The Tigers laid to rest 11 barren years by storming to 24.12 (156)-12.9 (81) victory at the Gabba yesterday, with Marcus Hottes and Todd Featherstone the stars.
The dynamic midfield duo never let up from the opening bounce, stinging their opponents with their ballwinning capacity and setting up the big score by constantly pumping the ball forward.
The pair contributed five goals between them as well, but it was their work in the midfield that really hurt the Lions.
Winning the clearances was going to be an area where the Lions simply had to dominate because they were badly short on tall timber following the late withdrawal of leading goalkicker Mitchell Clark.
In fairness to the Lions, who looked genuine premiership material midway through the year, they started with 10
The Lions were only in the game for the first 15 minutes, when PNG top-up players John James and Emmaus Wartova conjured two clever goals between them.
After that it was all one-way traffic, with Corey Munson producing a lively 10 minutes across half-forward late in the first term to help set up a three-goal lead.
Daniel Dzufer had done a good job on the tall Daniel Stewart to that stage, but the 18-year-old Tiger put on a clinic for the recruiters in the crowd after that, taking five contested marks in the second quarter as the Tigers raced to a 46-point halftime lead.
Stewart’s marking was outstanding and he finished the game with more than 15 grabs for the day and booted 3.3, although Dzufer did plenty of good things for his team.
The Lions were also cut up by another man touted as a prospective rookie list player or draftee, Matt Clarke.
Their entire finals campaign looked to have taken a huge hit, yet remarkably he was on his feet several minutes later and, after jogging out the quarter, produced his trademark dash for the rest of the game.
Several times he collected the ball in the middle or on a wing, bounced to 50m and goalled. He finished with 5.0 for the day.
Given Suncoast’s lack of height up forward, the Tigers could only find a spot in the forward line for regular full-back Jordyn Burke, and he responded with two goals in the second term when
Hottes and Featherstone were clearly the best two players on the ground, with Ben Walker not far behind after collecting a stream of possessions after quarter-time in a free running role.
Matt Moody tried hard for the Lions, initially at centre-half-forward and later in defence on the livewire Munson, while Sam Sheldon was his side’s most effective midfielder over four quarters.
Marcus Allan looked rusty early after a month on the sidelines with an ankle injury, but gradually warmed to the task and never stopped trying.
Raw young ruckman Joel Tippett also battled manfully as the lone big man and finished his season on a positive note.
The best news for the Lions was the five-goal performance of Justin Sherman, whose strong finish to the game will give him some momentum to take into summer after a disappointing year in which he battled to maintain the extra high standards set in his first two years of senior football.
“We didn’t know what to expect, but I can tell you we were very happy when we saw that Mitchell Clark’s name wasn’t on the team sheet,” said Tigers coach Byron Donnellan.
