Unknowingly, and in a moment of massive disappointment, Shannon Campbell has completed the second leg of a major milestone double in Brisbane Lions AFLW history.
As the siren was about to sound in Saturday night’s grand final loss to North Melbourne in Melbourne the veteran Lions defender ran from inside her defensive 50 and kicked long towards the wing.
Marked just after the siren by Evie Long, in a moment especially memorable for the football trivia buffs, Campbell’s thumping drop punt, the last official ‘stat’ of 2024, was the 20,000th recorded possession in Lions’ AFLW history.
This was after Campbell, a then 21-year-old from Nambour recruited as a free agent from local club Wilston-Grange, had kicked the Lions first official goal 2855 days earlier.
It came in Round 1 2017 as a then eight-team AFLW competition gave birth to the now 18-team national competition of 2024.
Ironically, Campbell, an ever-resolute defender who has kicked only nine goals in 88 AFLW games, had also kicked the goal that put Brisbane into the 2024 grand final after being swung forward late in an epic preliminary final battle with Adelaide.
And while many will say ‘so what?’ – and in all probability it is a statistic that will never be mentioned again - it is the perfect introduction to a statistical reflection on the achievements of coach Craig Starcevich and his 75 players across 93 games in nine AFLW campaigns.
While two premiership cups from six grand finals will cut deep with those involved, there is only one number across the entire competition that will cause genuine envy among the Lions camp - Adelaide’s three cups.
Excluding the 2020 season, which was abandoned due to Covid, Brisbane have only once failed to finish in the top four. They’ve played 16 finals, equal most with Adelaide, and have had a competition-high 10 finals wins – one more than Adelaide.
This year they posted a club record 11 wins and averaged a club record 53.1 points per game on their way to a sixth grand final – two more than Adelaide. They boast a 66-2-25 win/loss record in 93 AFLW games and have a break-even or better record against every club.
Individually, the highlights were plentiful as ‘Starce’ and his crew added further to a journey that began in bizarre circumstances on Sunday 5 February 2017 against Melbourne at Casey Fields.
It was the final game of Round 1 of the first AFLW season after Carlton had beaten Collingwood by 35 points at Princes Park on the Friday night, Adelaide accounted for GWS by 36 points in Adelaide on the Saturday afternoon, and the Western Bulldogs beat Fremantle by 32 points at Whitten Oval on the Saturday night.
The star performers in Round 1 became the stars of the competition. Darcy Vescio kicked four goals for the Blues as Brianna Davey had a Round 1 best of 26 possessions, Ebony Marinoff topped the Crows possession list with 20 as Erin Phillips kicked three goals, and Emma Kearney had 23 possessions for the Dogs as Katie Brennan kicked two goals.
Brisbane, with 22 Queenslanders among 27 listed players, were rank outsiders against Melbourne, who were one of the early flag favourites.
A reported crowd of 6500 turned out for a game which started in a muggy 26 degrees and quickly turned into a slogfest as heavy rain hit in the second term. So heavy that three minutes before halftime, with the visitors up 2-1 to 1-4, the game was halted due to lightning.
It was like halftime before halftime. After the 20-minute break they played three minutes to get to the official halftime and then promptly changed ends immediately and began the second half.
It was a torrid opening. Melbourne led 0-3 to 0-0 at quarter-time before Campbell, rated ‘technically the best kick in the Brisbane side’ by coach Starcevich according to commentator Kelli Underwood, lived up to expectations when, after a 50m penalty, she nailed the Lions’ historic first goal from about 40m.
After Jasmine Grierson kicked Melbourne’s first major marquee Brisbane signing Sabrina Frederick-Traub, now playing at Collingwood and known simply as Sabs, snapped the Lions’ second goal shortly after the disruption.
It was Brisbane 2-0 to Melbourne 1-4 at the official halftime break, and although the match statistics were even the visitors, superbly structured up in defence, looked the more cohesive unit.
Indeed, the home side did not score in the second half as the Lions added majors through Brittany Gibson and Kate McCarthy (after another 50m penalty) and won 4-1 (25) to 1-4 (10).
Melbourne had the top five possession-winners on the ground in Paxy Paxman (24), Daisy Pearce (19), Elise O’Dea (18), Lily Mithen (14) and Mel Hickey (13), but Brisbane had eight of the next 10.
Emily Bates and Gibson (13) topped the Lions possession count from Jess Wuetschner, Ally Anderson – then known as Alexandra – and Kaitlyn Ashmore (12), with Sam Virgo (11), Kate Lutkins (10) and Megan Hunt (10) also topping double-figures.
And according to the Footy Almanac match report, the three votes went to the Melbourne weather, from Brisbane’s Tahlia Randall and Melbourne’s Paxman.
The first Brisbane side, captained by Emma Zielke, included three members of the 2024 grand final side – Campbell, a 23-year-old Anderson and a then a 22-year-old Brea Koenen, now the Lions captain.
Plus, there were five who are now playing against the Lions – Randall, who was a member of the North premiership side this year, Emily Bates and Kaitlyn Ashmore, now at Hawthorn, Collingwood’s Frederick, and Tayla Harris, who played only one game at Melbourne this year due to injury and is reportedly bound for a fourth club next year.
