Brisbane and Sydney have always been the best of enemies in the AFL. Strong rivals on the field but equally strong allies off it as they join forces in the collective AFL fight for market share in Queensland and New South Wales.
Sharing common issues and common needs in the AFL’s push into rugby league heartland north of the Murray River, and even a common dislike for anti-expansion protagonists in Victoria, there has always been a sense of co-operation and collaboration.
But if you were at the Gabba on Sunday 16 May 1993 you’d think otherwise. It was like they were the most bitter of rivals as Brisbane obliterated Sydney in a game that still holds a prominent place in club and AFL record books.
With the Lions originally scheduled to play the Swans at the Gabba on Saturday night before the Coronavirus lockdown the history between the two clubs is the topic of edition three of the Lions’ weekly flashback series.
It was 27 years ago that the then Brisbane Bears, coached by Robert Walls, achieved something that only Fitzroy, Geelong, Hawthorn, Richmond and South Melbourne, now Sydney, had done.
They scored 200 points and won by 160 points. On the same day.
It was Round 8 of the 1993 season, the club’s first as full-time tenants at the Gabba after they had played four games on an experimental basis at the long-time cricket venue in 1991 ahead a stadium redevelopment that was still ongoing.
The Bears, coming off a 43-point loss to the Hawks, lost Scott McIvor and Shaun Hart to injury, welcomed back 1990 club champion David Bain, and promoted ex-Melbourne 19-year-old Fabian Francis for his third AFL game and his second with the club.
The Swans were blitzed from the first bounce. It was 10-7 to 0-1 at quarter-time and 19-10 to 0-4 at halftime as the historians were sent scurrying for the record books.
The halftime margin of 120 points was then and still is the biggest in AFL history, having surpassed a record set in 1931. And the halftime score of 19-10 was the third biggest on record at the time, and now sits sixth on a list headed, coincidentally, by the Brisbane Lions’ 21-5 (131) against Fremantle at the Gabba in 1999.
The Bears kicked the first 20 goals of the game – another League record at the time – and by the last change it was 27-17 (179) to 2-6 (18).
Not surprisingly, the home side took the foot off the gas a little in the last quarter. But still they added 6-4 to the Swans’ 6-3 to ensure they posted what remains the highest score and biggest win by any team at the Gabba.
When skipper Roger Merrett kicked his side’s 33rd goal after the final siren, landing the ball in the construction site at the school end of the Gabba, or left of screen for television viewers, the scoreboard showed an astonishing 33-21 (219) to 8-9 (57).
Captain Merrett and fellow spearhead Michael Murphy, in his seventh game for the club after stints at North Melbourne and Adelaide, each kicked a career-best eight goals – 8-3 to be precise - from 12 kicks.
Although access to full records is limited during the Coronavirus lockdown it is believed this was the only time in history that teammates have kicked eight or more in the same game.
Not for the first time, the key forwards were overlooked in the Brownlow Medal votes.
The umpires gave top votes to sixth-gamer Nathan Buckley, who, with his then trademark ‘mullet’ flopping around as he ran, had 28 possessions and kicked two goals.
Round 7 2003: A BRISBANE 300-GAMER
It wasn’t the team result anyone was looking for, but it was special nevertheless. Not just Queensland football history but across the entire AFL.
Marcus Ashcroft, the quietly-spoken 31-year-old who was born in Melbourne and raised on the Gold Coast from age three, played his 300th AFL game.
He was the 49th player in League history to reach this milestone and the 27th one-club 300-gamer.
Moreover, he was the first Brisbane player and the first Queenslander to this monstrous milestone, and, most significantly, the first player who had spent his entire career based outside Victoria.
Now, 17 years later, he ranks 49th on a list of 90 300-gamers, is one of 56 one-club 300-gamersd and one of just 12 interstaters.
Ashcroft, 18 games from the end of his career and chasing a third consecutive premiership to go out on, had had his share of wins in milestones games. He’d won in his 100th, 150th and 250th but, sadly, like his 200th, his 300th would end in defeat.
With Alastair Lynch returning from illness to replace Jonathan Brown, who was nursing a badly broken nose, and Beau McDonald back from injury to replace Dylan McLaren, the Lions started warm favorites.
Sitting unbeaten on top of the ladder, they had had five wins and a draw from six games. Sydney were seventh with a 3-3 split but were coming off back-to-back wins.
The Swans led by 17 points at quarter-time and 29 points at halftime, and when Adam Schneider kicked the opening goal of the third quarter it was 35 and looking tough.
But the Lions got the next four goals and cut the margin to 11 at the last change. Maybe?
It was down to three points with 13 minutes to play after coach Leigh Matthews, having pulled his long-time favorite move to send Justin Leppitsch forward, was rewarded with two goals.
But the Swans steadied and goals from Jared Crouch, Jason Ball and Michael O’Loughlin saw them victorious 15-8 (98) to 11-13 (79).
Fittingly, in a way, Brad Scott, Ashcroft’s closest mate, topped the Lions possession count with 24. But Simon Black (22) and Luke Power (22) were the only others to top 20 in a low team count of 246. Lynch kicked three goals and Leppitsch two.
Ashcroft had six possessions while Daniel Bradshaw went goalless in his 100th game.
Round 3 2009: ONE FOR DICKO
It was a sad Saturday night at the Gabba as the Lions prepared to host the Swans in Round 3 2009.
