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Premiership favourites set to roar in Brisvegas this Friday night

Roar Guru
17th May, 2021
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Roar Guru
17th May, 2021
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This Friday night’s clash between the Brisbane Lions and Richmond at the Gabba looms as a potential Grand Final preview, in what will also double as the Tigers’ return to the scene of their greatest premiership triumph yet.

After starting the year poorly with only one win from their first four matches, the Lions have roared back to life in recent weeks, winning their past five matches in a row, the past three without reigning Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale.

Last week, they put their M1 neighbours the Gold Coast Suns to the sword at Metricon Stadium, winning by 73 points for their fifth consecutive QClash victory and breaking into the top four for the first time this season.

Jarryd Lyons, who was let go by the Suns at the end of the 2018 season, claimed the Marcus Ashcroft Medal as the best-on-ground player, further showing Suns fans what exactly could’ve been had he not moved up the highway all those years ago.

Previously, they had put Essendon, Carlton, Port Adelaide and Fremantle to the sword, with the win over the Power the best of them as they not only won by 49 points but also restricted the boys from Alberton to just five goals and exposed them as flag pretenders.

But it was their season-opening loss to the Sydney Swans at home that saw their attitude and mindset come into question, with Gerard Healy scathing in his criticism of the Lions, whom he said just turned up with the intention of grabbing the four points on offer.

Sure, they kicked the first three goals of that match after as many minutes and were destined for an easy night in the office, but what unfolded thereafter was a brutal reality check from which Chris Fagan’s side would’ve learnt plenty from.

Lions coach Chris Fagan

Chris Fagan (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

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That is not to take anything for granted and that winning matches is more than just turning up, but also playing the full four quarters.

The Lions’ clash against the Tigers is the fourth in a string of five straight games in Queensland, with another winnable match against the GWS Giants at home to follow after this week.

It will also be their first Friday night home game of the season and with no crowd limit at any sporting venue in the sunshine state, a full house will be expected at the Gabba, especially with the NRL’s Brisbane Broncos playing away this weekend.

Richmond, despite being without several players including captain Trent Cotchin, Shane Edwards, Kane Lambert and Dion Prestia, managed to pull a trick out of the hat at Marvel Stadium last Saturday night, coming from 28 points down to edge out GWS by just four points.

In their absences, it was Dustin Martin who was the clear best-on-ground as he kicked four goals, including one that he kicked right on the line in the final quarter, to lift his side to a potentially season-saving victory.

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It was the perfect response from the reigning premier after their humiliating 63-point loss to the Geelong Cats in the Grand Final rematch at the MCG the previous round, in which Cats forward Jeremy Cameron also got some personal revenge after he was part of the GWS side that were hammered on Grand Final day in 2019.

The criticism that arose from the Richmond vs GWS match being played at Marvel Stadium, twenty months after the two teams met in a Grand Final in front of over 100,000 fans at the MCG, further intensified with a crowd of just 18,798 in attendance.

Naturally, the reasons for the low crowd would include the Giants’ lack of drawing power in Victoria, while there were also crowd limits in place at all sporting stadia in the state despite there being no community transmission of COVID-19 for nearly three months.

Coach Damien Hardwick was scathing of the fixturing anomaly in his post-match press conference, stating that he “hated coming here” while at the same time calling for all of his side’s home games to be fixtured at the MCG.

But the reality is that the AFL’s contract with the Docklands venue requires a certain amount of matches to be played at the ground, meaning clubs such as Collingwood, Hawthorn and Richmond must play the occasional home game there to meet that quota.

A lot of the time, such games are against interstate clubs, which these clubs argue costs them hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.

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It was the Tigers’ lowest home attendance in Victoria since 2004, a year in which they won only three games (of which one was against the previous year’s runners-up, Collingwood, in round one) and won the wooden spoon after losing their final 14 matches of the season.

Friday night’s trip to Brisbane will mark the first time they step foot on the hallowed Gabba turf since last October’s Grand Final, in which they defeated the Geelong Cats by 31 points to win their third flag in four years.

At the start of last year’s coronavirus-affected season, coach Damien Hardwick proclaimed that the 2020 premiership would be “the greatest flag ever won”.

Yet it was his side that, despite having to uproot from Victoria after round five, were able to reign supreme, with captain Trent Cotchin leading his side to their 13th flag, and Dustin Martin claiming a record third Norm Smith Medal.

Of the three flags the Tigers have won in the past four years, their win over the Cats ranked as the toughest one yet, not just because of the circumstances under which the decider was played, but also for the way they fought back after being in trouble at half-time.

The Tigers had trailed by 22 points in the late stages of the second quarter before a late goal to Martin gave them some momentum that they would carry over into the second half.

They eventually ended up winning by 31 points, cementing themselves as the most consistent team of the past few years and joining the Brisbane Lions (2001-03), Cats (2007, 09 and 11) and Hawthorn (2008, 2013-15) among the most successful teams this century.

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Not only that, the Tigers also had to take the long way around after losing its qualifying final to the Lions at the Gabba; that marked just their second loss against them anywhere since 2004, and their first loss in the sunshine capital since that same year.

The Tigers had won their previous eleven games at the Gabba, and 19 of their previous 21 matches against the Lions, the only blemishes being a draw at Marvel Stadium (then Telstra Dome) in 2007 and a loss at the MCG in 2009.

Shane Edwards and Jack Graham celebrate.

Shane Edwards and Jack Graham (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Given the hype and occasion surrounding his side hosting the reigning premiers in front of what’s expected to be a bumper crowd at the Gabba this Friday night, Lions coach Chris Fagan may want to take a leaf out of Leigh Matthews’ book in the lead-up to this clash.

It was back in 2001 when, in the lead-up to the Brisbane Lions’ clash against then-reigning premiers Essendon at the Gabba in Round 10, that Matthews famously quoted the Predator film “if it bleeds, we can kill it. And we reckon Essendon can bleed”.

History tells us that the Lions, wooden spooners three years earlier, would pull off a famous 28-point upset victory; that was the start of a 16-match winning streak that would culminate in them defeating the Bombers by 26 points in the Grand Final and winning the first of a hat-trick of flags.

Two decades on, the present-day Lions, which finished last in 2017 but have shot up the ladder thanks to some smart recruiting, can start creating some history of their own with a win against Richmond, the reigning premiers, at home this Friday night.

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But will Chris Fagan quote a famous movie line this week, like Leigh Matthews did back in 2001? Realistically, though, Fagan will want to keep a lid on expectations and keep his side focused on the task that’s ahead not just this week, but also in the coming months.

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A win on Friday night could also see the Lions formally inherit the title as premiership favourites from the Tigers, and go a long way towards erasing the demons of last year when they fell agonisingly short of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a flag on their home soil.

The real test, however, is still to come, when the Lions and Tigers meet again at the MCG in round 18; for Chris Fagan’s side, it will be the first of two consecutive matches they play at the ground, with the second coming against Hawthorn the following round.

Before then, the Tigers will “return” to the Gabba for the first time since their great premiership triumph on October 24 last year and will want to get their premiership hopes back on track after a rather shaky start to the season.

It stands to be an exciting clash of the premiership favourites in Brisvegas this Friday night and you get the feeling that whichever team wins will edge ahead in favouritism for this year’s flag.

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