AFL preliminary final: The moments of Cam Rayner brilliance which shaped Brisbane Lions’ win over Geelong

The critics were circling Cam Rayner after his flop in last year’s Grand Final. And at halftime on Saturday, they were lining up again. GLENN MCFARLANE examines how the maligned Lion turned matchwinner.

It was a split second of Cam Rayner magic, coupled with some Will Ashcroft ingenuity, that helped to propel the Brisbane Lions into a shot at grand final redemption.

In doing so, it also put a pen through Geelong’s 2024 season.

In a game of defining moments which divided success and failure on footy’s cruel preliminary final stage, Rayner’s left-foot spear-kick goal with less than two minutes left on the clock ended up being the final major of a spine-tingling MCG encounter before 93,066 fans.

Cam Rayner was one of Brisbane’s matchwinners. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

It put the Lions 11 points clear, and ended up being the sealer, albeit there were some nervous final moments that followed.

Speaking afterwards, Rayner could barely remember how it happened, or the passage that led to it, but Lions fans will recall it forever.

“It’s crazy,” a jubilant Rayner, 24, said afterwards.

“I can’t remember the play leading up to it, but it is something I practise at training. When I got a look at it, I just saw the open goalsquare and put it in there.”

For a player who has at times been criticised for not owning the big moments, he nailed it this time.

Rayner’s goal was sheer genius, but the build up from his teammates was just as good.

It came at the 26-minute-mark of a pendulum-swinging final term. Having fought back from an earlier deficit of 20-points, the Lions were desperately clinging to a five-point lead off the back of a Callum Ah Chee snapped goal – his third – just moments earlier.

Ah Chee had put the Lions back in front with a superb around-the-corner goal, but was it going to be enough?

Ashcroft knew the Cats were always going to have one last roll of the dice that had to be repelled.

That Cats’ window of opportunity came at a stoppage in the middle of the ground, with seconds ticking away.

As Joe Daniher and Rhys Stanley wrestled in the ruck, the ball bobbled out into Mitch Duncan’s hands.

The overhead handball! The Rayner finish!!

The Lions are coming! 🦁#AFLFinals | #AFLCatsLionspic.twitter.com/SlhK8RrbDJ

— AFL (@AFL) September 21, 2024

The Cats veteran tried to hand it off to Lawson Humphries as a possible counter-attack, but Ashcroft sensed his own moment had arrived. The young Lion’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. He wasn’t going to waste it.

“I just knew they (Geelong) were going to try to take it on and I was sitting (in the corridor),” Ashcroft said.

“I knew they were going to try and shape through the corridor and I just got my first step away. I saw it (the ball) coming, my eyes lit up and I just went for it.”

It was the ‘steal’ of the game, as he grabbed the ball out of midair and gave it off to Eric Hipwood just outside the centre square.

Hipwood could have blazed away, but instead sensed Rayner to his left and his handball found the opportunistic Lion loose and ready to strike.

Ashcroft knew as soon as Rayner had the ball in his hands that he wasn’t going to miss.

“He’s unbelievable,” Ashcroft said of Rayner, who launched his across-the-body kick from a few metres outside 50m to a vacant goalsquare.

“It was lucky it was Cam. He can kick so well with both feet … you can’t really tell the difference.”

Rayner had dragged down a huge mark when he rode on the shoulders of Jake Kolodjashnij earlier in the last quarter as he imposed himself on the game in several instances.

He had only had four touches at halftime, but proved inspirational in the third quarter as he had 11 disposals and kicked a goal as part of the Lions’ remarkable revival.

The 2017 No. 1 draft was one of a few Lions who struggled to make an impact on grand final day last year, having 11 touches and failing to kick a goal.

But he looks ready for his second shot at footy’s biggest occasion.

“I feel like we are finishing our games a lot better this year,” he said.

“We probably stuffed a few moments up last year … we have been able to tidy a few things up and we are looking forward to next week.”