Most football fans heading to the MCG today expected a close AFL grand final. But this was a bloodbath. It was essentially over at half-time. Brisbane fed on Sydney’s entrails and secured their first premiership in more than two decades. It left a wound in every Swans player and supporter that will take a long time to heal.
It was secured with an astonishing second term, where the Lions played flawless football and where the Swans were tentative and confused. The minor premiers were being beaten in the ruck, in the middle, in the air, on the ground, by veterans, and by kids. More than anything, they just couldn’t get their hands on the ball. 46 points down at half-time, they were in a hole every bit as deep as the grand final two years ago, and probably worse given that they went in as favourites.
Brisbane won this grand final in so many different ways. They did it by rendering Sydney’s crack midfield completely ineffectual. They did it by closing down space and plugging exits. And they did it with superior ball movement. The precision and crispness of their possession chains and the lacework of their passes was almost dizzying. The ball zig-zagged its way across the MCG – a mix of short kicks and long, of lateral, diagonal and straight down the line. But most of the best ones went straight through the corridor. Just like they did a week earlier, they eyed off the middle, and they brooked no doubt. The Swans tried to cordon it off, but to no avail.
And they did it with some outstanding individual performances, with Lachie Neale playing a slashing first half. He has conceded that let his anxiety get the better of him last year, but he was far better prepared and relaxed this time around. He got his jabs in his bung foot and he went to work. He parcelled out a mix of handballs – bullets, soft lobs, and well-weighted, ambidextrous balls that put his wingers and on-ballers into space. Those feet were so important to his game today, to what boxers call “ring geometry”, to how he shook his tag, and to how he danced away from stoppages. Neale finished with 34 touches but the ones that mattered came early.
The Lions won it with a flock of young players, but none was more important than Will Ashcroft, the Norm Smith medallist. He’s just a few years out of school footy at Brighton Grammar – not exactly renowned as a cradle of flint-hearted footballers – but he absorbed everything the Swans threw at him. He was so clean, so creative and for a 20-year-old, so utterly unfazed by the occasion and the atmosphere. Nor was Kai Lohmann, who has such a keen sense of when to impose himself on games. He doesn’t look anything like a key forward, but has the instincts and game-awareness of one. He was everywhere in the opening term, kicking the first two goals for the Lions and providing so much bite. The Swans just couldn’t find a suitable match up for him all afternoon.
They won it with so many of their unfashionable defenders taking their games to new levels. Brandon Starcevich, who was Bobby Hill’s stepladder this time last year, has improved out of sight these past three months. He never conceded front position, never lost his cool, and never gave Tom Papley an inch to work in.
And they won it with their fleet of hybrid forwards, who ran rings around Sydney’s backs. Cam Rayner, Charlie Cameron, and Zac Bailey all found gaps, slipped tackles, made space and generally made a right nuisances of themselves. Cameron in particular was like a tracer bullet, whirring across the MCG. He missed his opening set shot but two bone crunching tackles on either wing set the tone for his and Brisbane’s day. When he curled a sumptuous goal with seconds to play in the first term and bowed to the bay of Sydney supporters, Brisbane were up and away.
Josh Dunkley had his own grand final demons to exorcise, having slipped over at the contest that culminated in Jordan De Goey’s goal last year. But he’s the most diligent and reliable of players and he was critical today. His task was the most important on the ground. He took on Heeney for the majority of their round 19 clash and clamped him better than anyone else this season. And so it played out again in the grand final. He never gave the Swans star an inch, never let his game breathe. He was excellent on the ground and in the air.
After the anxieties and missed chances of last year’s finish, the final term was a jolly romp, a chance for players and supporters to bask. The Swans got some cheap consolation goals but they mattered little. This Lions team was more than seven goals down in a knockout final. A fortnight later, they’d routed the competition’s glamour team. They became the second team to win four finals in a row under the current system, and the second to win a flag from fifth. By halfway through the final term, their fans were singing that variation of the old Fitzroy belter with gusto. This song, every one of them would have told you at that precise point, will never end.
