THE GABBA -- The Brisbane Lions have punched their ticket into the semifinals for the sixth straight season, leading from start to finish in their dismantling of Carlton by 28 points at the Gabba on Saturday night.
The Lions will next week travel to Sydney to face GWS, after the Giants squandered a 28-point lead to Sydney in their qualifying final earlier on Saturday.
Here's three things we learned from the game:
The Blues lost when Tom De Koning was named the sub
The Blues limped into finals. For almost a half of footy in the final home-and-away game of the season, they were out of the top eight, with Fremantle leading the Power in Perth. A result, had it stood, which would have consigned Carlton to ninth.
Instead, the banged-up Blues, without key forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay, their star young ruck in Tom De Koning, defender Mitch McGovern, and midfielders Adam Cerra and Zac Williams scraped into September by the skin of their teeth, with a lot to weigh up ahead of the elimination final against the Lions.
Make no mistake, with the week off between Round 24 and the first week of finals, Carlton was always going to have to roll the dice with selection, but ultimately those decisions raised eyebrows, the biggest of which was ruck phenom De Koning as the sub.
After the Blues gave up the first nine goals of the game, De Koning was brought on for Matthew Kennedy barely 15 minutes into the second term. Kennedy wasn't injured, it was a tactical sub, and the midfielder was visibly dismayed by the decision, having flown up to meet the team the day after his wife gave birth to their first child.
The big man's impact was immediate. His presence in the ruck lifted his teammates, and he took two contested marks for a side which barely looked like competing in a marking contests the 45 minutes prior. He sparked Carlton's comeback, just as he'd sparked the Blues throughout 2024 when fit. He finished with 11 disposals, seven contested possessions, three contested marks, and three clearances.
Carlton's fightback was, of course, in vain, but the decision to sub De Koning on, instead of off, if he couldn't run out the game, was a disastrous mistake.
"Tom was probably one or two runs short of being able to put in 100 minutes. The option was to either not play him, or play him in that scenario, so we chose to want to activate him, and we're pleased we did, as it turned out," Voss said in his post-match press conference, without elaborating on Kennedy, or why Carlton didn't consider starting De Koning and subbing him out instead.
The Lions still need to sharpen up in front of the sticks
Better teams will punish Brisbane, who finished outside the top four courtesy of their poor kicking in the late stretch of the home-and-away season. In their final three games, in which they went 1-2 and squandered the double chance, the Lions kicked a combined 30.49.
In the first five minutes against the Blues, it looked like the same old story for this team. They'd kicked 0.3 from gettable chances, and despite periods of domination, there were murmurings from the Gabba outer. Could it happen to them again?
Of course, the Lions piled on nine unanswered goals on their way to opening up a 10-goal lead early in the second term to put the result beyond any reasonable doubt, but when the Blues mounted a rally, Brisbane's inaccuracy almost stopped them from killing the game.
The final 28-point margin really flattered the Blues, who were never in the contest. Brisbane kicked 14.15 and had three missed shots. Accuracy remains one of the Lions' biggest issues, and now, having to hit the road and win three times from here on out, they can't afford to keep squandering gettable chances.
Carlton put no work into Brisbane's strengths
Coming into Saturday night's clash with the Blues, the Lions were ranked No. 1 in the league for uncontested marks and No. 3 for forward half intercepts.
Their kick-mark, incisive way of using the footy works especially well at the Gabba, so one could reasonably expect Carlton had a plan to address and limit the effectiveness of Chris Fagan's game plan.
But it was plainly evident just 10 minutes into the first term that they had no answer for the Lions. The home side's hunger at the contest, and ability to find the uncontested mark, was a level above the Blues, who struggled to exit the defensive half -- instead looking to go long down the line to a contest.
That's when the Lions feasted, turning the ball over in their front half and picking apart the Blues' defence with ease. By quarter time, they had taken 28 uncontested marks to Carlton's 13, and held a commanding six-goal lead.
The architect? All-Australian half back Dayne Zorko was allowed to roam freely, and had tallied 18 disposals and a goal assist by halftime. He was behind just about every Lions' thrust forward.
Voss made the decision to move Ollie Hollands onto Brisbane's former skipper after the main break, but as was the story of the night for the Blues, it was too little, too late.