Will Ashcroft has gone to bed for the last 342 nights thinking of one thing… tonight.

It’s been the #1 thing on his mind since 22 July last year when the then 19-year-old young gun, playing his 19^th game in a brilliant first AFL season, blew out his knee.

It was an horrific blow for a young man, denying him a place in the 2023 grand final and most likely the 2023 AFL Rising Star Award. But immediately, he chose to look not at what could have been but what was next. And the next is now. Round 16 2024… Brisbane v Melbourne at the Gabba tonight.

He’s been warned not to expect too much from himself, but such is Ashcroft’s competitiveness and so high are his own standards and expectations that he will. And if he wants even a little shot of confidence he needs only to wind the clock back a further 120 days.

That was Round 2 last year. Another Friday night game at the Gabba against Melbourne. And Ashcroft’s second AFL game.

Surely you remember it? A sell-out crowd of 30,047 packed the Gabba on the same night Brisbane’s two NRL teams, the Broncos and the Dolphins, played for the first time at Suncorp Stadium. And the Gabba lights went out.

^{📸Image: During round 2 when the lights went off, Brisbane Lions vs Demons, 2023.}

With the Lions 40 points up and 12 minutes still on the clock in the fourth quarter (which would equate to about 20 minutes of actual playing time), the stadium was plunged into darkness due to a fault in an underground cable and the game was ultimately suspended for 38 minutes.

It was something new for everyone, and only slightly better than chaotic. When play resumed Melbourne, with nothing to lose against a Brisbane side which had already done what they came to do, kicked the last five goals and cut the final margin to 11 points. The Lions won 14-9 (93) to 13-4 (82).

Ashcroft will remember it well. Having been tagged on debut six days earlier in a bad loss to Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval he showed why he’d been touted as the No.1 prospect in the 2022 draft pool with a team-high 31 possessions (15 contested), an equal game-high nine clearances and a goal.  And three Brownlow Medal votes.

He was 16 games quicker to his first three-voter than his 318-game father Marcus, the fourth player in Brisbane’s history to poll three votes inside his first two games, and the first in 31 years.

Brenton Phillips, recruited from Essendon and playing his 11^th AFL game, did it in the Bears’ first game, and Matthew Campbell, a foundation draft concession from South Australia, did it a week later in his second game.

And in Round 1 1992, a 189cm 18-year-old coodabeen Indigenous basketballer from Alice Springs playing as a makeshift ruckman in his AFL debut did it. Darryl White.

Will Ashcroft's three-vote second game is a standout feature of a 55-game Brisbane v Melbourne history in which the Demons have the overall edge 30-25 but Brisbane are up 18-11 at ‘home’ – Carrara in the Bears days and now the Lions – and a 1-1 split in finals.

^{📸Image: Will Ashcroft during round 2, Brisbane Lions vs Demons, 2023.}

Marcus Ashcroft Jnr is another standout. He’s played most games for Brisbane against Melbourne at 20, from Simon Black (19), Daniel Rich (18), Shaun Hart (17), Dayne Zorko (17), Darryl White (16), Michael Voss (15) and Ash McGrath (15).

It must be a family thing. Marcus’ uncle and Will’s great uncle, John Townsend, now living at Noosa, played 153 games for Melbourne from 1962-72, was a member of their 1964 premiership side, won the best & fairest in 1965, and leading goal-kicker in 1964-65.

Overall, Brownlow votes in games between the clubs favor Brisbane 164-148. Black, four times judged best afield against the Demons, heads the vote with 12 from Adrian Fletcher (10), Voss (8), John Gastev (8), Jonathan Brown (7), Jason Akermanis (7) and Lachie Neale (7).

^{📸Image: Adrian Fletcher, Jason Akermanis and John Gastev during games, as listed Brisbane Lions players.}

Oddly, Melbourne’s leading vote-getter against Brisbane now plays for GWS – after a stint at Fremantle. Jesse Hogan kicked bags of 4-5-6-5 goals in four games against Brisbane and polled four times (three three’s) for 10 votes. Christian Petracca (9), Jim Stynes (7) and Steven Stretch (7) are next best.

