At half time of their Saturday night blockbuster with Collingwood, Brisbane, almost certainly needing a win to keep themselves in the top four, were on the ropes.
They might have led the Magpies by a point in front of a monstrous MCG crowd witnessing a true clash of the titans – but having managed just two goals to five in the second quarter and just barely clung on against a withering black and white burst, there was no question who was taking the lion’s share (pardon the pun) of the momentum into the main break.
After the first term went completely according to script for Chris Fagan and the Lions, the Pies denied possession to a staggering degree – just 54 disposals in the quarter, 16 of them to the Daicos brothers – and with it allowing the visitors to dominate the territory battle and put the home defence and young Charlie Dean specifically under almighty pressure – it seemed the reigning premiers had been comprehensively worked out.
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The cause? Manic Magpie intensity on the ball carrier and at stoppages especially, winning the footy in tight, driving it forward and then simply refusing to let it out via a combination of frenetic tackling and a high defensive press essentially locking the ball into their forward half.
The damage? 19 inside 50s to five – yes, FIVE – against the most dominant territory team of the modern era. The Lions, in truth, were lucky to be in front.
It looked for all the world as if Brisbane, having started so impressively, would be once again shown up by a hungrier opposition keen for a statement win on their own turf, as Gold Coast did to them just last week.
This is the story of how the Lions flipped the script.
Everyone knows how Brisbane love to play in an ideal universe: they are far and away the highest-marking team in the AFL, they defend in large part through denying the opposition the football, moving the Sherrin relentlessly from defence into attack with sharp kicks both short and long, and then using their wide array of crumbing options and the emerging star that is Logan Morris to punish on the scoreboard.
So if I told you that the Lions, in the premiership quarter, having been brought to their knees by Collingwood in the second term, would have just 11 marks, you’d probably assume the hiding had continued.
But no. This was a plan by the Lions. This was Chris Fagan and his coaching staff, in particular midfield coach Cameron Bruce, changing their style, pulling it back to its most basic elements: win stoppages, pressure relentlessly, surge the footy forward, and make it count on the scoreboard.
It’s the type of alternate approach most teams, even the good ones, aren’t capable of. Imagine asking the Western Bulldogs to play a slow game, or Adelaide to play chaos footy, or Gold Coast to ignore clearances and just play for turnovers.
But Brisbane aren’t just your run-of-the-mill good team. They’re the reigning premiers, the most consistently successful club of the 2020s – and, as was proved by their second half at the MCG to run away with an eventually comfortable 27-point win over the premiership favourites, still the team to beat in 2025.
As Fagan himself alluded to after the match, part of the solution was to equalise with numbers around every contest: but that barely scratches the surface of the tactics at play.
Let’s start with their first major win – the first of three goals from stoppages they kicked for the quarter to break the game open.
Typically, the Lions love a spare behind the ball, and will back themselves to put enough pressure on any would-be kicker to present options galore to intercept, or bring the ball to ground for a fast getaway via the loose man. Jaspa Fletcher has primarily been that man this year, but Darcy Wilmot and Dayne Zorko also spend time in that role.
That all changed in the third quarter: for this ball-up, the Lions match the Pies five for five at the coalface, with Ned Long, Jordan De Goey, Steele Sidebottom, Nick Daicos and Darcy Cameron up against Darcy Fort, Lachie Neale, Hugh McCluggage, Josh Dunkley and the wildcard – Sam Marshall, to the umpire’s right on the Magpies’ side of the stoppage.
Note as well Zac Bailey, on the Toyota lettering, and Dayne Zorko, on the ‘2025’ part of the logo, and their positioning as well, more on that later.
In essence, the Lions have set up here to deny the Pies any chance of creating an overlap via handball: if De Goey, free and running past the umpire as the ball goes up, wins possesion, he’ll run into one of Neale or Marshall.
But there’s a dual benefit: if the Lions win the footy, which Josh Dunkley does, he has an immediate handball option out the back in Marshall – and note that both he and Neale have held their space one handpass’s length from the coalface, lying in wait.
De Goey meanwhile, has run past the ball and into no-man’s land, and in his first game back from a long-term injury, looks more and more lost the longer the play goes.
With fast hands, Marshall receives and gives past De Goey to Hugh McCluggage, at which point the camera pans out so we can see how both teams have set up in the 50-metre zone around the footy.
Both teams have 12 players in the frame – the Lions are numbered in the below shot.
The problem for the Magpies is that De Goey and Long have missed the boat: they’re running between 7 and 9 in the above frame, on the wrong side of the ball and effectively requiring others to impact on it in their stead. Long was minding Dunkley at the initial stoppage, and now the Lions is 10 metres goal side of him.
The result is exactly the overlap the Magpies are so good at creating: Lachie Schultz, responsible for minding Wilmot, now comes up to the ball to try and impact McCluggage (number 7), leaving Wilmot (number 4) free to get involved.
