BRISBANE LIONS 2.4 8.6 10.7 13.9 (87)
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HAWTHORN 4.1 9.4 12.7 21.9 (135)
Brisbane Lions – Goals: Bell 4 Taylor 3 Zorko 2 Schache 2 Freeman Robertson. Hawthorn: Rioli 5 McEvoy 3 Breust 2 Hill 2 Puopolo 2 Gunston 2 Sicily Burgoyne Smith Lewis O'Brien.
Best – Brisbane Lions: Robinson Taylor Mayes Bell McStay Christensen. Hawthorn: Lewis Rioli Gibson Gunston McEvoy Breust.
Umpires: Fisher Nicholls Fleer.
Crowd: 23,691 at the Gabba.
Watching Jordan Lewis play his 250th game against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, it was hard to think of a player who's done so much for so little fanfare, at least across his first 200: he's picked up just 58 Brownlow medal votes in his entire career.
Like many Hawks, he's aged like a very good wine; he finished the game with 42 touches, nine clearances and six inside 50s, a goal and two others he gave away. That easily covered for Sam Mitchell, who was solid but well held by the Lions' Mitch Robinson. Up forward, Cyril Rioli was a match-winner with five goals.
The Hawks eventually cruised away to an eight-goal win. Yet the margin was deceiving: at the nine-minute mark of the last quarter, they were only nine points up. From there they streaked away, kicking nine goals in the last quarter to belatedly blow away what had been, up until that point, a very plucky and determined home side.
Many young Lions were playing their best games for many weeks, and in some cases much longer. Sam Mayes was the coolest of heads across half back. Tom Bell saw the Lions briefly break clear with a three-goal burst early in the second quarter; Lewis Taylor chased and tackled and was eventually rewarded with three goals.
But what the Hawks possessed was elite efficiency when the ball entered their forward 50. From 25 entries to half-time, they scored 13 times. And more often than not, it was the old firm helping to get them on the board and out of trouble: Rioli, Josh Gibson and Grant Birchall across half-back, and always, Lewis.
Early in the third quarter, it looked like normal transmission would be resumed. Ben McEvoy dragged in another strong mark for his second goal; Isaac Smith, off the ground with an injury early in the game, chimed in with another on the run. But the Lions tightened up and came again, Bell replying with an unlikely fourth.
It seemed almost predictable, though, that just as the home side gave up opportunities to peg the Hawks back, they would cough up an easy chance at the other end. When Josh Schache grabbed his second major in the first minute of the final quarter, bringing the margin back to within a kick, Paul Puopolo hit back with the reply.
And when Nick Robertson kicked off the ground to raise the home crowd's hopes of an unlikely upset victory, who else but Lewis, with a floater that bounced over the goal line, and Rioli with his fourth major, blew the margin back out and snuffed out the game.
Rioli had his fifth in classic fashion, mowing down an opponent in the tackle, and his name was chanted around the ground by a substantial contingent of Hawthorn supporters. Rioli set up the next in the same fashion, and from there it was a procession, the Hawks piling on the last six goals of the game.
BRISBANE LIONS v HAWTHORN
Votes
J Lewis (H) 9
C Rioli (H) 7
M Robinson (BL) 7
L Taylor (BL) 7
J Gibson (H) 7
