Round 16 – Brisbane v Sydney: On a night like this, it’s later than you think

 

Round 16
Brisbane v Sydney
Thursday, 25 June 2026
‘Gabba, Brisbane

 

Oh, there will be a story tonight. Win, and we are back in the 2026 conversation. Lose, and the game next week in Geelong really becomes stand and deliver time.

 

It dawns on me. That six or seven[i] years from now, logic and equalisation measures suggest it’s likely that the Lions will once again be a middling team and not the reigning dual premiers. The premiership polo and back-to-back t shirts I own will be frayed and worn, fighting valiant but ultimately hopeless battles with violent spin cycles both real and metaphoric, and wins will be something for which fans like me hope for rather than expect.  These years of plenty, of Charlie, Lachie, Harris and Joe will become nothing but a misty taste of moonshine and bring a teardrop to my eye. Resurgent Tigers, Bombers and nascent Tassie Devils will remind we Lions that success is fleeting and cyclic.

 

That’s for then though, this is now. Tonight, will either confirm the Swans as the team most likely to deliver heartbreak to Flagmantle or see the Lions lurk awkwardly towards more games of consequence later in the year.

 

The game begins. These teams are both heavyweights. For the first ten minutes, no goals are scored, and quarter is neither given nor taken. Both teams cash their chips in the second half of the quarter, goals start to flow. It’s quarter time and it’s our noses jutting just in front by a goal and a bit.

 

My dad used to say that the three best players her ever saw were his old school mate Bernie Quinlan, Darrel Baldock, the only premiership captain his beloved Saints have so far produced and the enigmatic mystic Brent Croswell. I often look up Croswell’s old articles, I’ve read Martin Flanagan’s book, I am fascinated by this man. He once said, “give me 80,000 people at the MCG and I was Hercules, give me a grey day at the Western Oval and I wasn’t worth a cracker.” I wonder if Cam Rayner may reflect similar sentiments one day. It’s prime time, match of the round, big time game tonight and he plays like it. He’s Hollywood, he’s showtime, he’s box office. A generation from now, he will be our Tiger Croswell. His goal in the preliminary final against Geelong in 2024 deserves folklore.

 

Something about Harris Andrews makes grown men gush and retired players find superlatives. When former forwards like Jason Dunstall, Jonathan Brown and Alastair Lynch wax bold, it suggests something deep and profound about the way Harris plays. Something that armchair pundits like me just can’t understand. And gush they do. Harris is the defining figure of this Lions era and almost certainly the great key position defender of his generation. There is a field of dreams that fans and I’m sure former players go to as they age, inhabited timelessly by the many champions that they have seen in their lifetime. To hear Dunstall’s enthusiastic praise is to wonder a world where a defensive unit led by Harris lines up against Dunstall’s Hawks, Lockett’s Saints or even Quinlan’s Lions. I love that Harris is studying to become a teacher. As someone who has been manning the whiteboard for eons now, I think he’ll be brilliant. He has developed a withering glance and frustrated narrowing of the eyes for teammates who are caught out of position. Great teaching and classroom control depends on such masterful non-verbal communication as this.

 

A few observations. Warner is mighty and stylish and oh so good. There is an ugly beauty to the way Josh Dunkley plays. Lions’ fans have never really seen the best of Isaac Heeney thanks to the sacrificial masochism of Dunks’ defensive tag every time we play. Michelangelo said of his sculpting that he “saw the angel in the marble and carved and chiselled to set it free.” My hunch is that Ty Gallop is Chris Fagan’s block of marble. There’s a moment where he switches play and effortlessly finds a key forward on his own inside fifty who goals with ease. Problem is, it was Charlie Curnow who plays for the Swans. Curnow starts to play as if he’s aware of and annoyed at the Logan Morris adulation coming from the admittedly parochially Lions Fox Footy commentary box.

 

There are some strange moments tonight. Energy and effort can bring errors. The Lions are playing with guerrilla ferocity at times. Some strange turnovers and the Swans hover in striking distance, largely due to Warner who perhaps can lay claim to being the greatest Chad in history. Weird moments abound. Logan kicks a goal at the three-quarter time siren which is disallowed on a technicality. The pro Lions commentary box is outraged.

 

Sydney keep loitering, the lead is pegged back to less than five goals in the last quarter. It gives Brisbane something to ponder, if not tonight perhaps the next time they meet – maybe in September this year? Kai Lohmann who has been having a bit of a Maxwell Smart missed it by that much sort of year, sparks up for a big finish with two late goals to ice the game.

 

Let’s enjoy nights like this Lions fans. The future promises nothing and we are in the mix again this year after a slow burn start.  Gather ye rosebuds while ye may Lions, it’s later than you think.

 

My Malarkey Medal votes…

 

3          Harris Andrews

2          Chad Warner

1          Josh Dunkley

 

BRISBANE   4.1   8.7   14.9   19.12 (126)
SYDNEY      2.3   4.4   7.9   12.11 (83)

 

GOALS
Brisbane: Rayner 3, Morris 3, Cameron 2, Lohmann 2, Bailey 2, McKenna 2, Hipwood, Fort, Berry, Draper, L.Ashcroft
Sydney: Warner 4, Curnow 3, Rowbottom 2, Sheldrick, McDonald, Heeney

 

BEST
Brisbane: Dunkley, W.Ashcroft, Bailey, Andrews, Gallop, L.Ashcroft
Sydney: Warner, Sheldrick, Curnow, Rowbottom, Mills

 

[i] This is deliberate. I work with teenagers all day, six or seven years from now the whole ‘6-7’ nonsense will be a cultural relic that makes little sense. Similar to ‘where’s the beef?’.

 

More Round 16 Reports can be read Here.

 

 

Read more from Shane Reid HERE

 

 

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