Lachie Neale said Carlton players tried to rattle Brisbane by telling the Lions they were doing “a Carlton” during Friday night’s 11-point win at the Gabba, a line that came after Brisbane had led by 49 points early in the third term. caroline wilson, the exchange captured how Carlton’s comeback turned a game that looked finished into a tight finish.
Gabba comeback turns sharp
Neale was player of the match with 33 disposals and the match-sealing goal. He said Carlton “booted six unanswered goals in the third quarter” and that Brisbane would “review that third quarter and bits of the last pretty heavily, I think. It wasn’t good enough, but to Carlton’s credit, they just keep having a crack and we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
“We got told by a couple of the boys we were doing ‘a Carlton’, so they were trying to get in our heads a little bit,” Neale told Abbey Holmes after the game. He added: “Early enough in the year that you just tick that one off and move on,” after Brisbane banked the four points.
Carlton’s reputation at work
The remark landed because Carlton’s second-half fade-outs have become one of the AFL stories of the year, and Brisbane’s night briefly flipped into the kind of finish Carlton has been known for this season. Carlton have coughed up six first-half leads to lose in eight games already this season, and Neale said the Blues’ surge made the Lions work harder than the scoreboard at half-time suggested.
“Coming into it, it was probably the opposite for them. We started well and then their second half was really good,” he said. “So I think they’re going to trouble a few teams this year, but yeah, we bank the four points and move on.”
Brisbane and Geelong next
Neale also pointed to Brisbane’s younger players, praising Logan Morris, Kai Lohmann and Levi Ashcroft. “It’s exciting. We’ve got a great group that’s going to compete for years to come,” he said, adding: “We probably gave them a bit of a heart attack tonight, but they always rock up. We sell this place out every week, and we love having their support, and why wouldn’t they come when we’ve got guys like that (Morris and Lohmann) that come out here and put on a show?”
Brisbane’s next match is against Geelong at the Gabba next Thursday, with the Lions carrying the result and the third-quarter review into that game.
