Surging Lions victorious against Saints in shootout no one saw coming

BRISBANE LIONS 19.12 (126) d ST KILDA SAINTS 16.10 (106)

Charlie Cameron and the Lions celebrate his late goal.Credit: Getty Images

The Shootout We Didn’t See Coming

After a week of the football media bemoaning the style of football St Kilda produced to eke out a win against the Gold Coast Suns last week, the same media will have to admit they played a pretty exciting brand of football against the Lions. Unfortunately, after threatening to pinch the points, they lost – and the aesthetics won’t matter to coach Ross Lyon. But there is a bit for him to take out of it, not least the move into the centre of winger Liam Henry. Henry was brilliant in the last quarter, giving the plodding Saints midfield the pace and verve it has so sorely lacked, and briefly, it looked like he was going to win the game off his own boot until a leg injury in the final minute forced him off. There was also the debut of the rangy Arie Schoenmaker, a smooth-moving defender with a super left-foot kick whose 18 possessions on debut spoke of an immense future.

Lachie Neale of the Lions handballs.Credit: AFL Photos

The Tag Everyone Saw Coming

No one, least of all Lachie Neale, was surprised when Marcus Windhager lined up on the dual Brownlow medallist at the first bounce. In case you haven’t heard, taggers are back in vogue, and Windhager set about the task of driving Neale around the bend. By half-time, Neale had given away four free kicks and had just the nine touches to his name. But by that point, the Saints had been drawn into the kind of open, free-flowing shootout no one expected (one remarkable statistic: the Lions laid just 14 tackles in the first half, yet were in complete control of the contest). The Saints had to give something back, and while Windhager stuck to his task, holding Neale to 17 possessions, it’s debatable whether it worked, given the final outcome.

Daniher, Higgins Kick Five Each

This game was highlighted by two tremendous individual performances at either end of the field. For the Saints, it was small forward Jack Higgins, who had a night out, keeping his team in the game when it looked shot to bits. But for the Lions, Joe Daniher was best on ground: his hands were like glue all night, and his five goals from 20 possessions all came at critical times. His last sealed a game that had been in danger of slipping away. It came on top of Eric Hipwood’s six goals against the Bulldogs last week. While Callum Wilkie mostly curtailed Hipwood on this night, Hipwood, too, stood up in the third quarter to have an impact. And Charlie Cameron, who’s had a lean trot, finally had the crowd singing Country Roads, Take Me Home when the game was won. If their forwards keep firing, the Lions are still in the frame for September.

KEY STATS

Thanks for joining us tonight everyone.

We will be back tomorrow afternoon with our AFL Saturday live blog so please join us then.

Bye for now.

Saints coach Ross Lyon spoke to the media post game.

Turned out to be a bit of a shoot-out Ross, what did you make of it?

I thought it was a bit of a shoot-out. After quarter time we win by 11 points. They were good in the first-quarter. That’s when the game is up for grabs. We wanted to take the contested marks on. That’s the way they play. Thought we didn’t do that very well. That’s about the size of it.

Callum Wilkie of the Saints and Zac Bailey of the Lions compete for the ball.Credit: Getty Images

Last quarter, like you gave yourself a big chance. Got to within a kick.

It’s a game of moments, when you get momentum, when you are coming from that far behind you can’t maker ors. We came up with errors that were costly. Seven points and flying. That was the case with the third we got within 20 and had some poor turnovers. There’s signs of improvement. I was thrilled with a couple of big wins for us, Caminiti goes back. He’s a powerful young man goes to Daniher, full flight, kicks two after halftime. Schoenmaker on debut demonstrated everything he’s got. In the making, we put him in with Wilson, Collard and we’re thrilled with what’s coming underneath. We have to work and build. We have a break. It’s been a torrid period, lot of close games. We get to reset, recover. Not our second bite, first bite. But that happens. We get to recover. We need to... We will spend time together. We will watch the VFL Sandringham play the Lions. Brings us together. We love spending time together. Then we get a break. We have a club function, everyone, partners and that. We will keep building the spirit and character and culture piece.

Lions coach Chris Fagan spoke to the media post game.

Maybe not the way you envisioned going tonight.

I certainly didn’t. I thought it would be a hard-to-score game, to be honest. So from that perspective for us to be able to score as much as we did against a team that defends really well, I think that’s the highest score that’s been kicked against them this year. So, that’s a positive. But the negative to the game for me is, I thought, our team defence wasn’t as good as it has been in previous weeks tonight. And, you know, particularly in the first-quarter. I just thought we lost clearance really badly. Strangely enough, we are plus 27 points scoring from stoppage for the game. We lost the clearance battle. Couple of things for us to work on there.

Jarrod Berry of the Lions.Credit: Getty Images

Was there a game plan to try to open it up as much as possible?

We wanted to take the game on because St Kilda are so good at defending and getting numbers back and crowding up the forward line. So, it was a plan of ours that whenever we got the opportunity we would try and move the ball as quickly as we O could. I the ball as quickly as we O could. I -- as we could. We had 31 shots on goal from 53 entries. It’s pretty good return in that regard. We also, I think, turned it over a few times in bad spots at the top of the arc there and they were able to score off those.

