The Brisbane Lions NEAFL side continued its recent scintillating form with a surprise thrashing of the third-placed Sydney University on Saturday.

With the match predicted to be extremely close on the scoreboard, the Lions flew out of the blocks and built a commanding lead, holding Sydney goalless until midway through the second quarter. 

Development Coach Zane Littlejohn was extremely pleased with the result and the surprisingly fast start. 

“We didn’t go into the game expecting to do that [start so quickly], we just wanted to play our style of footy,” Littlejohn said. 

“To our credit I thought our 22 players did that really well in the first quarter.

“We had some lapses through the second quarter and a bit in the third, and that’s full credit to Sydney Uni who played some really good footy and brought the pressure, which we knew they would.

“It was a good challenge for our group and we are really pleased to come out with a good result.”

Led by Ben Keays who booted four majors, ten different Lions players kicked goals against Sydney Uni, a stat Littlejohn said is due to the depth in the team.

“That’s a couple of times now this year we’ve had that. A few games we’ve had 13 goalkickers, and we had 10 on the weekend which is really pleasing,” Littlejohn said.

“That just shows our depth and the ability of our guys to work hard to get the best guy in position to get the shot.

“If we can continue to grow that and see that week in, week out, that would be really pleasing.” 

Saturday’s win also featured a feel-good moment when Cian Hanley kicked his first ever AFL goal.

“The box erupted, just like the players on the ground did,” Littlejohn said on Hanley’s goal.

“For him to kick it on his left foot is surprising as well. If we talk about hard work, that’s just hard work that Cian’s put in to get some really good reward for him.”