If anyone thought at the start of the year that this game would be a crunch game between two teams playing for a place in the eight at finals time, they could have been forgiven for thinking the upstart Brisbane would be trying to dislodge the incumbent Hawthorn from the eight.
Not the other way around.
Brisbane has taken all before them this season, week by week surprising critics and gathering believers of their finals credentials. The Lions now sit in the second position and in what will be the 50th encounter between the two teams, will be hoping to lift their percentage of wins against the Hawks to 40 per cent.
The game will be played at the University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston so is a home game for the Hawks who suffered a 19-point loss to the Lions earlier (Round 11) in the season at the Gabba.
Since a surprise loss to Carlton in Round 12, the Lions have strung together five wins and beaten some quality opposition to be guaranteed of appearing in the finals for the first time since 2009, the year Michael Voss took over after the ten-year reign of legendary coach Leigh Matthews. The only player remaining from that time is the club’s current leading game player Daniel Rich who has now played 200 games for the club and sits equal with Daniel Merrett in 12th position on the all-time games played list.
Chris Fagan, in his third year as coach has lifted Brisbane’s win percentage from 23 per cent in 2017 and 2018 to 70 per cent so far this year and second place on the ladder is theirs to lose with three of the last four games to be played at the Gabba. While their success has been a slow build over the three seasons, Fagan has managed to get the best out of the players he inherited and add to the mix with some very astute recruiting.
Hawthorn’s Luke Hodge, who is an elite AFL Top 100 game player and who this week will join Adelaide’s Andrew McLeod in 19th position on the all-time list, was considered washed up by Hawthorn and released to Brisbane in time for the 2018 season. He played 19 games for the club last year as the commander of the backline responsible for lifting the club’s percentage from 74 per cent in 2017 to 89 per cent in 2018.
This year it stands at 114.9 per cent.
Lachie Neale was recruited from Fremantle at the start of this year to add bite to the Lions’ onballers and he delivered in spades, as did Charlie Cameron for the forward line when recruited from Adelaide.
Hawthorn, as usual relies on a mix of experience and youth, but have not got enough value out of their star recruits Tom Scully (Greater Western Sydney) and Chad Wingard (Port Adelaide) as of yet and therefore need to finish the season strongly to overtake the two South Australian teams and claim eighth spot on the final ladder.
It would be a brave man to predict that the doyen of coaches does not have some tricks up his sleeve to make this happen.
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Things heating up in Canberra!
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