Tom Rockliff had a career of high highs and low lows with the Brisbane Lions, and at times was a polarizing figure. But there is no denying his statistical legacy. In pure facts and figures he was a star.

Like in Round 11 2016 against Carlton against Marvel Stadium. Rockliff had a career-best 48 possessions, a club record until Lachie Neale’s 51 in 2019, plus 13 clearances, nine tackles, a goal and a goal assist. He earned three Brownlow Medal votes and yet the Lions were beaten by 38 points.

It was a game which in many ways said it all about Rockliff, whose individual heroics this week six years ago make him the headline story for the ‘Remember When …” flashback for Round 11.

It was the 16^th-placed Lions against the 11^th-placed Blue in Justin Leppitsch’s 55^th game as coach and Jarrad Jansen’s AFL debut. He had almost as many possessions as the Lions’ next two combined – Zayne Zorko and Mitch Robinson had 25 apiece – but the Lions trailed  1-7 to 8-4 at halftime and lost by 38points despite both teams kicking eight goals in the second half.

If nothing else it’s a reminder that what really matters in football is team success.

Arriving at the club as a draft after-thought, Rockliff left in controversial circumstances when he used free agency to quit Brisbane for a fresh start at Port Adelaide, leaving behind a 154-game Lions career of massive numbers, high individual achievement and minimal team success.

The Lions’ only All-Australian pick between Jonathan Brown in 2009 and Dayne Zorko in 2017, winning a spot on the bench in 2014, Rockliff won the Merrett-Murray Medal in 2011-14, was top six in 2012-13-16-17. And he polled 21 votes in the 2013 Brownlow Medal to finish sixth, seven votes behind the winner Gary Ablett, before 15 votes in 2014.

He has five of the top eight possession games in Brisbane history, with 48, 47, 45, 45 and 43. Only Neale’s 51 and 46 and Pearce Hanley’s 45 have been at the Rockliff level. And his 58 Lions games of 30 or more possessions is bettered only by Simon Black’s 59 in more than twice as many games,

Yet Rockliff’s win/loss record was 46-108.  Never in nine years did he win more often that he lost, and in his last three years, when he was an elite player in the competition, he was 11-42 in the win column.

All this after being overlooked entirely in the 2008 National Draft despite being the leading goal-kicker in the then TAC Cup as a medium-sized forward and winning the Murray Bushrangers best & fairest. He was picked up by the Lions in the subsequent Pre-Season Draft after the club had preferred Daniel Rich (#7), Jack Redden (#25), Todd Banfield (#41), Aaron Cornelius (#57) and Bart McCulloch (#69) in the main draft.

He was Lions captain in 2015-16 but was tipped out on a player vote ahead of Chris Fagan’s first season in 2017, beaten by Dayne Beams and Dayne Zorko, and despite finishing third in the Merrett/Murray Medal.

Round 11 hasn’t exactly been kind to Brisbane. They were 4-8 in Round 11 matches after 12 years and despite winning the last three against Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs and GWS, all at the Gabba, the total is now 15-16. They are 9-6 at home and 6-10 away.

Other Round 11 highlights include:-

1989 – Only One Goal-Kicker

Only once in Brisbane history has the same player kicked the club’s entire goal tally in a game. It was Round 11 1989, They were beaten 3-8 (26) to 5-15 (45) by Richmond at the MCG after leading 3-2 to 0-4 at quarter time. Brad Hardie kicked all three goals – 3-4 from seven shots. He was the only multiple goal-kicker in the game in what was Marcus Ashcroft’s third AFL outing. Matthew Campbell picked up two Brownlow Medal votes in a losing side.

1994 – An epic win at Geelong

The Brisbane Bears were still in the developing phase in 1994, and would finish 12^th on the 15-team ladder with a 9-13 record, but in Round 11 they posted one of the great wins.

It was a Saturday afternoon game at Kardinia Park on a weekend in which, curiously, the AFL had not scheduled a Friday night game. The Cats, fourth on the ladder under Malcolm Blight, led the 13^th-placed Bears, under Robert Walls, by three points at quarter-time.

