Brisbane Lions 4.2 5.6 7.8 12.10 (82)
West Coast 4.3 11.6 14.11 20.11 (131)
Brisbane Lions – Goals: Walker 4 Hanley 2 Schache 2 Taylor Robinson Bastinac Hipwood. West Coast: Kennedy 5 LeCras 4 Darling 4 Cripps 2 Giles Masten Hill Shuey Yeo.
Best – Brisbane Lions: Robinson Zorko Hanley Martin Schache. West Coast: Le Cras Kennedy Cripps Shuey Gaff Yeo.
Injuries – Brisbane Lions: Harwood (knee). West Coast: Matt Priddis (broken nose)
Umpires: Schmitt Hay Meredith Harris.
Crowd: 12,777 at the Gabba.
For the second week in a row, the Brisbane Lions played a team from the west on their home deck. And for the second week in a row, they started in competitive fashion, only to mown down in a barely competitive second quarter. History has a way of repeating itself.
It was, perhaps, what happened from there that mattered most – for the crowd, for the club's pride, and certainly for the coach. With the Lions six goals down at half-time, the result was already all but assured but no one at the club can afford more performances as uncompetitive as last week's second half.
They were able to hold the Eagles up somewhat, although the method was less than convincing. The Lions had a whopping 109 more disposals for the game – pity that most of them were across half-back or kicks backwards. It spoke of a side that is not predictable to each other, and has no confidence in its ability to retain possession.
Which they didn't. The final margin of 49 points, marking the Lions' 12th loss in 13 games and ninth in succession, tells you as much. The Lions also held an advantage in clearances, but none of it adds up to a hill of beans if you keep giving the ball back to your opponents and your teammates are caught out of position as a result.
Josh Kennedy kicked five for the Eagles, and Mark LeCras was arguably best afield with four in an otherwise even team performance. Jack Darling kicked four, three of them in the last quarter, in a late cameo. Jamie Cripps by contrast had a big impact when the game was there to be won from just 14 disposals.
Several Lions had twice that many without being remotely as effective, with due respect to Mitch Robinson, who kept Matt Priddis to 16 touches while having 38 himself. Tom Rockliff had 38 touches, too, but he is a superstar in fantasy leagues only.
Things hadn't started well for the home side: in the eighth minute, Cripps strolled into goal, sizing up his options. He could have gone to Brad Hill close to goal, given off to Lewis Jetta by his side, or centred the ball to LeCras. He sensibly chose the last option.
At least Brisbane had glimpses of a brighter future: 202-centimetre Eric Hipwood, on debut, marked cleanly with his second touch, turned around and roosted a ball close to 60 metres to Josh Walker. Hipwood is light and gangly and didn't have much impact from there but knows his way around the field.
Josh Schache, the Lions' better-known forward prospect, soon followed with another and Lewis Taylor, who had set Schache up, then dribbled through a pearl of his own from the boundary line. Pearce Hanley won a 50-metre penalty for the Lions' fourth to take a short-lived lead.
In between, the Eagles had scored through Cripps and LeCras again, and Jonathan Giles, filling in for Nic Naitanui and Scott Lycett in the ruck, gave the visitors a one-point lead at quarter time. From the first 20 seconds of the second quarter, though, when Kennedy kicked his first, it was pretty much game over.
The game threatened to blow out again in the last quarter, the margin ballooning to 68 points before the Lions kicked four of the last five goals to spare some blushes. Everyone in the Lions hierarchy is preaching the need for patience. But you have to wonder if they will be given as much time as some of their players.
VOTES
LeCras (WC) 7
J Kennedy (WC) 7
J Cripps (WC) 7
L Shuey (WC) 7
M Robinson (BL) 7