After two fairly pedestrian split rounds, the third and final one of this AFL season finally produced some drama and brilliance.
The Port Adelaide win over the previously red-hot Sydney at AAMI Stadium on Saturday was a monumental upset, but that was, unfortunately for Port, overshadowed by the extraordinary situation on Sunday evening at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Entering time on in the third term of Brisbane’s match against Geelong, the Cats led by 52 points and were cruising towards their 11th victory of the season.
However, fast forward 40 minutes or so and the Cats had suffered their second loss of the season, when the fairytale kid, Ash McGrath in his 200th game, marked a kick from Dane Zorko with one second remaining.
After the siren sounded, he kicked truly from more than 50 metres to give the Lions an unlikely fourth victory of the season.
They had staged the eighth biggest comeback in the history of the game with a bold display of running and straight down the corridoor footy, which Geelong, after dominating for three quarters, had no answer for.
The Cats had been winning matches but were playing in patches and struggling to put four quarters together, and it happened again at the Gabba; though this time they paid the ultimate price.
Although coach Chris Scott was filthy after the game and rightly so, this narrow defeat could be a blessing in disguise as it should get this proud and successful group of players more focused and hungry on playing at their best for a whole match, instead of the fits they have produced so far.
For Brisbane, this result has probably ensured Michael Voss will keep his job for the rest of the season and if the team can show more of that commitment and desire to win more often over the remaining rounds, one of Brisbane’s best ever players may get a new contract.
The message for Voss was loud and clear, that his short-term tenure would be reviewed after Round 15 once they had completed a challenging batch of matches in a two-month period against all of the sides either in the eight or in contention to make the finals.
At this stage that test has passed as they have snared two unexpected victories over Essendon and the Cats and were competitive against West Coast, Fremantle and Carlton.
They still have Hawthorn and the improving Gold Coast to come before the draw opens up for them, where they should start favourites in more than half of their remaining encounters.
Sunday’s awesome comeback also proved the players are playing for their coach, which can be half the battle.
Voss’ win/loss record is not outstanding and there’s just one finals series to his credit, which was his first year in 2009, but he has had to rebuild the list after that horrible year in 2010, when they traded in a number of players from other clubs, including the high-profile but troubled former Blue Brendan Fevola, mainly on Voss’ recommendation.
That decision proved to be a disaster, but they have some good young players, who are all developing nicely with the first, second and third year recruits like the two Sams, Docherty and Mayes, Ryan Lester, Rohan Bewick, Dayne Zorko, Elliot Yeo and Mitch Golby slotting in well and playing important roles on a regular basis.
It also helps that one of the greatest players of this era, Simon Black, is still contributing at a high level and that Jonathon Brown, although not the player he was, is able to continue to lead from the front.
After winning the pre-season competition, the Lions have been slightly disappointing and probably haven’t completely recovered from their opening round thrashing at the hands of one of the competition’s bottom teams, the Western Bulldogs, which straight away placed pressure on Voss.
However, the team made a statement at the weekend and if they can win those games they are expected to in the last third of the season, as outlined earlier, they could end the season with as many as nine wins – and that would just about be a pass.
It just depends if the markers on the Brisbane board agree, but despite it only being one game, there’s no doubt they would have been impressed with the spirit and skill displayed to knock over one of the premiership favourites in a finish that will be remembered for some time.
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Things heating up in Canberra!
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