Can you remember the first Brisbane side? As named, it was:-
B: Sam Virgo, Shannon Campbell, Leah Kasler
HB: Tahlia Randall, Kate Lutkins, Breanna Koenen
C: Megan Hunt
HF: Sabrina Frederick-Traub, Kaitlyn Ashmore, Kate McCarthy
F: Shaleise Law, Tayla Harris, Jess Wuetschner
FOLL: Sharni Webb, Emily Bates, Emma Zielke (capt)|
INT: Nikki Wallace, Jamie Stanton, Nicole Hildebrand, Selina Goodman, Brittany Gibson, Alexandra Anderson.
The ‘survivors’ from the first Lions grand final side head the club’s all-time games list after nine AFLW seasons jammed into eight years.
Incredibly, Anderson has never missed a game. She’s on a 93-game streak and shares the AFLW games record with Adelaide’s similarly durable Ebony Marinoff, who won the League best & fairest this year.
Koenen (91) is equal third on the AFLW games list with North Melbourne’s Libby Birch, with ex-Lion Randall (90) fifth from North teammate and grand final medal winner Jasmine Garner (89).
Campbell (88) shares seventh spot with ex-Lion Bates, North’s Emma King, Melbourne’s Anne Hatchard and Adelaide’s Stevie-Lee Thompson.
Anderson, too, is fourth on the all-time AFLW possession list with 1839, behind Marinoff (2226), Hatchard (1865) and Garner (1861), and ahead of North’s Ash Riddell (1802), Bates (1645), Richmond’s Monique Conti (1616), North premiership captain Emma Kearney (1569), Essendon’s Maddy Prespakis (1501) and Melbourne’s Paxman (1491).
Dakota Davidson, Brisbane’s all-time leading goal-kicker with 69 from only 63 games, is equal sixth in the League behind Adelaide’s Danielle Ponter (82), Melbourne’s Kate Hore (81), Garner and Richmond Queenslander Katie Brennan (78), Port Adelaide’s Gemma Houghton (77) and Davidson and St.Kilda’s ex-Lion Jesse Wardlaw (69). Vescio (64), and ex-Lions Harris (61) and Randall (58) round out the top 10 with Port’s Ash Woodland (58).
Other statistical highlights in a 2024 season in which ex-West Coast pair Eleanor Hartill and Shanae Davison and Lions Academy graduates Evie Long and Sophie Peters debut for the club, include:-
Ally Anderson had 365 possessions to better the club record of 316 she set last year and the previous best of 278 she set in what is known as Season 7 – the second season played in 2022. She ranked fourth in the League this year behind Marinoff (427), Riddell (410) and Garner (374).
In 93 games Anderson has topped the Lions possession count 46 times (including ties). Bates (33) completes an extraordinary domination by two players, with Isabel Dawes (6) is next on the list. Lutkins (4), Grider (3), O’Dwyer, Zielke and now Port Adelaide coach Lauren Arnel (2) the only others to do so more than once.
With 12 games of 20-plus possession this year, including a club record 43 against Melbourne in Round 2, Anderson has 45 of the club’s 115 games of 20-plus all-time. Bates (24), Dawes (14), O’Dwyer (9) and Lutkins (4) and the only others above two.
Anderson also has six of the club’s seven games of 30-plus.
Isabel Dawes had a career-best 260 possessions which ranked fourth on the club’s all-time single-season list. She was 15th on the 2024 AFLW list in a campaign in which she became the third Brisbane player behind Anderson and Bates to 1000 possessions for the club - a week ahead of Bre Koenen.
Sophie Conway (237), Jade Ellenger (208), Nat Grider (192), Koenen (188), Orla O’Dwyer (188), Cathy Svarc (175), Charlotte Mullins (175) and Lily Postlethwaite (166) also had career-best hauls to round out the Lions top 10 possession-winners.
Taylor Smith’s League-high 22 goals, which fell one short of the Brisbane club record set by Davidson last year, saw her move to equal second on the club’s all-time goal-listing list with Conway. They have 49 to rank behind Davidson (69) and ahead of Wardlaw (47), Courtney Hodder (38) and Wuetschner (37). Greta Bodey, now at Hawthorn, is seventh at 35 from O’Dwyer (25), Cathy Svarc (22) and goal sneak turned commentator Kate McCarthy (16).
Smith’s four goals against Collingwood in Round 4 this year equalled the club record set by Frederick in 2018 and matched by Davidson and Wardlaw in 2021, by Wardlaw again in ‘S7’ and Davidson again in 2023.
Lost in the pre-grand final build-up was the 50th AFLW win for O’Dwyer, Hodder, Ellenger and Tahlia Hickie in the preliminary final against Adelaide.
This puts them equal eighth on the club’s all-time win list behind Anderson (65), Koenen (64), Campbell (61), Conway (55), Grider (54) and Cathy Svarc and Dawes (53).
Anderson’s extraordinary streak of 93 games in a row is easily the club best from Koenen’s ‘live’ streak of 65 games and Dawes’ unbroken run of 70 games since debut.
Bates (66) owns the fourth-best run in club history – she never missed a game - other ‘live’ streaks are Tahlia Hickie (64), Hodder (63) and Grider (59).
Hickie debuted in the 2020 final and has never missed since.
Cathy Svarc went 51 games without a miss from debut to own the only other 50-plus streak, while other ‘live’ streaks above 20 games belong to Ellenger (41), Postlethwaite (38), O’Dwyer (35), Campbell (35), Mullins (27), Jennifer Dunne (25) and Taylor Smith (24).
Like Anderson, Dawes, Hickie, Hodder and Dunne have not missed a game from debut.
