BRISBANE LIONS 7.3 10.9 13.14 19.18 (132)

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 1.2 3.5 4.5 5.10 (40)

The Brisbane Lions have handed Greater Western Sydney a football lesson at the Gabba, running out winners by 92 points.

Fresh from GWS’s first win many said this would be a danger game for the young Lions, however Brisbane showed they are unquestionably a class above the bottom three sides by handing out their third big win to a lower side.

Daniel Merrett set the tone with a dominant first quarter from full forward, slotting five majores and missing an opportunity after the siren to make it six.

As is often the case with big wins, the Lions had winners all over the ground. Jonathan Brown was working hard to provide a hit up target to compliment Merrett, and the usual suspects in Tom Rockliff, Jack Redden, Daniel Rich and Simon Black where collecting plenty of possessions through the corridor.

With the Giants missing a number of important players, Brisbane where clearly the more talented outfit. However to their credit in the second and third terms, GWS lifted their work rate and limited the damage to six goals to three during this period.

Callum Ward and Rhys Palmer where finding their fair share of the footy, both on their way to possession counts in the mid-twenties, whilst Toby Greene and Stephen Coniglio were busy also.

But the story of the day was the overall dominance of Brisbane. Merrett ended the day with a career high seven goals to his name, and Brown was very good with five of his own. Pearce Hanley’s high work rate rewarded him with 29 disposals from half back, on a day when the Lions had winners on every line.

The last quarter found GWS running out of legs as Brisbane piled on a further six goals to one, and by the time the final siren ended proceedings, Brisbane had 12 of the leading 14 possessions winners on the day.

Votes:

3 – Daniel Merrett

2 – Tom Rockliff

1 – Jonathan Brown

GOALS
Brisbane Lions: Merrett 7, Brown 5, Rockliff 3, Karnezis 2, Rich, Zorko
Greater Western Sydney: Wilson, Giles, Phillips, Scully, Tyson

BEST
Brisbane Lions: Merrett, Brown, Rockliff, Black, Rich, Hanley
Greater Western Sydney: Palmer, Ward, Giles, Coniglio

INJURIES
Brisbane Lions: Nil
Greater Western Sydney: Jacob Townsend (calf) replaced in selected side by Nathan Wilson

SUBSTITUTES
Brisbane Lions: Jared Polec replaced Joel Patfull in the fourth quarter
Greater Western Sydney: Matthew Buntine replaced Adam Tomlinson at half-time

Reports: Nil

Umpires: McBurney, Ritchie, Armstrong

Official crowd: 16,049 at the Gabba