Finally! A pride of Lions celebrate Brisbane’s premiership win as reality bites for Adelaide’s Eloise Jones. Photo: AFL MEDIA
AFLW 2021 GRAND FINAL
BRISBANE 6.2 (38) d ADELAIDE 3.2 (20)
At last, all Australia hears their mighty roar.
After fierce opponents twice denied them women’s football’s ultimate prize in two prior AFLW grand finals, both lost by a single straight kick, the Brisbane Lions finally now reign supreme as queens.
The Lions triumphed on Saturday by 18 points at Adelaide Oval over their arch nemesis Adelaide, the team which had defeated them in the 2017 inaugural AFLW premiership playoff.
Brisbane was powered by the ferocious ball-winning of Ally Anderson (23 possessions), spectacular snaps by livewire forwards Courtney Hodder and Jess Wuestchner (two goals each), the running power of winger Orla O’Dwyer, the tagging clamps of Cathy Svarc, and the impenetrable defence of Breanna Koenen and Kate Lutkins.
Lutkins, who had 18 possessions, took six intercept marks and laid two tackles, was so good she earned official best on ground honours, winning a maximum three votes from four of five judges, ahead of teammates Ally Anderson and Emily Bates. Stevie-Lee Thompson was the only Adelaide player to poll votes.
Brisbane’s third term epitomized the adage of the “the premiership quarter.” The Lions put the game beyond doubt, kicking three goals while holding the Crows to a solitary point, playing surge football, harder at the ball and denying the Crows at every turn with gang-tackling and intercept marking, to open up a decisive a 22-point lead.
Perhaps it was poetic justice that the Lions’ Lauren Arnell – the 10-time premiership player with VFLW team Darebin Falcons, and Carlton’s inaugural AFLW captain – dominated the quarter, racking up eight possessions and kicking a goal in her last AFLW match.
The win was sweeter still for Wuestchner, hit by lightning 15 months ago while working a crane in the Brisbane docks, but striking twice herself in this game with electric snaps, first in the second term to help her side to a five-point half time lead, then to open the scoring in the third.
The quarter also saw a bizarre turn of events in which each side lost its respective captain to leg injuries.
Brisbane’s Emma Zielke succumbed to a leg complaint with five minutes left in the quarter, then just two minutes later, Adelaide’s acting captain Angela Foley – filling the void left by Chelsea Randall, who was ruled out because of concussion – was helped off the ground with a knee injury. Both women were clearly distraught having to exit in the heat of battle, and exited in tears.
The tone-setting first half was a bit incongruous, with each side appearing to mimic the other’s game style – Brisbane embracing the contested possession and Adelaide moving the ball more by foot than by handball chains.
While ball-winners were evenly spread among the Lions, several big name Crows were inconspicuous and had little influence on the match.
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The Lions’ Breanna Koenen went to Crows’ two-time grand final best on ground megastar Erin Phillips and held her to just eight disposals and one shot at goal (a snap for a behind), while Brisbane’s Cathy Svarc – who had tagged Phillips in the two clubs’ earlier battle in round four – had the job on Adelaide’s Ebony Marinoff and kept her quieter than usual.
Koenen and Lutkins formed rock solid pillars in defence, keeping the Crows’ dangerous forwards Phillips and Ash Woodland off the scoreboard.
At one pivotal moment in the second term, Brisbane’s Sophie Conway and Shannon Campbell combined to tackle Woodland in the forward pocket to save a probable goal, putting their bodies on the line, and Campbell for her part, got bloody by taking a boot to the mouth.
While Stevie-Lee Thompson’s snap and a Danielle Ponter set-shot accounted for Adelaide’s first half majors, those paled in comparison to Hodder’s jaw-dropping majors for Brisbane.
Hodder’s characteristic forward pressure paid off in the first term and helped her kick an impressive snap to open Brisbane’s account. But she would outdo herself in the second term.
Orla O’Dwyer bombed a long kick into Brisbane’s open forward 50 and the ball seemed destined to skip over the boundary line – until a speeding Hodder caught up to it and with an opponent bearing down on her, threw her right boot on the ball and sent it off the ground, across her body and through the sticks.
Wuestchner then followed with the next two goals of the match – one left-foot snap from close range, and another from long range, aided by a kind bounce.
Brisbane also benefited from the leadership of AFLW Coach of the Year Craig Starcevich.
He admitted in a presser earlier in the week that he had to find a way for his side to contain Phillips, who lit up the Lions in the earlier meeting between the two sides with four goals. But instead of sending ace tagger Svarc to attempt to nullify her, Starcevich instead leaned on Koenen to account for Phillips.
As the Lions took to the dais as premiers, they could be especially proud of mastering the one-percenters. Every time the Lions needed a spoil, a smother, or a tackle to repel a final quarter Adelaide fightback, it wasn’t just one player who delivered, it was indeed a pride of Lions who rose to the occasion.
Saturday was a microcosm of Brisbane’s season, in which the Lions adapted, stood tall when tested, and now, finally, have a premiership cup to show for it.
