Joe Frazier once said that being punched by George Foreman was like being run over by a Mack truck, and having the driver reverse back over you 10 times. Carlton copped 10 versions of the same punch against Brisbane on Saturday night – penned on the ropes, hack kicking straight back to a wall of Lions, and watching the ball sail back over their heads. It is how Brisbane fight – rack up repeat entries and scrap like buggery to lock it in their forward line.
The way Michael Voss spoke leading into this game, it was clear they were going to take risks. The Blues were long shots to win the premiership but they talked like they were all chips-in. Sam Docherty’s knee was a gamble. Adam Cerra and Zac Williams’ soft tissues were a gamble. Hell, tackling an alleged car thief was a gamble.
But the Blues hedged their bets, and they paid the price. They left Tom De Koning, one of the few Blues who brings a bit of unpredictability and flair, fiddling with his headband on the bench. They omitted Ashton Moir, a potential point of difference in a forward line of similar types. And with Alex Cincotta also not selected, they allowed Dayne Zorko, a dice-roller who takes on and invariably pulls off all the risky, angle-changing kicks, to run riot in the first half.
For about an hour, the Lions were in Harlem Globetrotters mode. They’re such an excellent kicking team. They’ll poke, prod and probe, and then thwack, they’ll launch a long ball. And tall, medium and small; fast or giraffe-like; in the air or on the ground; high up the field or sneaking out the back – their forwards then do their thing.
The Lions are, however, a flawed team. They’re fast starters but they’ve dragged their feet in the back half of games this year, which cost them the double chance. Their tardy goalkicking has also hurt them, as has their inability to halt the opposition’s momentum. Like Big George, they don’t always have a Plan B.
When Jack Payne was injured, the viewers were treated to the orthopaedic expertise of Campbell Brown MD (“he’s got a bit of claret”). The Lions were down a defender, and the Blues, who at one stage were on track to be the first finals team to go scoreless in a half since footballers wore knickerbockers, had suddenly slammed on five in a row. But when Oscar McInerney chipped a nine iron, the Blues were caught napping, the ball fell in Kai Lohmann’s lap and Carlton’s season was over.
One of the most grating things for the Blues’ fans, and there were plenty of them at the elimination final, was that they had to listen to a racket after every goal. This columnist is on the record as being anti-music at the MCG, whilst conceding that’s it’s ideal at the more boisterous Gabba and SCG. Still, when your team’s 10 goals down halfway through the second quarter, the last thing you want to hear, is “Hey Baby” by DJ Ötzi. And they don’t just play snippets. They play the whole song. The Lions will be onto their eighth, 25-metre chip in a 15-kick chain, and John Denver will still have two verses to sing.
Clearly this Brisbane side is capable of doing serious damage. But they will face a far stiffer test in the form of GWS Giants, who went down in one of great finals of the modern era. This round was notable for many things – for Sam Docherty’s comeback, for Jeremy Cameron’s preposterous goal, and for Hawthorn’s win. But the Sydney Derby is a game that will be vivid in the memory for decades.
Isaac Heeney’s slips catch re-engaged the crowd in the first half, but it was his Sergey Bubka impression, his vertiginous plunge, his gut-busting running and his long range goal that took this contest to new heights. He’d kept the Swans in the game when nothing was going right.
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Ultimately, Heeney was running that little bit harder than anyone else to create the overlap and to get the handball receives. A lot of it was unrewarded running but he got his reward when it mattered most.
It was the sort of game that demands a rematch, and we may well get one at the MCG. But the Giants have to first pick themselves back off the canvas. Their games are always intense. They ask a lot of their opposition. They bring extreme pressure.
Brisbane, on the other hand, are a team that comes out with a flurry of fists, that seeks the early knockout. But they remain a team prone to lowering their gloves, a team that can be got at, a team that will be tested far more in their semi- final than they were on the weekend.
