Lions Cop Their Worst Ever Beating, and We Need to Talk About It

Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat this one for you because that’s not what good footy writing is about. Brisbane just copped the heaviest defeat in the club’s AFLW history against Melbourne, and as a Lions person through and through, that one stings way more than a normal Sunday scroll through the group chat.

The Demons were legit relentless from the opening bounce and Brisbane just never found a way to soak up the pressure. Three wins from three for Melbourne now and if anyone was still sleeping on them as flag contenders, this performance should’ve woken them right up.

What actually happened out there

Brisbane’s midfield brigade got beaten to almost every contest that mattered. It wasn’t one bad quarter either, it was a full four quarters of the Dees just being sharper, harder at the ball and way more clean going inside 50. When your engine room gets outmuscled like that for the whole game, the scoreboard is going to look ugly no matter what your forwards try to do up the other end.

Melbourne’s ball movement was no notes stuff honestly. Quick hands, good use of the corridor when it was on, and they made Brisbane defend for what felt like forever in patches of that second half. The Lions backline worked themselves into the ground but you can only hold the fort for so long before the walls come down.

Why this loss hurts different

Brisbane fans have gotten used to this team being genuinely competitive, a top four fixture, a club that plays finals footy in September most years. That’s what makes a defeat of this size feel so jarring. It’s not just a loss, its the margin that’s the story here, and record defeats have a way of sticking in the memory longer than they probably should.

But I’ll say this because I think it needs saying: one shocker of a game does not undo everything this list has built over the past few seasons. Good teams have off days, sometimes brutal off days, and the true test is how quick they bounce back the next time they run out.

The Lions brains trust has decisions to make

You’d reckon the coaching staff will be pulling the tape apart this week looking hard at structure, at who’s getting first use at the coalface, and whether some fresh legs need a look in. That’s footy, that’s what happens after a result like this. Nobody panics after one bad night but you’d want answers pretty fast given how the competition is stacking up this year.

The AFLW is getting more competitive every single season and that’s honestly brilliant for growing the game, especially up here in Queensland where junior girls footy numbers keep climbing. But it also means there is zero room for teams to have an off day against a side playing finals-level footy like Melbourne clearly are right now.

Spare a thought for Port and Indy Tahau

While all that was going on in Brisbane, over at Port Adelaide there was a genuinely gutting moment that puts footy stuff into perspective a bit. Indy Tahau went down with a suspected knee injury during Port’s win over GWS, and from what’s being reported it doesn’t look good for her at all.

Whenever you see a player go down like that, clutching the knee, everyone on the ground and everyone watching at home just gets that sinking feeling. Tahau has been one of the genuine bright sparks in Port’s midfield this year and if scans confirm the worst, it’s a cruel blow for her personally and a big loss for a Port side that’s building something decent.

It completely overshadowed what should’ve been a really solid win for the Power over the Giants. That’s footy sometimes, the result becomes a footnote and the injury is what everyone’s actually talking about around the traps. Wishing her all the best with the scans, genuinely, because no player deserves to have a season cut short like that.

Where does this leave Brisbane

Back to the Lions though because that’s what I’m here for. This result needs to be a wake up call rather than something the playing group just shrugs off. The margin was significant enough that it can’t just get filed away as a bad day at the office. There needs to be some honest conversations in the review room this week about intensity at the contest and whether the structures being used are actually working against the competition’s better sides.

What I don’t want to see is Brisbane fans jumping off the bandwagon after one result, because that’s not how you build sustained success in this league. The Lions have shown over multiple seasons now that they can play finals footy and compete with anyone on their day. This was just very clearly not their day.

• Melbourne move to 3-0 and look like genuine premiership threats
• Brisbane suffer their biggest defeat in club AFLW history
• Port Adelaide beat GWS but lose Indy Tahau to a suspected knee injury
• Lions coaching staff face a big week of reviewing structure and personnel

The bigger picture for the competition

Results like this are actually a good sign for where AFLW is heading, even if it doesn’t feel that way as a Lions fan this week. The gap between teams that can go all the way and teams that get exposed on their bad days is getting more obvious, which means the standard across the whole league keeps rising. That’s exactly what we want if we’re serious about this competition being taken as seriously as the men’s game.

Brisbane will get a chance to respond soon enough, and how they come out next time will tell us a lot more about this group than one bad Sunday ever could. For now though, it’s a tough pill to swallow, and fair play to Melbourne, they were the much better side from start to finish.