Friday evening’s Round 2 AFL sport between Melbourne and Brisbane was suspended when the lights went out at The Gabba in weird scenes.
Brisbane dominated the sport from the early phases and led comfortably by 40 factors halfway by means of the fourth quarter when the floodlights out of the blue turned off.
Watch each match of each spherical of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
With the sector in pitch black, the sport stopped as gamers and followers appeared on in amusement.
A globe in one of many floodlights was flickering with a flame, suggesting it had exploded and triggered the facility outage in a loud bang.
The umpires conferred with AFL officers earlier than the gamers quickly left the sector and went to their respective change rooms.
“The Gabba is investigating a technical issue that is impacting the venue’s power,” a message on the stadium’s massive display learn.
WATCH THE BIZARRE SCENES IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE
The floodlights started to slowly flip again on and the gamers returned to the sector to finish an eight-minute warm-up and play out the remaining 12 minutes of the sport.
The lights went out at round 10.20pm AEDT. The sport finally resumed at 10.58pm AEDT.
The prolonged pause proved to be a severe momentum shifter.
Once play resumed, the Demons figuratively turned it on — kicking 5 objectives within the final 12 minutes of the sport.
The Lions finally held on for a 14.9 (93) to 13.4 (82) victory, however they misplaced 13 for-and-against share factors within the final quarter.
The final quarter went for 69 minutes — the longest time period in V/AFL historical past.
For context, that’s eight minutes longer that the hour-long quarter during which Buddy Franklin kicked his one centesimal aim final yr.
Under AFL guidelines, there generally is a most 60-minute delay earlier than the sport is resumed.
If that window elapsed, the rating would stay and the Lions could be awarded the victory and the 4 premiership factors.
The farcical scenes despatched AFL followers into hysterics and evoked reminiscences of comparable scenes when the floodlights went out within the 1996 match between St Kilda and Essendon at Waverley Park.
A Big Bash League cricket sport in 2019 was deserted at The Gabba after the lights went off on account of a Brisbane energy failure.
It’s removed from superb scenario for The Gabba and Brisbane, with the stadium set to host the 2032 Olympic Games after a redevelopment of the venue.
The Gabba reportedly doesn’t have a back-up energy provide.
Earlier within the sport, Melbourne captain Max Gawn appeared to undergo a severe knee damage and was substituted out of the sport in heartbreaking scenes.
Source: www.news.com.au