Let’s now draw a line as Wilmot gathers the ball right down the line of where the footy is.
You’ll count seven Lions in the frame, with three, Eric Hipwood, Charlie Cameron and Logan Morris, against three Magpie defenders just out of shot inside 50. Meanwhile, they are being corralled by … six Magpies. There’s an outnumber.
Where the Lions are so well-drilled is that normally in this situation, Wilmot or his equivalent would kick long directly from the wing, or else go for one handball too many, invite the pressure, and risk a turnover. Indeed, Harry Perryman, guarding space at true half-back just inside the centre square, is set up for that even while Callum Ah Chee, the circled Lion above, makes a beeline back towards goal.
Wilmot, though, has the coach’s faith to back in his agility: he jinks, wrong-footing the oncoming Patrick Lipinski, gets back into his right foot, and with the benefit of a run-up and five extra metres can blast a wobbly ball deep inside 50.
Sure, the Lions get the benefit of a fortunate bounce inside 50 that leads directly to the Morris goal, but you make your own luck when you set things up in the manner they have.
It should be virtually impossible to score in this way against the Magpies, the stingiest defence in the game, who give up fewer points from stoppages than any team in the AFL bar Adelaide. They set up so well behind the ball, and are so manic in their tackling pressure around the contest, that to slice them up in both regards is an enormous tick for Fagan and his team.
In short, this is the type of football the Magpies usually bring to the table. Brisbane have just beaten them at their own game – and more is to come.
In the below frame, capturing a forward 50 stoppage a few minutes later, note the way the Lions are set up.
To a man, the five Lions on-ballers – Neale, Cam Rayner, Dunkley and Jarrod Berry – are ‘ball side’ of their Magpies counterparts, in the interior of the stoppage. In short, they’re hunting the ball, while the Pies, with the exception of Nick Daicos, are holding a perimeter, hoping to keep things in tight, and provide Daicos with a handball option should he extract the footy or otherwise tackle whichever Lion comes up with it.
The problem is that at the very last moment, Henry Smith’s arm comes across Cameron’s tap to usher the ball straight to Dunkley. He knows the assignment – inside 50, there is no clever chain of handballs, no giving the Pies’ defence time to set up or their midfield a chance to clog up space. He hacks a quick kick long inside 50.
The result? What do you know – Darcy Moore, caught out playing slightly behind Morris again, does too much in his attempt to make up ground, clatters into the young Lion to give away a free kick, and hey presto, it’s another stoppage goal.
Within four minutes of the third quarter, the Lions have two clearance goals, a 13-point lead, and the match back firmly in their control. And all while barely taking a mark, playing a style about as far from the norm for them as we’ve seen all year.
Without the footy? It’s pressure, pressure, pressure.
Look what happens on the rare occasion when Collingwood win first possession at a stoppage:
Note as Lipinski gathers that Neale keeps his distance, refusing to be squeezed in to allow Pendlebury, his opponent, room to receive the handpass in a dangerous spot. Instead, he corrals.
It’s similar when Pendlebury does get the footy, under heavy duress:
Again, there is no one coming directly at him from the front – Dayne Zorko and Hugh McCluggage are right up his clacker, so to speak, desperate to drag him down, but Zac Bailey isn’t suckered in to leave Dan Houston free, as so many are by Pendlebury’s lightning reactions.
Then, the trap is sprung: Isaac Quaynor, free out the back of the stoppage, but far enough away so Pendlebury’s handball hangs in the air:
From behind, Hipwood comes in to lay a crunching tackle, spilling the ball free – and you’ll notice that the Lions have set up just for this. As Quaynor is tackled, three Lions are already sprinting past, leaving their Pies opponents in the dust:
There’s no one ahead of Moore, the loose man just inside the Pies’ 50, in this play: it doesn’t end in a goal, but with Rayner on the end of it free 70 metres to goal, it very easily could have.
That was the tale of the second half in two parts: relentless, turnover-causing pressure at stoppages, speed and overlap handball to move the footy forward, and an open 50 with dangerous forwards keen to cash in on a vulnerable Magpies backline not receiving the support from up the ground it’s used to.
The Lions’ pressure rating for the third quarter was 227, better than any other term for their season.
The quality was matched by quantity: the Lions, forcing a contested game with that heavy pressure, caused 39 stoppages in the third quarter, three more than for the entire first half. With a 20-9 clearance domination, the Pies were unable to stop them.
It was a statement and a half from the reigning premiers, especially after being smashed at stoppages by Gold Coast in the wet last week.
And it’s a glaring warning to the rest of the footy world: these Lions have endless strings to their bow. They can slice you apart with brilliant kicking, or outhunt you for the tough stuff. They can pinpoint targets inside 50 with devastating ease, or belt the ball in and let chaos take over. They can run you off your feet and tackle you into submission at the same time.
Adelaide might be the AFL’s new top dogs. But Brisbane are still very much the team to beat in season 2025.
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