Brisbane nice Jonathan Brown says the Lions might be “kicking themselves” and “should be filthy” for letting Friday evening’s conflict with Melbourne slip – and sure their prime two hopes with it.
Brisbane had made the competitors sit up and take discover as they piled on 10 of 12 targets to open up a useful lead on the MCG – a venue the place they haven’t gained a house and away recreation since 2014.
But simply because the Lions seemed set to banish their MCG hoodoo, they coughed up three targets within the remaining eight minutes to sink to a one-point loss in opposition to Melbourne.
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“The Lions were smoking the pipe 20 minutes into the third quarter, doing it easy,” Brown lamented on Fox Footy.
“Through the work of two men, (Max) Gawn and (Christian) Petracca they just bulldozed their way back into the game.
“Brisbane should have won, simple as that.
“Brisbane will be kicking themselves.
“Now the questions arise again about the MCG.
“You should be filthy.
“The Lions were out of juice a bit.
“The pressure came, maybe it paralysed them a bit.”
Fox Footy’s Cameron Mooney mentioned it was clear the hoodoo was nonetheless alive for the Lions on the MCG.
“Late in that game, when they needed to defend a team coming at them, they just couldn’t do it,” he mentioned on Fox Footy Live.
“As a player when you know you can’t win at a ground … you’ve got to knock this one on the head.”
The Demons had been staring down a 25-point deficit when Joe Daniher kicked a objective from a controversial palms within the again free kick in opposition to Steven May.
But they conceded 4.2 to 0.1 to see out the sport and sink to their second loss on the MCG this season.
Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon was left surprised on full time, questioning “what just happened?”
“Melbourne have just executed one of the great escapes, one of the greatest escapes I’ve ever seen,” he mentioned.
“It’s just heartbreak for Brisbane Lions fans everywhere but for Melbourne fans it’s just delirium.
“It just came from nowhere.”
Lions coach Chris Fagan admitted “the hoodoo lives on” when talking post-match.
“But it wasn’t that far away from not living on,” Fagan advised reporters. “We always have to take that feedback and try and do a better job the next time we play here.
“I’m not a great believer that what happens tonight – if we’re good enough to get the finals and we have to play here again – that that’s going to be on our mind. I think we can deal with that. We were close tonight – about as close as you can get – but didn’t quite get there.”
Fagan mentioned Brisbane’s fortunes had been decided by his facet’s work on the coalface, mentioning the Lions had been +2 for contested possessions and +38 for factors within the second and third phrases however -21 for contested possessions and -39 for factors within the first and fourth quarters.
“I think that if I was asked to lay the blame in one area tonight, it would be in the contest,” he mentioned.
“It‘s hard to cop because we did a lot right. But at the end of the day, I still say we didn’t deserve to win necessarily.
“We’ll take learnings from it. We’ll go and have a look at the last five minutes and how we handled that … We’ll have a look at our start to see why we started so poorly.
“But at the same time, I’ve got to remember that Melbourne are a good footy side and when you play them here, you’ve got to do a lot of things right to win, as we as we discovered tonight. We’ve just got to work out a way to keep it all in perspective.”
Asked if there was something to do otherwise, Fagan mentioned: “You’d need to have a look at the tape, but we couldn’t get our hands on the footy … and then control it.”
Jake Melksham stepped up because the hero for Melbourne as he took a fantastic contested seize and put his facet in entrance together with his second objective with simply 33 seconds remaining.
Demons skipper Max Gawn mentioned the facet was assured they may struggle again.
“I hope that entertained people at home! It was fun to play in – maybe not so much in the middle of the third quarter there,” he advised 7Sport.
“We knew we’re a fit side and we could run over teams at the ‘G and that’s what we did.”
Brownlow Medallist Nathan Buckley mentioned that final 20 minutes of the match can “change a season”.
“Their leaders stood up and said ‘nup, we’ve got to make a stand here’,” he praised on Fox Footy.
“You’re kicking yourself on the other side to allow that to happen.
“Brisbane were in a winning position and lost the way.”
Statistics present the Demons had a mixed 21 inside 50s within the second and third quarters, and 18 for the fourth quarter alone.
The loss means Brisbane at the moment are two wins behind second-placed Port Adelaide and ladder leaders Collingwood, who nonetheless have a recreation in hand.
While for Melbourne, their top-four desires are alive as they’ve opened up a two-win hole on fifth-placed Essendon.
Originally printed as ‘Should be filthy’: Jonatha Brown slams ‘paralysed’ Lions
Source: www.news.com.au
