AFL 2024: How Brisbane Lions’ preliminary final win was more than the sum of its parts

Last year’s run to the Grand Final was inspired by Brisbane Lions’ superstars. This year, it’s the little moments and unsung heroes who’ve dragged them into the big dance, writes CALLUM DICK.

After a season of defying the odds it always felt like the Brisbane Lions were playing with borrowed time.

On Saturday night in front of 93,066 at the MCG, they somehow borrowed some more.

It wasn’t quite the historic 44-point comeback of a week earlier, but the clawing fightback from 25 points down to book a grand final date with Sydney was every bit as thrilling.

As they had all year, Chris Fagan’s men simply refused to say die.

At the start of September the coach declared the secret to success in finals was winning the moments. In the fourth quarter they queued up to make them count.

There was Brisbane’s unlikely Mr. September Cal Ah Chee, who for a half was quiet but exploded with three massive majors after the break including the go-ahead goal that lifted the Lions to life.

There was Cam Rayner, in the air and on the ground with the long-range dagger blow that put them beyond reach a week after his semi-final performance was critiqued to death.

EVERY PLAYER RATED: See the player ratings from Brisbane’s win over Geelong

There was the hobbled Jack Payne, whose finals future hung on the results of a scan only two weeks earlier and who pulled out a match-saving tackle on Mitch Duncan.

Fagan’s metaphor of dancing on thin ice has become the unintentional motto for Brisbane’s finals campaign. But it was on a tightrope that Brandon Starcevich and Jarrod Berry walked in an unwinnable 2 versus 4 on the boundary line that somehow, someway, resulted in a Rayner goal.

This was a win that perfectly encapsulated Brisbane’s season. Ugly, unlikely and imperfect, but oh-so satisfying.

Last September the Lions rode their superstars to the grand final but this run has been built on the backs of the lesser brigade.

Cam Rayner and Kai Lohmann celebrate their win over Geelong. Picture: Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos/via Getty Images.

Lachie Neale and Hugh McCluggage was expectedly brilliant but some of the Lions’ chief whipping boys put their names up in lights when time came to be counted.

Zac Bailey saved perhaps his best game for the season and if not for a wayward radar could have had as many as five goals.

Best mates Kai Lohmann and Logan Morris, in just their third final, combined for three goals in a brilliant cameo performance.

Brandon Starcevich completely smothered the dangerous Tyson Stengle and was a one-man wall in the crucial third quarter when the Lions mounted their comeback charge.

But how did it happen? How could it happen? When everything appeared to be going against them?

When the rain began to tumble moments before the first bounce it would have filled Cats coach Chris Scott with joy.

It was in the wet that Geelong trounced the Lions at the Gabba way back in round 6 and Scott was ready to dial up a similar dose with his small brigade.

Led by Max Holmes, Gryan Miers and co the Cats were simply too slick at ground level early on. Like a week earlier against the Giants, Brisbane was denied its kick-mark game.

Then talismanic ruckman Oscar McInerney went down with a shoulder injury. He left the ground, returned after the quarter-time break and bravely soldiered on but ultimately had to pull the pin at halftime.

Suddenly a major area of advantage for the Lions became a double victory for the Cats. Joe Daniher had to be moved into the middle and the embattled Rhys Stanley had the opportunity to seize the day for the hosts.

When the Lions emerged after halftime the message was obvious: Time to dance on thin ice once again.

They abandoned the kick-mark game and started to take a chance – and the Cats couldn’t keep up.

Kai Lohmann and his teammates enjoy the win after singing the song. Picture: Michael Klein

Daniher halved the ruck battle and was dangerous around the ground, allowing the Brisbane midfield to get on top. After that, the Cats couldn’t pounce as they had in the first half. Suddenly all the avenues over the back to goal had dried up.

When Ollie Henry kicked them back in front with two minutes to play it felt like time had finally run out for Brisbane. But this rollercoaster season had steeled them for the moment and just as Fagan promised, his Lions rose to the occasion.

Spare a thought for McInerney, who has to be considered an outside chance at best to suit up next weekend.

There is always a grand final heartbreak story and the ‘Big O’ looms as the Lions’ unlucky man.

Originally published as AFL 2024: How Brisbane Lions’ preliminary final win was more than the sum of its parts