'Dampened my mood': Lions left flat after Ashcroft's knee scare sours ...
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The Brisbane Lions are sweating on the severity of Will Ashcroft’s knee injury, coach Chris Fagan saying the star rookie was uncertain about the potential ACL.
Ashcroft was able to put weight through his leg as he was assisted from the ground, but the Lions coach said the injury which happened late in the important win over Geelong had left him flat.
Will Ashcroft hobbles off.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
“It’s dampened my mood. I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to any of the players, but I don’t like to see that for any player at any club, any time,” Fagan said.
“We’ll obviously get him scanned on Monday and hope for the best. We’re not sure.
“He feels a little uncertain as well. We’re just hopeful it’s something less than what we all might think it is.”
Despite being in just his first season, Ashcroft has been a key cog in the Lions machine this year, adding class and creativity around the ball. He is the favourite for this year’s Rising Star award in a hotly contested field.
Asked if Ashcroft’s capacity to walk from the field - substituted out with 10 minutes to play - had given him cause for hope, Fagan said: “You’ve got to live in hope that it’s something a little bit less than an ACL.”
The Lions scrambled to repel Geelong’s late charge at the Gabba on Saturday, but unheralded utility Callum Ah Chee led the Lions to an important win.
Ah Chee isn’t a household name for the Brisbane Lions. This year, he’s managed just four games, on the fringe of a powerful team. He’s been spare parts for a long time, fixing holes here, plugging leaks there, never really making a position his own.
This week, though, he signed a two-year contract extension. It may have surprised some, but against Geelong, with the stakes high, he rewarded the Lions’ faith with the best game of his career, steering the Lions to a vital 11-point win.
And it showed the Lions had learned after being overrun in the final minutes by Melbourne last week. For the majority of the match, they had Geelong on toast, but a late burst where the Cats kicked five out of six goals threatened to take the game away from them.
Callum Ah Chee rewarded Brisbane’s faith with a powerful performance against the Cats.Credit: Getty Images
It was Ah Chee that steadied them, stretching for a mark that would give the home side breathing space, then bobbing up in defence as the Cats desperately drove the ball forward. He’s had a good week, but this was his finest moment.
Unfortunately, the Lions were also dealt a blow late in the game with potentially severe ramifications. With 10 minutes to go in the last quarter, Rising Star award favourite Ashcroft went down clutching a knee and was immediately substituted.
Fagan was buoyed by his side’s resilience in holding out the Cats, who kicked five out of six goals either side of three-quarter time to threaten the Lions’ grip on the game.
The Lions had given up a four-goal lead late against Melbourne last week, and Fagan said he had addressed that at the last change.
Star Brisbane Lions rookie Will Ashcroft gave his team a scare when he went down with concerns of a knee injury late in the win over Geelong at the Gabba.Credit: Getty Images
“We never dodged what happened in the last part of that game, we really reviewed it hard during the week, and you can see that we did the things that we talked about much better,” Fagan said.
“I think we handled that last block of five or six minutes pretty well, and psychologically it would have been hard, because those boys are aware of what happened last week.
For the Cats, sitting fifth, it was a severe blow in their late, unlikely push for a top-four berth. Restricted to just one goal in the first half, they struggled to get out of second gear until late in the game.
Lincoln McCarthy celebrates one of his two goals.Credit: Getty Images
But the Lions approached the game like they wanted to prove a point. They beat the Cats to the contest and the clearances, reflected in a whopping clearance differential (39–17 from stoppages, 10–5 from the centre).
But while the Lions dominated field position, they struggled to finish. Charlie Cameron sprayed two shots, Conor McKenna another, and the ball regularly came in high, allowing Tom Stewart to intercept with ease.
Not that the Cats’ decorated forward line was making any more headway. Tyson Stengle, an All-Australian small forward last year, managed just two possessions in a half of football. Jack Payne was on top of Tom Hawkins; Jeremy Cameron didn’t have a sniff for a half.
It took a few moments of individual brilliance to break through the walls set up at half-back by both sides. Eric Hipwood threaded the Lions’ first from near the boundary; Linc McCarthy kicked their second from outside it, on the quarter-time siren.
It wasn’t until 20 minutes deep into the second quarter that a patched-up Patrick Dangerfield landed the first blow for Geelong, dragging in an overcooked pass from Brad Close with one hand, and kicking from 48 metres off one step.
It would be their only goal for the half, but the margin was 21 points, hardly insuperable.
Geelong coach Chris Scott rolled the dice, throwing Stewart into the centre bounces in an attempt to give the Cats some extra bite at the clearances.
But while it helped them get the ball forward, Geelong was wasting opportunities, too. When Mark Blicavs missed a set shot, the Lions picked their way through Geelong from full-back for a goal to Charlie Cameron.
Then Hawkins missed a sitter, and again, the Lions pounced. Hipwood kicking his second as the Lions made their quickest transition from defence of the night. Another goal to McCarthy had the margin out to 37.
And then, with everything going against them, the Cats charged, and the Lions retreated. Brandon Starcevich’s kick across goal in defence was chopped off by Jeremy Cameron, who looked proppy, but converted. Dangerfield kicked the cover off another for his second.
Charlie Cameron snags a goal and celebrates in trademark style.Credit: Getty Images
Now it was 25 points at three-quarter-time, but the game was on. Dayne Zorko picked out Jeremy Cameron in defence again; Oliver Henry sharked the Cats’ seventh. Cameron shortly had a third, the margin was 11, with nearly 11 minutes to go.
The Lions had to dig deep from there, with Ah Chee, Josh Dunkley, Cam Rayner and Jaspa Fletcher all rising to the occasion with hard-edged performances that ensured there wouldn’t be a repeat of last week, keeping them in touch with the top two with five weeks to go.
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BRISBANE LIONS 2.5 4.8 7.9 9.10 (64)GEELONG CATS 0.3 1.5 3.8 7.11 (53)GOALS: Brisbane Lions: Hipwood 2, McCarthy 2, Daniher 2, McKenna, Cameron, Ah Chee. Geelong Cats: Cameron 3, Dangerfield 2, Stengle, Henry.BEST: Brisbane Lions: Ah Chee, Dunkley, McCluggage, Daniher, Neale, Rayner. Geelong: Stewart Dangerfield, Duncan, Blicavs, Bowes, Smith.INJURIES: Brisbane Lions: Ashcroft (knee). Geelong: Rohan replaced in selected side by Tuohy.UMPIRES: Rosebury, Broadbent, Meredith, WallaceCROWD: 32,586
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