But the visitors were hanging tough. They were always in it. The led by a point at halftime and seven points at three-quarter time, and kicked 7-2 to 4-2 in the final term to win 19-12 (126) to 15-11 (101).

Former Geelong player Shane Hamilton, whose career at Brisbane was cruelled by injury, had a day to remember against his old club. He a career-high 33 possessions and kicked a goal as the Brownlow votes went to Craig Lambert (27 possessions, eight tackles) Adrian Fletcher (20 possessions, 1 goal) and Gilbert McAdam (18 possessions, 3 goals). It was Nigel Lappin’s 8^th game and Chris Scott’s 10^th as Walls started to build a side that would would later become one of the best of all time.

2000 – The AFL’s first South African-born player

In 2000 the Lions had hit a flat spot. Preliminary finalists in Leigh Matthews’ first season in 1999, they’d slipped to 12^th at Round 10 the following year when they head to the SCG to take on the Swans.

They were 31 points down at halftime and 36 poits down four minutes later, piled on 10-9 to 4-11 in the second half to scrape home 16-14 (110) to 15-17 (107) on the back of some individual heroics from Simon Black, Luke Power, Alastair Lynch and Darryl White.

It was not a pretty win. But it was a critical win, evidenced by the emotional hugs and pats on the back as the players gathered in the middle of the SCG after the final siren before jogging over to thank their small band of supporters. And it was a win chock full of second half character from perhaps the youngest side the club has fielded in most-merger days.

It was an important learning experience for a multitude of Lions rookies. That and more for Damian Cupido, who made his AFL debut as a late inclusion for injured Lions vice-captain Chris Scott on a day he’ll never forget.

The 182cm utility player from Cape Town, who immigrated to Australia with his family aged six in 1988 and was chosen by the Lions at No.6 in the 1999 National Draft, became the AFL’s first South African-born player.

Club officials hurriedly arranged for his family to fly from Melbourne to see Cupido become the Lions’ fifth AFL debutant in the first half of the 2000 AFL season. Just 71 days beyond his 18^th birthday, the young man with the thumping left-foot kick followed Craig Bolton, Shannon Rusca, Jonathan Brown and Aaron Shattock in enjoying his first taste of the game at the elite level after he played two Ansett Cup games in February.

And he became the youngest player in Brisbane Lions history, cutting 15 days off the mark set coincidentally by Luke Power on debut against the same opposition at the same venue in Round 2, 1998.

Coming off the bench, Cupido, known as ‘Bubba’ to his teammates, made an important contribution, too. He picked up some very nice touches, with two goals and a hand in a third playing out of a forward pocket after his first on-ground stint produced some anxious moments in defence. He should have kicked three goals, missing a ‘sitter’ from point-blank range, but there were some signs to justify the significant enthusiasm shown for his natural talent and athleticism.

It was 21-year-old Black, in his 42^nd game, and 20-year-old Power, making his 35^th appearance, who led the way in excellent fashion. Black, returning to the scene of his Round 13 emergence as an AFL standout last year, returned full-time to the Lions midfield after some time at half forward in recent weeks.  He had a team-high 31 possessions, with a game-high 11 ‘hard ball gets’ – a quarter of the Lions’ total and almost a third of the Swans’ entire tally. And he had a game-high nine clearances.

Power, returning to the venue of his three-goal AFL debut in 1998, was a real livewire across half forward. He finished with 25 possessions and three goals. And his contribution in the final 10 minutes, when the contest was on the line, was superb. He kicked two goals in the final term, including the Lions’ last which ultimately proved to be the winner.

What a goal it was! Beau McDonald marked the kick-in on the outer side of the ground. He chipped square to Darryl White, who came further across the ground to Brett Voss. He pin-pointed Power outside the 50m arc. The nippy left-footer marked on his own and, realising he was outside his range, he took on his Sydney opponent, Jared Crouch, ran around him with great confidence and blistering pace, and drilled it from 45m. Magnificent stuff.

