After Brisbane lost last season’s grand final to Melbourne in a nail-biter on their home turf, they went on a gruelling pre-season camp to get ready for 2023.
On Sunday, when they trailed North Melbourne in another grand final, there was a subtle reminder of that camp staring at the players from the sidelines of Ikon Park.
Dakota Davidson of the Brisbane Lions.Credit: Getty
In fact, the jerry can had been there all finals series, inspiring the Lions through tough moments as they fought their way to their second AFLW flag.
Star goal kicker Dakota Davidson explained the Brisbane players were forced to run a 20-kilometre trail hike on that camp, lugging 14 full metal jerry cans between them.
“So, it was an excruciating pre-season, but then we see the jerry can on the sideline we think, ‘we’ve been through the wringer to be here’,” she said.
“This is where we need to lift the most. So, we’re stoked, and that’s why we do the jerry can for that extra lift that we need”.
She added a quip: “I don’t know how many [Vodka] Cruisers you can fit in a jerry can, but we’re going to give it a red hot crack.”
But it wasn’t just the fuel container that powered the Lions towards their victory.
The Kangaroos had led at every change of the grand final before Davidson regained the lead for her team with back-to-back goals in the final quarter.
“At half-time, Craig [Starcevich, Lions head coach], looked me in the eyes and he said, “Daks, games are about moments, and I’m sure you’re going to get your moments soon,” Davidson recalled after the game.
After losing last year’s AFLW grand final, the Brisbane Lions were determined not to let the 2023 decider slip. Credit: Getty
“So, I obviously took the mark [in the final term] and thought, ‘OK Daks, this is your moment’, so I took that and Bob’s your uncle, here I am.”
Davidson’s goals spearheaded her side towards victory. The Lions ended up kicking four goals to none in the final quarter, sweeping home with momentum to the final siren and quelling North’s chances.
The key forward wasn’t always a sure thing to play, however.
Davidson’s knee was the talk of the town leading into the grand final after she went down with what looked to be a pretty serious strain in the preliminary final win against Geelong last Sunday.
“The doctor said 99 per cent of people would have easily torn anything [such as an ACL, PCL], but something’s up with your knee, someone’s looking over you,” she said.
To go from in doubt to playing in the grand final to cleared of injury was, as she put it, “a phenomenal 24 hours to say the least”.
Sunday’s win delivered the Lions their second AFLW flag in their fifth grand final appearance. Despite the sustained run at near the top of the table, the Lions team has constantly been regenerating. They seem to lose a significant amount of players each off-season, particularly to expansion clubs, and enter each season with a vastly different line-up before working their way back into premiership contention.
After last season they notably lost season-six league best and fairest winner Emily Bates and goalkicking stars Jesse Wardlaw and Greta Bodey.
The Lions claimed their second AFLW flag.Credit: Getty
This, Davidson said, made Sunday’s win feel extra special.
“We all knew what we were capable of, we just had a different process this year. We obviously lost Greta and Jesse, but we just had a new and different process, and it worked. We’re very excited about what we’ve done,” she said.
Lions surge home late to spoil North’s party
The Brisbane Lions have claimed their second AFLW flag in a high-pressure thriller and denied North Melbourne their maiden premiership in front of a sold-out crowd at Ikon Park.
The Kangaroos led at every change and took a seven-point lead into the final change, despite suffering a blow early with the loss of star midfielder Jenna Bruton, who went down with a right foot/ankle injury in the opening five minutes of the game.
Dakota Davidson celebrates a goal in the last quarter.Credit: AFL Photos
The absence of Bruton, who was hugely influential in the Roos’ win against Adelaide in the preliminary final, limited North’s midfield rotations against the fittest team in the competition.
The Lions broke the game open in the final term, as star forward Dakota Davidson shrugged off injury concerns from the preliminary final to kick back-to-back goals and put her team back in the lead late.
Ellie Hampson and skipper Breanna Koenen then sealed the game as the Lions’ kicked four goals to none in the final quarter.
Breanna Koenen was named best on ground.Credit: AFL Photos
Star defender and sometimes midfielder Koenen took out the medal as the best player on the ground. She finished with 19 disposals and 10 tackles.
It’s the Lions’ second flag in five grand final appearances after they claimed their first in 2021 by defeating Adelaide, while the Roos were delivered heartbreak in their maiden appearance in a decider.
Each Lions grand final team has boasted a different looking outfit due to the club losing a significant number of players in the expansion years. Ally Anderson, Koenen and Shannon Campbell played in each grand final, while Sophie Conway made four appearances.
After losing season six league best-and-fairest winner Emily Bates and forward star Greta Bodey to Hawthorn last off-season, not many expected the Lions to make another premiership decider this year, including Koenen.
The Lions on the victory dais.Credit: Getty
However, taking the underdog status in their stride, they first defeated minor premiers Adelaide in the qualifying final then up-and-comers Geelong in the preliminary final to book their spot.
The Kangaroos entered the competition in 2019 alongside Geelong and would have been the first expansion team to claim a flag. The Lions are the only team they have not been able to beat.
It was a game with not a lot of scoring but a huge amount of pressure and intensity with a combined 186 tackles in the opening half alone. The heat of the contest was felt by both sides in the second half with mistakes made, including missed targets.
In the on-the-ball contest, Brisbane’s Isabel Dawes had 20 disposals and six clearances while Anderson had 20 touches and 12 tackles and Nat Grider stood tall in defence. Courtney Hodder, this season’s player-voted most courageous player, had a whopping 18 tackles.
Garner stars for North
North may have lost Bruton, but they still had competition star Jasmine Garner, who scored her side’s opening two goals and was involved in every score. Despite having Cathy Svarc and then Brisbane skipper Koenen put on her, Garner, with exceptional positional awareness, finished with 24 touches, seven tackles and six clearances.
Garner first broke the game’s opening deadlock 16 minutes into the first quarter when Irish recruit Erika O’Shea found her open on the lead inside 50. Forty-five metres out, Garner slotted it through classy and composed as ever. It was the only goal of the opening term.
Brisbane then opened their account with the first goal in the second quarter with a desperate major from Charlotte Mullins. Each put one more major in the opening half, another from Garner and one from Lion Ellie Hampson.
The Kangaroos took the slimmest one-point lead into the main break but began to fade away in the second half.
In the first half Brisbane played an extra down back, making it hard for the North Melbourne to find options inside their 50 but shifted this player forward in the second to help with attack.
All-Australian winger Conway was taken from the ground in the final term by the Lions doctors for a head assessment but came on for the final few minutes.
Brisbane defender Campbell also finished the day on the bench, hunched over and looking unwell.
Best on ground voting: 15 – Breanna Koenen, Brisbane Lions; 9 – Jasmine Garner, North Melbourne; 5 – Belle Dawes, Brisbane Lions; 1 – Natalie Grider, Brisbane Lions.
How the judges voted: Abbie Holmes (chair) (Koenen, Dawes, Garner); Erin Phillips (Koenen, Garner, Dawes); Gemma Bastiani (Koenen, Garner, Dawes); Quentin Hull (Koenen, Garner, Dawes); Lauren Wood (Koenen, Garner, Grider)
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