If you’re going to play an attacking style of play you have to give something up as well.

We would like to play the attacking style of game and defend really well. I think if we kicked it more intelligently inside 50 we might have prevented a few more of their scores. I also felt like we were just a little bit slow when we lost the ball to snap into the defensive mode. That’s something we can look at this week.

Saints coach Ross Lyon is “optimistic” speedster Liam Henry hasn’t injured himself despite leaving the field late in the game after a knock to his ankle.

Henry tangled his legs with some Lions players in the final minutes of the match.

Liam Henry of the Saints gets a kick away.Credit: Getty Images

“He did a bit of a death roll after he was hit,” Lyon said with a smile.

“He took a knock to his ankle and he was talking and feeling good post game. Sometimes players cool down and there is a problem but we are optimistic that he will be fine.”

A pack flies for the mark.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Liam Henry celebrates a goal.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

BRISBANE LIONS 19.12 (126) d ST KILDA SAINTS 16.10 (106)

Charlie Cameron and the Lions celebrate his late goal.Credit: Getty Images

The Shootout We Didn’t See Coming

After a week of the football media bemoaning the style of football St Kilda produced to eke out a win against the Gold Coast Suns last week, the same media will have to admit they played a pretty exciting brand of football against the Lions. Unfortunately, after threatening to pinch the points, they lost – and the aesthetics won’t matter to coach Ross Lyon. But there is a bit for him to take out of it, not least the move into the centre of winger Liam Henry. Henry was brilliant in the last quarter, giving the plodding Saints midfield the pace and verve it has so sorely lacked, and briefly, it looked like he was going to win the game off his own boot until a leg injury in the final minute forced him off. There was also the debut of the rangy Arie Schoenmaker, a smooth-moving defender with a super left-foot kick whose 18 possessions on debut spoke of an immense future.

Lachie Neale of the Lions handballs.Credit: AFL Photos

The Tag Everyone Saw Coming

No one, least of all Lachie Neale, was surprised when Marcus Windhager lined up on the dual Brownlow medallist at the first bounce. In case you haven’t heard, taggers are back in vogue, and Windhager set about the task of driving Neale around the bend. By half-time, Neale had given away four free kicks and had just the nine touches to his name. But by that point, the Saints had been drawn into the kind of open, free-flowing shootout no one expected (one remarkable statistic: the Lions laid just 14 tackles in the first half, yet were in complete control of the contest). The Saints had to give something back, and while Windhager stuck to his task, holding Neale to 17 possessions, it’s debatable whether it worked, given the final outcome.

Daniher, Higgins Kick Five Each

This game was highlighted by two tremendous individual performances at either end of the field. For the Saints, it was small forward Jack Higgins, who had a night out, keeping his team in the game when it looked shot to bits. But for the Lions, Joe Daniher was best on ground: his hands were like glue all night, and his five goals from 20 possessions all came at critical times. His last sealed a game that had been in danger of slipping away. It came on top of Eric Hipwood’s six goals against the Bulldogs last week. While Callum Wilkie mostly curtailed Hipwood on this night, Hipwood, too, stood up in the third quarter to have an impact. And Charlie Cameron, who’s had a lean trot, finally had the crowd singing Country Roads, Take Me Home when the game was won. If their forwards keep firing, the Lions are still in the frame for September.

KEY STATS

Dayne Zorko spoke to Channel Seven post game.

Some stressful minutes throughout that fourth-quarter. You must be really pleased with the boys to put the foot down and get it done.

We knew St Kilda would take the game on in the last quarter. It took a bit to get our system right. We were a bit away from being bold which is what we wanted to be. We can turn the ball over and scoring. We were able to rectify that. Kicked away late but still work to form on.

Dayne Zorko.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Against the St Kilda side there was so much conversation during the week about them playing highly contested, tight defensive brand.

I watched the game against the Suns. They defended their back sides off and were super impressive. A lot was spoken how they wanted to take the game on this week. We were prepared for T for the majority of the game we did it well. We let ourselves down late. Still work on that.

Lachie Neale managed to accumulate the ball, had 18 disposals. How pleasing is it to know that you have so many quality mids can pop-up and dominate.

I thought Hugh McCluggage was fantastic in the first half. Josh Dunkley he’s potatoes, gets it done every week. He’s incredible. Cam in the last quarter and third-quarter started getting exclusive which we love in his game. Lachie had a quiet night. We were prepared for that, set up for that. It was great to see the other guys set up around him.

What about you, speaking of stepping up 35 years young. You seem like you have a lot of confidence in your body and you’re playing some career-best foody.

Worked hard the last two preseasons to get my body right. Injury interrupted at times last year. Putting too much stress. I feel energetic, alive and hopefully still some good footy to

The Lions have hung on to claim the four points despite a fearless comeback in the final term from St Kilda.

It was the shootout we weren’t sure we would get but the Lions showed they have the firepower to still win matches.

Daniher’s five goals were outstanding while Charlie Cameron’s late goal could be the start of many - at least the Lions will hope so.

Henry has been forced off with a lower leg injury.

His season has already been interrupted by a hamstring injury which cost him several weeks on the sidelines.

He hobbled off and is now getting treatment.