Lions' Pride On Display In Mauling Affair

The Age

Saturday March 10, 2007

Martin Blake

The Lions have travelled all over the countryside and into a grand final.

THEY closed the third tier at Telstra Dome last night, making all the faithful cram in on the first deck as the NAB Cup semi-final went up against a live telecast in the comfort of suburban homes.

And lost handsomely, it has to be said, although the television cameras would not have shown the vast tracts of empty seats on level three for fear that someone might consider the pre-season competition less than important.

It was scarcely the type of atmosphere we have come to expect at AFL games in the 21st century, but it did not bother the Brisbane Lions, who came out humming against Geelong despite the absence of a few critical players.

Geelong, the defending pre-season premier and the nominal favourite, was taken aback. Nobody encapsulated the Cats' malaise so definitively as Matthew Scarlett, their laconic full-back. Scarlett should have been in for a whale of a night. The Lions had Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw unavailable, and Scarlett found himself zoning off and without a man to account for early on.

The tallest potential opponent for Scarlett would have been pint-sized Ash McGrath, Lions' coach Leigh Matthews trying to cobble something from limited stocks. Scarlett ran around on his own, dropped marks, fumbled ground balls and, once, handballed directly to an opponent for a first-quarter goal.

Geelong was inept, virtually incapable of finding the football and directionless when it did. By half-time, the Cats had racked up 178 disposals for only three goals, equating to 60 touches for every goal. This statistic, which Denis Pagan has been known to call the "strike-rate", is just about as good a measure of efficiency that we have in the game. But you want to have 20 disposals a goal; not 60.

Travis Varcoe's appearance, the first sighting of a Cat in a No. 5 guernsey since the great Gary Ablett retired 11 years ago, was about the only positive sign for Geelong fans. He responded with two soccered goals in the second quarter, the only major scores of a deplorable term.

The Lions played a form of soccer, flooding back then counterattacking, flicking the ball sideways and trying to carry the ball inside 50 for their goals. For a time, it was effective. But in the third quarter, Cam Mooney began to have an impact and Geelong's slightly more conventional front-half set-up began to work.

Then it turned again and Brisbane found a way to hold on. The Lions are into the grand final because they had a couple of wily multi-premiership campaigners in Simon Black and Luke Power. Black was relentless despite having Cameron Ling chasing him; acting as captain for the evening, he was best afield. And it was Power's goal on the run - initially signalled as a nine-pointer and later reduced to six points - at the 22-minute mark that sealed the Lions' win.

They have travelled to the extremes of the eastern seaboard to play - "screwed" is how Matthews put it recently - but they have a spirit that should be bottled.

And they are most likely back in Melbourne again next weekend.

© 2007 The Age

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