A passionate display of fierce tackling and hard-running against the top side in the NEAFL could not quite produce a victory for the Brisbane Lions Reserves at Sherwood on Saturday.

Playing with 10 top-up players, the Lions twice drew within a goal of the unbeaten Thunder in the last term but could not land the knockout blow.

That was due to the imposing figure of dominant Thunder ruckman Kenrick Tyrrell, six vital goals by Darren Ewing and the fierce competitiveness of skipper Cameron Ilett.

A mid-week injury to big Broc McCauley meant Bart McCulloch and young top-up Scott Clarke had to shoulder the ruck duties against the powerful Tyrrell and the Thunder big man gave his midfielders first use of the ball all day.

While the undersized Clarke was especially brave and worked extra well around the ground, Tyrrell made sure his side was never headed in an exciting last quarter.

In fairness to the Lions, they lost hard-nut midfielder Ryan Harwood at halftime as an emergency for the seniors, while the in-form Amon Buchanan suffered knee swelling late in the week.

All of the listed players contributed, with Patrick Karnezis outstanding early, Josh Dyson having a purple patch in the second quarter, Richard Newell putting his body on the line, and James Hawksley solid at half-back all day.

Aaron Cornelius was also superb after halftime.

The Lions trailed by a point at the long break and led by seven midway through the third term.

But when the crunch came in the last quarter, Ilett in particular stepped up.

It was almost a carbon copy of each of the games where the unbeaten Thunder have been challenged in the last quarter, with Ilett, Tyrrell and Ilett’s brother Jarred lifting to greater heights.

Burly full-forward Ewing kicked five of his side’s eight goals in the first half and was unbeatable one-on-one until the Lions sent Tom Collier to him in the second half.

While the Lions’ numbers around the ball cramped the Thunder’s space, Collier was not beaten one-out, using his height and agility to great advantage.

Lions international rookie Don Barry took responsibility for tagging Ilett through the third quarter and limited his effectiveness after Ilett had a significant influence in the first half.

Some of Barry’s ball-handling in the damp conditions was exceptional and his defensive pressure caused plenty of turnovers.

Apart from Collier and Barry’s contributions, the Lions stayed close courtesy of full-forward Cornelius, who kicked all four of their second half goals, their last five for the match and a total of 6.2 of their 12.12.

Shaun Tapp had been the Thunder’s most consistent player through the opening three quarters but even he could not stop Cornelius from marking strongly and kicking three majors in the last term.

“I worked hard on the defensive things and it got me back in the game. I was pretty happy with the way I marked the ball. But that was a by-product of the defensive work,” Cornelius said.

“I’ve been watching a bit of Jack Riewoldt. He gets up the ground and pushes back hard and is able to take marks,” Cornelius said. “You’ve got to model your game on blokes who are playing well, so that was one key for me.”

“It was a tough game of footy and we knew we’d been in one. Cam Ilett and the guys in the middle are very good players and they stepped up when they were needed.”

Mitch Golby did well to keep second leading goalkicker in the competition Ross Tungatalum to a single goal, top-up Alex Kitching was busy, and Jack Parkes did some nice things.

Twenty third man Louis Egger was outstanding for the Thunder early and Charlie Maher and Paul Cox were lively around half-forward, while Jake Dignan was busy in the midfield.

Teenager Jed Anderson, back in as one of seven changes to the Thunder, did some good things and took a sticky-fingered mark under pressure to kick the sealer in time-on of the final term.

But Ilett was the man.

“A lot of our leaders stood up in the finish and that’s what we expect of them,” Ilett said. “I just go. I just love footy, the body contact and having a crack in there. It’s a test of character and you try to lead by example.”