Brisbane Lions have completed a three-peat, winning their third consecutive AFL premiership with a grand final victory over Fremantle that will be remembered as the most extraordinary of their six flags. The final quarter featured a flurry of moments of madness, brilliance, Swiss precision and utter confusion, as the Lions stormed home to break Fremantle hearts.
The mood in the immediate aftermath at the MCG was one of shellshock, even among the winning supporters, similar to the feeling that enveloped the ground following the drawn grand final in 2010. The final quarter will be remembered for the nerveless Logan Morris, the imperious Will Ashcroft, Lachie Neale bouncing off three tacklers, Zac Bailey's 'no look' goal, Ryan Lester's chasedown on Josh Treacy and Josh Dunkley's smother on Shai Bolton.
Wharfie Time turns the tide
It will also be remembered for Wharfie Time. When Patrick Voss put the Dockers 17 points up in time-on, he set off on what loomed as a lap of the entire perimeter of the MCG. No one knows whose finger hovers over the activation button, but they pressed go. The MCG quaked, and then everything changed.
Everything that makes the Lions a champion team was evident in those final few minutes. If you want to learn how to coolly exit a stoppage with bodies flailing all around you, study Ashcroft's final quarter. If you want an example of the sporting adage 'it may not be your day, but it can be your moment', look at Morris's last quarter.
Fremantle's missed chances
Fremantle had their chances to win this grand final, but they could never quite land the knockout blow. In the third quarter, they had the ruck dominance, control of the ball and all the momentum, but they needed a bigger lead to show for it. When Alex Pearce went down, they could have fallen in a heap, and their defenders were even more resolute in his absence, but he was sorely missed in time-on in the final term.
Bolton won the Norm Smith medal, but it would have been one of the harder medals to vote on in recent memory. He will rue two moments in the final term when he was running towards goal but sprayed his kicks. Caleb Serong was arguably Fremantle's most influential player, combining repeatedly with Luke Jackson, and Dayne Zorko was at his audacious best.
When it mattered most
There was a book about Norm Smith medallists released two decades ago titled When it Matters Most. The players profiled weren't always the superstars of their team, but they were all footballers who had great timing, who seized their moment, who ate up the big occasion. There's no better example of that than Ashcroft, who turned this game when it mattered most.
In the rooms afterwards, Chris Fagan walked around in a semi daze, muttering "unbelievable, unbelievable" to his many well-wishers. That Lions song, the riff on that glorious old Fitzroy number, was on high rotation. With their age profile, their weight of talent, and their insatiable desire to prove everyone wrong, it's a song we'll be hearing for years to come.
