Brisbane Lions player reflects on key grand final tackle

Hannah Kennelly Brisbane’s Ryan Lester was desperate.

With less than seven minutes to go in the final quarter, Fremantle’s Josh Treacy sprinted towards goal and looked certain to extend the Dockers’ lead and help them clinch their maiden premiership.

But Lester was right behind him. The 34-year-old launched himself towards Treacy’s legs, performing a tackle that left the Docker flat on his back and sent his kick wayward, preventing what would have been a crucial goal.

Standing wide-eyed in the beer-soaked change rooms after the Lions’ extraordinary seven-point win on Saturday afternoon, Lester was lost for words when asked about the tackle.

“Oh God, I don’t even know what happened,” he told this masthead. “I got him and the rest is a bit of a blur.”

With his daughter Georgie clutching his leg, Lester said he found it difficult to articulate the magnitude of what the Lions had just achieved.

In the early 2000s, the Lions achieved a historic hat-trick under Leigh Matthews. Fast-forward 23 years, and Chris Fagan’s team have repeated history, clinching a third straight premiership and cementing themselves in AFL history.

The significance was not lost on Lester.

“Growing up, I looked at the Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn and those teams were just immortal … like unbelievable, and for us to join them is pretty cool,” he said.

“Particularly for me, like in 2022, I only played three games in the senior team ... so I feel really lucky the way my career has turned out and so lucky to be a part of this special team.”

When the bells from AC/DC’s Hells Bells blared, and with huge waves crashing on the big screen, Fremantle fans in the crowd rose to mark “Wharfie Time”.

But Lester said the Lions were ready.

“We spoke about that [Wharfie Time] and then we tried to obviously use that for their motivation,” he said.

Bomber turned Lion Sam Draper said the team had rehearsed for Wharfie Time and they were prepared for a hostile crowd.

“We thought when they hit that trigger, that’s when we go up a notch,” Draper confirmed.

“I think the boys responded well. I think like last week we handled that well [against Hawthorn]. That was a hostile environment, and today the same.

“So, yeah, the boys went crazy at the end of there.”

Just 12 months ago, Draper was preparing to leave Essendon and enter the trade period as an unrestricted free agent, after another injury-plagued year at the Hangar including a devastating Achilles rupture in mid-April that ended his season.

On Sunday, he stood with a premiership medal around his neck and was overcome with emotion.

“It doesn’t feel real,” he said.“I got really emotional towards the end when I saw the high-performance team,” he said referencing his bought of injuries.

“I just thanked them for believing in me.”

Marc McGowan The Brisbane Lions can thank Charlie Cameron for making “Wharfie Time” a grand final flop.

The evergreen small forward kicked the opening goal of the match – before unleashing his engine-revving celebration as Take Me Home, Country Roads blared across the MCG – but it was his third that turned the game.

Eighty-one seconds after Fremantle cult hero Patrick Voss thought he had blasted through the sealer, Cameron swooped and snapped truly. It provided a swift end to Wharfie Time, the Dockers’ trademark fan-driven activation, which the AFL approved them to use just once in the match.

“As a forward, your job is about creating opportunities and moments,” Cameron told this masthead.

“I was like, ‘If I get an opportunity here, I’m going to back myself in’. That’s the good thing about playing finals footy – you get the spotlight to showcase yourself, and when I had that snap, I was like, ‘I’m ready to go again, give me another one’.”

Cameron needn’t have worried. Zac Bailey kicked another shortly after before Logan Morris became the match-winner with the last two goals to transform what had largely been a dirty day for him until then.

These Lions now join Leigh Matthews’ and Michael Voss’ 2001-03 immortal teams as three-peat premiers.

Cameron has played a major role in Brisbane becoming a juggernaut under Chris Fagan, including 410 goals – 64 in finals – in 208 matches for the club.

“We spoke about it at the start of the year – do we want to go for a three-peat?” he said.

“We said, ‘We have the opportunity here [to create history], with the list we have’, and it just came down to a lot of hard work. It’s pretty crazy to be a three-time, back-to-back-to-back premiership player. It’s unbelievable.”

Steve Barrett Retiring Fremantle forward Sam Switkowski accepted how cruel football can be, but would still prefer Saturday’s titanic, heartbreaking defeat to Brisbane to being on the wrong end of a one-sided drubbing.

