Simple word that sums up difference between Brisbane Lions and Brisbane Broncos

Brisbane’s NRL and AFL teams were both minutes from winning last year’s grand finals — and then the Lions and Broncos abruptly changed course. ROBERT CRADDOCK analyses why.

With one simple word, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan unintentionally spotlighted the difference between a Lions team who roared and a Broncos side who squeaked like a church mouse.

“I know they’re desperate to get back there and have another crack,” Fagan said of his gallant troops after Brisbane made jaws hit the floor across the country by overcoming a 44-point deficit to beat Greater Western Sydney in an elimination final in Sydney.

Desperation is an overused word in football but it can be quite a beautiful thing to witness in its purest form as the Lions, $32 pops with the TAB at the midpoint of the season, zoomed to within two wins of the title.

Fagan was referring to a potential Lions return to the AFL grand final and the key word which sums up the contrasting tales of two Brisbane teams is desperate.

A desperate Lions side has kept its season aside despite a number of hurdles along the way. Picture: Getty Images

This season was always going to be a fascinating study of the mental side of sport after both the Lions and Broncos were five minutes away from being premiers last year before they were overrun by Collingwood and Penrith in utterly shattering climaxes.

They were the sort of losses that instantly beats a team out of shape.

History tells the heartbroken loser either returns with a special sort of manic desperation to atone for their loss or wobbles their way to mediocrity because the close call has muddled with their minds.

The scrapping, scrounging, conjuring Lions gave us the very best example of desperation football on Saturday in one of the greatest comeback victories in Queensland sporting history.

They were the embodiment of the pair of boxing gloves hung outside their dressing room emblazoned with the words: WE FIGHT TO WIN.

If desperation was a fluid it would have been running down their cheeks. You sense if they had not lost so narrowly in last year’s decider they may never have had the off-the-charts drive to conjure this bat-poo crazy win.

A pair of boxing gloves hang from the doorway of the Lions changeroom. Picture: Getty Images

Desperation. The very quality that guaranteed the Lions a dignified pass mark for the season no matter what the result of Saturday’s preliminary final against Geelong was, conspicuously, the key element lacking by a rudderless Broncos side which missed the finals.

Towards the end of the season, when the Broncos cause was on life support, Matty Johns summed up their season best when he said “the trouble with talented teams is that they often wait too long to get desperate.’’

Spot on. Even in the closing months of the NRL season when the Broncos could basically afford to drop just one or two games to make the eight there was no sense players were slipping deep into the trenches for the fight of their lives.

The Broncos failed to bounce back after their grand final heartache. Picture: Getty Images

The charm of the Lions season is that it has been far from perfect. When they lost four of their first six matches the Lions looked set for a miserable winter.

There were challenges everywhere and over the past two seasons they have had four players wiped out at various stages with major knee surgery.

One of those players, Will Ashcroft, had a blinder on Saturday night and it’s not hard to conclude that had he not been sidelined for last year’s grand final the Lions probably would have won. The hidden blessing of the injuries is that the Lions freshened up their side and rallied around each other to fill the gaps.

Much has been said of the Broncos last few games when players were scoring tries and relatively few teammates were rushing to congratulate them. Maybe too much was made of it but this much is certain - you don’t get far in modern football if you are not a tight team.

The Lions have proved they have this magical “glue’’ and are off to their fourth preliminary final in five years.

Originally published as Simple word that sums up difference between Brisbane Lions and Brisbane Broncos