A seven-minute period where Geelong kicked five goals proved to be the decisive moment in Saturday’s match.
The Brisbane Lions led by a point late in the second quarter, before conceding two costly goals right before the break, and then another three after
Senior Coach Chris Fagan was disappointed with that patch of the
"There was a one-minute period just before half-time where they kicked two goals and there was a five-minute period after half-time where they kicked three goals, so they kicked five goals in about seven minutes, and really that was the game," Fagan said.
"In a sense, we've gone down by seven goals, but five were kicked in that short patch, and a lot of that was out of the centre, and our turnover.
"That probably sums up the game."
The 42-point defeat was the Lions’ smallest to Geelong in over four years.
Contested possessions (-12), inside
Dayne Beams was easily the Lions’ best player on the day, finishing with 37 disposals (14 contested), six clearances, eight inside 50s, two goal assists and a goal.
Beams is heading for a career-best finish in the 2018 Brownlow Medal if the weekly Coaches Votes are any sort of guide.
Beams, who has shown remarkable resilience in a season of personal hardship following the death of his father in March, looms as a runaway leader in the Lions' vote count and is set for his fourth double-figure tally.
These forecasts are made after the 5-4-3-2-1 votes awarded by each coach after each match in the AFLCA Player of the Year Award were converted to an indicative set of 3-2-1 votes that might be cast by the umpires.
They suggest Beams will be among the Brownlow votes in his last game as captain against Hawthorn in Round 10, and six times in 10 games since he handed over the captaincy to Dayne Zorko.
Under this indicative system, the three players rated most highly by the coaches receive 3-2-1 votes.
If there are tied in the Coaches Votes then the indicative Brownlow votes are split.
It was a simple calculation in last weekend’s game against
So, for the purpose of this exercise, the Brownlow votes would be Hawkins 3, Ablett 2 and Beams 1.
But it’s not always that simple. In the Melbourne
So, Gawn and Oliver share the 3 and 2 Brownlow votes – they get 2.5 each – and McDonald, Crouch and Milera split the one Brownlow vote with 0.33 each.
If this is done for the entire 19 rounds of the season Beams finds himself fifth in the total vote count, and fourth in medal contention because Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe is ineligible.
With four rounds to play this theoretical vote count is headed by Carlton’s Patrick Cripps (22.5) from Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell (21.5), Gawn (20), Fyfe (16.33) and Beams (16).
Then follows North Melbourne’s Shaun Higgins (15.83), GWS’s Lachie Whitfield (15.5), Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom (14.1), Oliver (14.0) and Collingwood’s Brody Grundy (13.5).
Beams has figured on the Brownlow leaderboard three times in his career. He polled 19 votes to finish equal eighth in 2012, 16 votes to finish equal 11th in 2014 and 17 votes to finish outright 10th last year.
If he maintains his outstanding form through the last four rounds an even better finish beckons.
In the AFLCA Player of the Year Award Beams is equal 10th with 56 votes, behind Gawn (80), Cripps (78), Mitchell (78), Higgins (64), Oliver (62), West Coast’s Andrew Gaff (61), Fyfe (59), Essendon’s Dyson Heppell (58) and Whitfield (57), and level with Grundy (56).
But under the more streamlined 3-2-1 voting system Beams is tipped to figure more prominently.
He would poll 1.5 votes in the Round 9 win over Hawthorn, a best afield three votes in a beaten side against Sydney in Round 10, and two votes in a loss to North Melbourne.
Then, after three weeks out of the votes, he might expect 3-3-2.5 in the Lions' hat-trick of wins over Fremantle, Carlton and Hawthorn in Rounds 15-16-17, and one vote against Geelong last week.
Beams 56 votes in the AFLCA award sees him head the Lions' vote tally from Stefan Martin (33), Zorko (23), Hugh McCluggage and Harris Andrews (19), Eric Hipwood (13), Darcy Gardiner (12), Jarrod Berry (11), Luke Hodge (10), Tom Cutler (9), Charlie Cameron (9), Josh Walker (5), Lewis Taylor, Mitch Robinson and Alex Witherden (4), Daniel Rich (3), Cam Rayner (2) and Nick Robertson (1).
Under the indicate Brownlow votes, Beams’ 16 votes heads Martin (5.83), McCluggage (5.5), Zorko (5), Andrews (3.5), Cutler (2.5), Hodge (2.5), Hipwood (2), Berry (1.5, Robinson (1), Cameron (0.5) and Walker (0.33).
Beams had a team-high 37 disposals against Geelong last week – his seventh 30+ game of the year.
With 480 disposals and 28.2 per game he ranks 15th in the League, but since handing over the captaincy he has averaged 31.1 possessions per game.
Darcy Gardiner, who also earned one vote in the AFLCA Player of the Year award, had 24 possessions to bring up 1000 career possessions and give him 280 possessions for 2018, already more than his previous best season tally.
After having more than 20 possessions in a game just twice in his first 73 games the much-improved defender has topped 20 four times in his last seven games.
Luke Hodge was solid in his return game after missing a couple of weeks with a calf complaint, racking up 18 disposals at 94% efficiency.
While Harris Andrews had a tough time of it marking Tom Hawkins, he produced 10 one percenters and four tackles to show he hasn't lost any of his fearless attack on the ball.
Dan McStay was the Lions' best forward, kicking two goals and taking a game-high three contested marks.
In a tagging role on Joel Selwood, Mitch Robinson made a game-high eight tackles and collected 17 touches, while keeping Selwood to 22 disposals.
