most of the 22-point defeat.
“It probably didn’t look like us tonight in all phases of the game … three games in 13 days is a lot, obviously with some travel involved as well, but I wouldn’t want to put that out as an excuse for us and take anything away from the Lions,” he said.
“I thought they were terrific – every team goes through their little challenges within their season and a fixture that you’re provided with, and you can’t use those things as excuses … when you rock up, your job is to perform as a footy club and we didn’t do that tonight.
“(The Lions) are a pretty talented group in there … they punished us tonight around the ball, I thought they were certainly harder, they tackled better, they won the spilt ball better, and that gave them the territory that they needed, especially early in the game.”
Goodwin said the loss of Christian Salem to a hamstring strain early in the first quarter had hurt, and he expected the experienced defender to miss some time.
“He’s an experienced player in the back half of your ground, so he’ll be out for a little bit of time. Obviously a hamstring, so we’ll get a good idea of what that looks like,” Goodwin said.
“Clearly missing a guy like that in your back half, you become pretty inexperienced behind the ball.”
Goodwin said the result and 4-2 record was reflective of where the Demons were at in terms of their performance this season.
“We’ve also acknowledged internally for a few weeks now that we’re probably not playing to the level that we think we’re capable of,” Goodwin said.
“Even though we were sitting (4-1) coming into tonight, we always knew that we had work to do, and tonight we got exposed.”
Switching Trent Rivers with a spent Clayton Oliver for the final term had been a catalyst for the improved final quarter performance, Goodwin said.
“We pulled the trigger on a few things to try to change the look of the game. Rivers going into the midfield, Clayton going to halfback,” he said.
“Really at three-quarter time it was about, ‘let’s just try and play our best quarter of footy’. To the players’ credit, they responded again, and you can never doubt that about this playing group.
“They weren’t happy with how the game was sitting, and they had their best quarter of footy for the night in the last quarter, which was pleasing to get something out of the game.”
Fagan vindicated in ‘systematic shutdown’ of Demons
Chris Fagan stared down the barrel of the cameras at Norwood Oval last week and did his best to convince the footy world that the Brisbane Lions weren’t falling apart at the seams – either in a footy or cohesive sense.
Did we believe him?
We were always going to need harder evidence than what looked like a ‘shooting fish in the barrel’ exercise against an undermanned, understrength North Melbourne.
But on Thursday night at the MCG – 195 days since a heartbreaking loss to Collingwood in last year’s grand final – we got it with a systematic shutdown of a misfiring Melbourne which not only validated Fagan’s points but opened up some sizeable doubts about the Demons’ own capabilities going forward.
After a treacle-like start to 2024, and murmurings of how an end-of-season trip to the US impacted on the group, Brisbane has shut-out the external noise with successive wins to get their premiership campaign back on track.
This was the statement Fagan had promised last Friday; it also betrayed some alarming issues at Melbourne that will keep Simon Goodwin burning the midnight oil throughout their bye next week.
The Lions were intent on getting in the Demons’ faces … opening some old wounds in the process with Lion Noah Answerth making a “crying eyes’ gesture to Harrison Petty after he missed a goal in the final term
In 2022 Dayne Zorko brought Petty to tears in a heated clash at the Gabba which saw the Lion apologise and both clubs finally move on from a tense situation.
This 22-point win felt like a 10-goal success.
It came with ruthless intent and a sense of planning evident more than an hour before the game when veteran Zorko foreshadowed on SEN what the Lions planned to do to stop Melbourne’s run of four straight wins.
The catchwords were simple; the planning from the Lions’ coaches and the execution from the players were elite.
“Lower the eyes” … to keep the ball out of the hands of key intercept defenders Steven May and Jake Lever, which gave Joe Daniher and Eric Hipwood a greater opportunity.
“Take the game on speed” and “stop Melbourne’s on-ground transition”.
“Pressure, pressure and more pressure” with a 200-plus rating on show for most of the night.
Harris Andrews was outstanding … he monstered Petty and Co and gave the Lions’ back half the rock wall defence it lacked earlier in the season.
The Lions carved their way through the Demons’ defences with the clinical efficiency of a Slick Blade knife.
Those cuts hurt too, with Melbourne sorely missing Christian Salem who was subbed out with a hamstring injury early in the first term.
The first quarter was a massive tick to the Lions’ coaching staff.
Cam Rayner was injected into the midfield for his explosive power and it worked a treat with one of the best quarters of his career. It was almost off the charts.
How’s this for a start. Twelve disposals, seven contested possessions, six clearances and seven inside 50s.
Fagan needs to keep him rolling through there.
Under the pump forwards Joe Daniher and Eric Hipwood, who filled their confidence boots against the Kangaroos last week after a lean first month, impacted, each kicking two first-term goals.
Even Charlie Cameron, who has been down on form, got on the board with four goals, but he will also be sweating on a tackle on Lever which could come under MRO attention.
Lachie Neale was never in any doubt of singing the song in his 250th game.
The questions for Goodwin were many and varied.
Should Clayton Oliver have played?
We’ll never know, but he was a long way short of his best and was so out of sorts he was shifted to a half-back flank in the final term. How often has that happened in his 168 games?
He might have been better placed having the week off leading into next week’s bye, giving him the chance to recover from his dislocated finger.
The Demons’ attack is either a feast or a famine, either pie-warmer scorching or ice-block freezing. This was very much the latter.
Melbourne had kicked only three goals to three-quarter-time … and by late in that third term four of their forwards had shared seven disposals – Petty zero, Ben Brown one, Bailey Fritsch two and Jacob van Rooyen four.
And as good as Max Gawn has been this season, he sorely needs help. He rucked tirelessly but one of his teammates needed to stand up and give him a chop-out.
The scoreboard flattered Melbourne.
Brisbane made its statement, now the Demons have to follow suit or run the risk of being finals also-rans for a third straight year.
SCOREBOARD
DEMONS 2.0, 2.4, 3.7, 8.12 (60)
LIONS 4.2, 7.4, 10.8, 12.10 (82)
BOURKE’S BEST Demons: Lever, May, Gawn, Langdon, Rivers, McDonald. Lions: Rayner, Neale, Andrews, Zorko, McCluggage, Berry, Dunkley, Cameron.
GOALS Demons: Fritsch 2, Neal-Bullen, Chandler, Brown, Gawn, van Rooyen, Lever. Lions: Cameron 3, Hipwood 2, Daniher 2, McCluggage 2, Fletcher, Lohmann, Bailey.
UMPIRES Findlay, Gavine, Nicholls, Power
INJURIES Demons: Salem (foot). Lions: nil.
CROWD 43,098 at the MCG
BOURKE’S VOTES
3. Cam Rayner (Bris)
2. Lachie Neale (Bris)
1. Harris Andrews (Bris)
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