Earlier in the day the club had received the shattering news that Robert Dickson, former Hawthorn and Brisbane Bears player, long-time Brisbane runner, winner of the first ‘Survivor’ series on television, and all-round great fella, had been killed in a car accident in South Africa.
‘Dicko’ was a friend to all at the club and the players wore black armbands as they observed a minute’s silence prior to the first bounce. They desperately wanted a win. And they needed one, too, having endured eight losses and a draw against the Swans since Round 1 2004.
It was a team in a rebuilding phase. Michael Voss, the club’s greatest all-time player, had accepted the challenging task of replacing the legendary Leigh Matthews as coach, and had started his new career with a win and a loss.
At 33 Voss was only three years older than Simon Black, Daniel Bradshaw and Tim Notting, who, with Luke Power, Jonathan Brown and Ash McGrath, had shared a premiership with their captain turned coach. He’d played with all but five members of his side.
At the other end of the age scale was Daniel Rich, an 18-year-old West Australian set for his third AFL game after having been the club’s first pick at #7 in the 2008 National Draft.
With Rich kicking his first goal and Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw four apiece, the Lions led from the outset and were not seriously challenged before taking the points 15-10 (100) to 9-13 (67).
Joel Patfull picked up three Brownlow votes from Brown and Josh Drummond, while heading the possession-count with 26 was another young West Australian who was creating his own slice of football history. And not just because of a spelling oddity with made him the only double-dee “Bradd” ever to play in the AFL.
Yet he was closer to the end of his Lions career than the beginning. After two more games he missed six with a knee problem, and after three games later in the year was traded to West Coast in a deal which also saw Brisbane pick up West Coast’s Brent Staker and Sydney’s Amon Buchanan.
Round 7 2019: ANOTHER FIRST FOR “FAGES”
It has been one “first” after another since Chris Fagan took charge of the Lions in 2017.
In Round 7 last year he was at it again. They had their first win over Sydney since 2009 as Fagan’s young team banked a sizeable dose of confidence and belief that four months later would take them to back to the finals.
They started brightly with a five-goal first quarter and led by 22 points at quarter time. The Swans kicked seven of their 12 goals in the second quarter to cut the margin to two, but thereafter the
Lions always looked winners.
With a 77-40 domination of inside 50 entries, they posted the club’s highest inside 50 tally since statistics were first kept in 1997 and the second-highest in AFL all-time.
The 14-19 (103) to 12-9 (81) win, led by Dayne Zorko and Lachie Neale with 29 possessions each, gave the Lions a 5-2 start to the season – their best since 2004. They sat fourth on the ladder, their best position at Round 7 in 15 years, and their percentage of 107.0 was their best at Round 7 since 2007.
For no less than 16 members of the Brisbane side it was their first win over the Swans. Even skipper Zorko, in his eighth season, had gone seven games against Sydney without a win.
Round 18 1961: A MIXED DAY FOR FITZROY
Fitzroy and South Melbourne had been founding members of the then VFL in 1897. They’d had countless epic battles, including Fitzroy’s first grand final win in 1899 and their very last finals win in 1996.
In Round 18 1961 Fitzroy posted their biggest win in 185 games against the club which had become the Sydney Swans when they relocated to Sydney in 1982.
But it was sad day for the club, too.
Heading into the final round of the home-and-away season, only Hawthorn (52 points) and Melbourne (46) were assured of a top four spot. Geelong (42), StKilda (40), Footscray (40), Fitzroy (38), Essendon (36) and, at a pinch, Carlton (36) could grab the last two spots.
Fitzroy needed Geelong to beat Footscray or bottom side North to upset StKilda. And they had to beat 11th-placed South.
By chance the Fitzroy game started 30 minutes after the other five games. All eyes were on the old scoreboards and the antiquated system of score updates being posted on the scoreboard, with letters to identify each of the teams.
North gave StKilda a run at Junction Oval, going down by five points, but Footscray beat Geelong by 21 points at Western Oval. It was over. Geelong slid to sixth as StKilda and Footscray made it. What happened between Fitzroy and South at Brunswick Street Oval didn’t matter.
Still, Fitzroy, coached by Len Smith, put on a show. After trailing 4-2 to 6-3 at quarter-time they kicked 21-27 to 5-7 in the last three quarters to win by 103 points – 25-29 (179) to 11-10 (76).
It was one of just nine 100-point wins in the club’s 1928-game history, the eighth biggest overall, and the third-highest Fitzroy score all-time.
Owen Abraham, a 132-game 1958 All-Australian half forward, 1962 Fitzroy captain and later named in the Fitzroy Team of the Century, kicked six goals in a season in which he topped the club goal-kicking for the second time and was ninth in the League.
Russell Crow, a 158-game ruckman, kicked five goals. And Keith Bromage, a former Collingwood player in his fourth season with Fitzroy, kicked four.
It was the last game for Bromage and 140-gamer Kevin Wright. And one of the club’s favorite sons.
Alan ‘Butch’ Gale, Fitzroy captain from 1958-61, played his 213th game and last game in the record-breaking win over South Melbourne.
Still only 30, he’d played 14 seasons as a ruckman known for his work resting in defence, was runner-up in the Fitzroy B&F seven times, represented Victoria 12 times, and was 12th in the 1957 Brownlow Medal.
He would be named first ruck in the Fitzroy Team of the Century in 2006 but wouldn’t be there to celebrate with his life-time mates. He collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack addressing the Fitzroy players before the opening round of the 1987 season.
