Brisbane’s nightmare season has continued after getting smashed by the GWS Giants on Thursday night.
After a tight first half, the Lions barely fired a shot as the Giants cruised to a massive 54-point victory.
It leaves the Lions’ season hanging by a thread with a disastrous 2-5 win-loss record.
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Last year’s grand finalists now face an uphill battle to even feature in September despite entering the season as one of the premiership favourites.
Four-time premiership great Luke Hodge pinpointed the Lions’ forward 50 entries as their biggest problem, with the Lions actually matching the Giants for inside-50s for most of the night.
“The main thing I’m looking at if you compare the Lions with their opposition, they’re actually number one with differential getting the ball inside forward 50,” he said on Channel 7.
“It is the ball inside forward 50. It is their consistency and the conversion and being able to hit up a teammate to get them a shot on goal. Two more inside 50s than the Giants tonight but they’re sitting here with nine goals less.”
Geelong champion Joel Selwood added that their pressure in the front half was also an issue.
“It is being effective going inside 50. Even when they get in there, they have laid just four tackles for the night inside forward 50, they haven’t been able to put GWS under pressure,” he said.
When asked if the Lions’ floundering season is salvageable, Hodge had his doubts.
“It is getting tough from now on. They’ll have to make a lot of changes to try and bring back their season,” he said.
“Sitting 2-5, I know the season is even with teams beating each other but they’re in a really tough position at the moment.”
Selwood added: The thing with Brisbane too, they finished late last season, play in a grand final and then tonight they’re purely being outworked. Forward and back. That’s what sides will come and do to them.”
The 2023 grand finalists fell to their biggest loss of the year, conceding a run of nine unanswered goals after hitting the front in the second quarter.
After the match, Lions co-captain Harris Andrews said the second half was “unacceptable”.
“A lot of reflection to come, we have 10 days until we play the Suns at the Gabba. A great opportunity to look at what went wrong tonight and work on that. It hurts and it’s frustrating,” he told Channel 7.
It was the perfect response from the premiership-favourite Giants after last weekend’s loss to Carlton, with their running game slicing up the Lions when they took over the contest.
Canberra local Tom Green put on another clinic on his home turf, racking up 36 touches, seven clearances and a goal to help his side continue surging towards the top of the table.
It was a second consecutive lethargic performance from Brisbane, having failed to handle rainy conditions in a 26-point loss against Geelong last weekend.
Lions forward Kai Lohmann snapped truly at the 19-minute mark of the second term to put his side ahead 42-39, with Brisbane appearing to have weathered an early storm and got back on track.
But the Giants had other ideas, generating momentum out of their defensive 50 and making the Lions look slow on their way to nine straight goals and a match-winning lead.
Irishman Callum Brown was in fine touch with three sweetly hit set-shot goals, with fellow forward Jake Riccardi also cashing in with a trio of majors.
Livewire debutant Darcy Jones lit up the Canberra crowd with a first game to remember, slotting a brilliant running goal in the first term on the back of his electric pace, before finding another late in the piece.
The Giants missed captain Toby Greene (suspended), key back Sam Taylor (concussion) and star midfielder Stephen Coniglio (knee), but still cruised to their sixth win of the season.
Brisbane got two first-quarter goals from Charlie Cameron to stick with the fast-starting Giants, and even hit the front early in the second when fellow forward Cam Rayner found a pair of his own.
The Lions missed ruckman Oscar McInerney (concussion), but did hold their own in the middle, but simply couldn’t contain the GWS run when it got firing.
The Lions return home for a Queensland derby against the Gold Coast next weekend, quickly losing touch with the pack as they look to push towards another finals run.
Callum Ah Chee was subbed out at halftime with a hamstring injury.
– with AAP
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