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Before the game, not even Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss could say why his side were playing North Melbourne in AFL’s Rivalry Round.
And the AFL would be forgiven not to match the two sides together again for the annual fixture after the clash proved anything but a passionate feud as Lions skipper Jonathan Brown inspired a 41-point thumping.
Brown was inspirational, kicking eight goals – his highest haul of the season – as the Lions ran out winners 17.14 (116) to 11.9 (75).
The Victory ensures the Lions (11-6 record) are just one win away from securing their first finals berth since 2004.
After leading by just 14 points at halftime, the Lions kicked clear in the third thanks to Brown’s four goal haul for the term.
With the Lions leading by 39 points at the final break, Brown notched his 400th career goal with his seventh for the match to blow the deficit out to 47 early in the fourth.
The hosts didn’t look back, to the delight of a 25,509-strong Gabba faithful.
The Lions usually take on Sydney in Rivalry Round, in what the AFL hopes is their answer to State of Origin.
For the record, the AFL’s excuse for matching the Lions with the Roos this weekend was because they had built up a “rivalry” from a total of two games – the 1996 and 1999 preliminary finals, both won by North Melbourne on their way to the flag.
But more recent statistics showed that games between the two had not exactly been the stuff of the classic WA and SA derbies.
Ahead of the match, the Lions had won six of the past seven games against the Roos at the Gabba by an average of 51.
In all, the Lions have now won four of their past five games against North Melbourne.
The Kangaroos have not tasted victory since round nine – a losing streak of eight straight games, including last round’s draw with Richmond.
The Lions’ usual suspects stood out – Simon Black (30 disposals), Luke Power (26) and Josh Drummond (25).
And Brown was inspirational, grabbing 21 touches and 12 marks.
For the Roos, Adam Simpson had 34 disposals and Corey Jones four goals.
Voss was clearly relieved that Brown had “joined in” in the absence of key forward Daniel Bradshaw (hamstring, 2-3 weeks).
“He was a real focal point for us,” Voss said.
“For him to kick his goals was pretty important to us but we had to get some other guys joining in too.”
James Polkinghorne and draftee Jack Redden also grabbed two goals each for the Lions.
Despite the huge leaps his team has made in his rookie year as a coach, Voss still found time to “nit pick”.
“We still play to the game a bit, when it slow we play slow, when it is frantic we play frantic – we have got to start controlling it with the way we want to play,” he said.
“That’s part of our development. Whereas Geelong, St Kilda make you play their style.”
The Lions were sweating on a knee injury to Tom Collier.
Meanwhile, Kangaroos caretaker coach Darren Crocker (0-3-1 record) was still no closer to his maiden victory with the reins.
“We fell into the trap of overpossessing the footy just for the sake of it – we didn’t play the brand of footy we know will take this club forward,” he said.
The horror night was compounded by Kangaroos forward David Hale grabbing just two possessions for the match.
“No doubt David really battled with the extra numbers but David by his own admission would come away and say that was a poor game,” Crocker said.
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