Brisbane Lions youngsters gave more evidence why the winless Lions have a future to be optimistic about during Sunday night's narrow loss to Gold Coast Suns.
While All Australian Dayne Zorko was having his colours lowered by Touk Miller, second-year trio Alex Witherden (27 disposals), Hugh McCluggage (26) and Jarrod Berry (25) were dragging the Lions back into the QClash.
And at either end of the ground, Eric Hipwood (three goals) and Harris Andrews were waging thrilling battles with Gold Coast skippers Steven May and Tom Lynch.
The Lions lost by five points, wasting a heap of first-half chances, but the five players all aged 21 and under were largely responsible for giving them a chance to snatch victory.
Andrews kept Lynch to two goals and had 19 disposals and a match-high 14 one-percenters himself while Hipwood kicked all of his goals in the second half, including an incredible effort on his non-preferred right boot from 45m on the run.
"I'm really proud of their efforts tonight," coach Chris Fagan said.
"All goes well for our future when we see that because Lynch and May are pretty good players, up there with the best in the league with the position they play.
"It was a great effort by Eric and Harris."
While his teammates struggled to break Gold Coast's pressure, Witherden ran and used the ball surgically from
Fagan said the loss – Brisbane's second by less than a goal in the past three weeks – had to be another learning experience.
Missing gettable shots at goal killed them. Dan McStay missed a couple he'd like to have back, while Berry and Allen Christensen also sprayed shots they're capable of kicking.
"Maybe we needed to show a little bit more composure later in the game," Fagan said.
"We missed some set shots we should have kicked tonight.
"When you lose by five points you look at that and go, "gee".
"Other than that, we got a lot right tonight.
"The effort was there, we had more of the ball, we had a good number of inside 50s which has been an issue for us, we've just got to make more of them."
Fagan protected star midfielder Zorko, saying he was "50-50 or 60-40" when tagged this season.
"I wouldn't be too critical of him," Fagan said.
"We might have liked to have got a bit more out of our experienced blokes, but we haven't got that many."