Alastair Lynch, who became a second-time father on the Thursday night before the game when wife Peta presented him with a baby son, Thomas Graeme, celebrated with five goals. Providing a real target up forward and marking strongly, he was swung to centre half forward after halftime and was the man who initiated the comeback with three third quarter goals.

It was a club record against the Swans and at the SCG, elevating him to equal sixth on the AFL goal-kicking list. And, importantly in such a tight contest, he finished with 5-0.

White, too, had a big hand to play in the turnaround when he was swung into the ruck at halftime by coach Matthews. He started to jump at and over dominant Swans follower Greg Stafford, and all of a sudden the Lions had the ball going forward. Re-living a role in which he started his AFL career in 1992, he also picked up a lot of possessions around the ground to become a real driving force.

Round When... In Fitzroy

Think Round 11 memories at Fitzroy and two come to mind – both are all about goal-kicking.

In Round 11 1928 Jack Moriarty kicked 12 goals against North Melbourne at Arden Street to equal the club record set by Bob Merrick in 1919. It was never broken or even equalled again.

Moriarty, the club’s leading all-time goal-kicker and full forward in the Team of the Century, beat North on his own with two goals to spare in a 15-12 (102) to 7-14 (56) hammering.

Born and bred in Fitzroy and the son of dual Fitzroy premiership player and first coach Geoff Moriarty, his even dozen came in his 88th career game and his 75th for Fitzroy after he had curiously started his career at Essendon.

He’d kicked 36 goals in 13 games with the Bombers in 1922, topping the club’s goal-kicking list despite being controversially dropped for the preliminary final against Fitzroy. His replacement kicked five of Essendon’s six goals in a 23-point loss in Moriarty’s absence and became the first choice full forward in the ’23.

It was 1924 before Moriarty joined to Fitzroy, but after he started 7-7-7 in his first three games he never looked back. He topped the club goal-kicking every year from 1924-33 except 1930, and topped the VFL goal-kicking in 1924.

He finished with 626 goals in 157 games for Fitzroy, won the Fitzroy best & fairest in 1927 in an era when the award was not presented in some years, was club captain in 1933, and after representing Victoria at the national carnival in Victoria in 1924 became a fixture in the side, wearing the Big V 11 times for 42 goals.

Having passed away in 1980 aged 79, Moriarty is a Lions Hall of Famer and was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2004.

The other high-scoring bonanza memorable to Fitzroy fans was Round 11 in the premiership year of 1944, when the club posted their highest score at Brunswick Street Oval. Brownlow Medallist Alan Ruthven kicked a career-best nine goals in just his 30th game, Ken Sier kicked six goals and Wally Miller a career-best five.

Making their debut for Fitzroy on the same day under coach Fred Hughson was a 17-year-old Norm Johnstone and a 19-year-old Noel Jarvis.

Although he didn’t play in what turned out to be Fitzroy’s last premiership later that year, Johnstone become one of the club greats. A 228-game star and 1947 club champion who was named as the starting ruck-rover in the Team of the Century.

Jarvis was a member of the ’44 premiership side in the highlight of a career that spanned 159 games from 1944-52. A speedy wingman, he also won a Reserves premiership with Fitzroy and represented Victoria at the 1947 carnival in Hobart.

AND ROUND 11 1996

Coming off a 70-point loss to the Swans in Sydney, Fitzroy faced Melbourne at Western Oval in Round 11. Coach Mick Nunan made only one change, recalling Brett Chandler to replace Danny Morton.

It was Sunday 16 June. Speculation on the club’s future was out of control, but all the players could do was turn up and give their best.

They thought they may have been a chance in Round 11. After all, Melbourne were 15th on the ladder at 2-8 under Neil Balme. Scores were level at quarter time and the Dees were only three goals clear at the long break, but they ran away with it 18-11 (119) to 8-8 (56).

Nick Carter, in his 6th game at 18, was the only Fitzroy player to top 20 possessions. He had 21. Anthony Mellington kicked three goal as an 18-year-old Adem Yze, now a key member of the Melbourne coaching staff, kicked five goals in his 19th game. When he retired 252 games later it was still his career best.