Neale’s 43 possessions in the 2021 qualifying final loss to Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval is a record between the clubs.

In another oddity, one of three Brisbane players to have four 30-possession games against Melbourne only had four 30-possession games in his 107-game career – Martin Leslie. The others are Black and Phil Walsh.

Daniel Bradshaw holds the record for most goals in a Brisbane v Melbourne game with nine. He also had hauls of 8-6-4-4 to be the most dominant goal-kicker in the rivalry, while Alastair Lynch’s record against the Dees included bags of 8-6-5-5 and Brown had 4-5-5-6.

Ex-Fitzroy utility Jarrod Molloy kicked a career-best seven in the first Lions game against Melbourne post-merger in Round 12 1997 at the MCG, when they won by 85 points. It was the club’s second-biggest win against the Demons, behind only the 93-point win over Collingwood in 2007.

^{📸Image: Jarrod Mallory}

Melbourne’s most prolific ball-winner against Brisbane has been a player who will critical tonight, especially with Christian Petracca sidelined by injury. Clayton Oliver has had a rivalry-high seven 30-possession games, with ex-skipper Greg Healy and Brent Moloney (3) next best.

David Williams kicked seven goals for Melbourne in the second game against Brisbane at the MCG in 1987 – a mark matched only once since by David Neitz at the Gabba in 2002.

Thirteen Brisbane players have debuted against Melbourne – Tony Beckett, Ben Harris (1987), Matthew Kennedy, Richard Umbers (1990), Ben Robbins (1996), Marcus Picken, Derek With(1998), Joel Macdonald (2004), James Polkinghorne (2008), Jared Polec (2011), Justin Clarke (2013), Rhys Mathieson (2016) and Jimmy Tunstill (2022).

Lachie Neale’s 250^th game against Melbourne at the MCG in Round 5 this year added to a long list of key Brisbane milestones against the Demons – Alastair Lynch (200), Scott McIvor (150), Charlie Cameron (150), Brad Hardie (100), Bernie Harris (100), John Gastev (100), Jamie Charman (100) and Allen Christensen (100).

Fifteen players have worn the colours of both clubs – Dale Dickson, John Fidge, Daryl Cox, Mark Withers, Fabian Francis and Rod Owen went from Melbourne to the Bears in the early days, and were followed by Martin Pike (2001), Travis Johnstone (2008), Stefan Martin and Brent Moloney (2013).

Jamie Duursma, who played one game at Brisbane in 1987 after starting at Sydney, was the first player to go in the opposite direction in 1988, when he played in the Demons’ grand final loss. 

Nick Carter, one of the Fitzroy “Chosen Eight”, added Melbourne to his list in 1999, and was followed in a southern move by Queenslander Joel Macdonald (2010), Mitch Clark (2012) and Josh Schache (2023) after a stint at the Western Bulldogs in the middle.

Also, John Northey coached both clubs. He went 12-4 with the Demons against the Bears, and after finishing at Melbourne in the 1995 preliminary final, began in Brisbane in Round 1 1996. He was 1-1 in 59 games in charge at the Gabba.

And then there’s the quirky trivia stuff. Moloney, now coaching Wilston-Grange in the QAFL, polled in the Brownlow for both clubs against the other – one vote for Brisbane and six votes for Melbourne, and Joel Macdonald, who never polled in 80 games for Brisbane, picked up his only vote for Melbourne against Brisbane in his 14^th game with the Demons.

There was a Chris Johnson who played for both clubs in the 2000s, with the Melbourne ‘CJ’ polling his only Brownlow vote against Brisbane at the MCG in 2008, but they never played against each other.

And there were two oddities in the Melbourne camp against Brisbane when twins Matthew and Steven Febey had 39 and 35 in the same game at the MCG in 1994 without polling a Brownlow vote, and the father/son pairing of Todd and Jack Viney, who each polled four votes against Brisbane.