Despite the harrowing result and narrow margin, Switkowski can walk off with his head held high one last time.

“I think we all know footy can be cruel like that,” he said after his 131st and last game.

“But I’d still rather the way the game played out than have lost by 10 goals.

“It’s a bit hard to get over the disappointment and devastation of it, but I’m just so proud of everyone gave it their all.

“I haven’t been in this position before, clearly – grand final loss, career’s at an end.

“But I’m just so proud to have played nine years at this club.”

Switkowski spoke with emotion, before walking over to Fremantle great Nat Fyfe – who he now joins in the retired footballers club – for a warm embrace.

“I said to the guys in the rooms, after ‘JL’ [coach Justin Longmuir] spoke, that I’m so proud of each and every one of them.

“I thanked them for their efforts this season and giving it everything today.

“I feel like we gave that our best shot.

“I thought we played a Freo brand of footy. We would accept whatever the result is if we did that.

“I’m trying to get a bit of perspective and know you’d rather be here today and hurt than not be here at all.”

Wingman Corey Wagner could almost touch and feel the club’s maiden flag – as Patrick Voss’ goal deep into the fourth quarter stretched the Dockers’ lead to 17 points – before it was brutally snatched out of the Dockers’ grasp.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow,” Wagner said.

“It was that close you could almost grab it and feel it.

“The crowd was going nuts and you could almost believe it was going to happen.

“We were thinking ‘we’re going to bring it home to Freo’.”

Wagner conceded the Lions played those crunch-time final stages better than the Dockers.

“I don’t think we handled the last three minutes as good as we should have,” he said.

“Credit to Brisbane – they’ve been here, they’ve done it and they’ve seen these moments before.

“Brisbane had to come through this situation [2023 grand final loss to Collingwood] before having their three-peat.”

Star midfielder Andrew Brayshaw was confident his team would learn and burn from this, but knows – from his own family’s experience – that contesting multiple grand finals isn’t guaranteed.

“I feel like we’ve got all the pieces in place, but you never want to assume you’ll be back,” he said.

“My brother [Angus] played in one grand final [Melbourne, 2021] and thought he’d be back every year, but it ended up being his only one.

“We don’t want to get complacent at all. This will light the fire in the belly, for sure.

“We’ll fight, we’ll scrap and we’ll earn our way back in.

“It will make it even more sweet when we get back and get it done.”

AAP Fremantle are shattered for captain Alex Pearce, whose devastating game-ending Achilles injury in the Dockers’ heartbreaking grand final defeat will likely also eat into his 2027 campaign.

With Fremantle leading by nine points in Saturday’s decider at the MCG, Pearce was racing Brisbane opponent Logan Morris to collect a loose ball on the wing when he dramatically fell to the ground without any contact.

The star defender suffered a right Achilles injury, was assisted off the field and watched from the bench as Fremantle capitulated and Morris kicked the winning goal.

The Dockers confirmed the dreaded Achilles injury, which will likely also sideline Pearce for a large chunk of 2027 if it is fully ruptured.

“He’s putting on a brave face,” coach Justin Longmuir said.

“Everyone’s devastated. I’m sure he’s devastated, not only for today’s result, but it looks like it might cost him a bit of time on the sidelines and another stint in rehab.

“But he can hold his head up high. Like he’s led us so well across the course of the year, and stood up in really key moments to allow us to get here.

“Unfortunately it didn’t go his way today and I feel for him on that front.”

Longmuir said Pearce was “sore” coming into the game but adamant that didn’t contribute to his injury.

Pearce, 31, was heartbreakingly close to becoming Fremantle’s first premiership captain while the Dockers will wonder what might have been if they had their best key defender out there late.

“[We had to] reshuffle the deck chairs a little bit,” Longmuir said.

“We had to play a bit smaller and we missed his leadership across the back end of the game and clearly missed his leadership late. He gives us so much in that aspect of the game.

“Feel really sorry for him. He would have loved to have been out there with his teammates, and we definitely missed him.”

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From electric hope to total silence: tens of thousands of Fremantle fans left crushed after a devastating late collapse against the Lions.

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