Brisbane seemingly still had control of proceedings early in the third quarter of Friday night’s clash with Melbourne.
The Lions were in front of the ladder leaders by 20 points at half-time at Giants Stadium and were still on top even after Demons forward Tom McDonald kicked the first goal of the second half.
An incident occurred in the early stages of that third term which saw Lions captain Dayne Zorko reported for striking McDonald. It happened not too long before momentum swung in the favour of the Dees who went on to win by 22 points, maintaining their position at the summit of the standings.
At the time, the Lions held possession across half-back and from the ensuing free kick, the Demons kicked a goal through Kysaiah Pickett to take them within seven points.
Zorko, who was subsequently suspended for one match, wasn’t quite as influential after the incident which prompted a discussion on SEN Breakfast.
Asked if he were concerned about it, Kane Cornes said: “A little bit, but I don’t think it was worth a week.
“There are things in the game where they’re just a free kick and that was a pretty big free kick.
“He’s got a bit of a history of doing it.
“No doubt they came in with the intent to attack. We saw (Eric) Hipwood in the opening minutes try and make a statement, we saw (Lincoln) McCarthy do the same, we saw Zorko do that.
“It was a pivotal moment, he didn’t go near the footy after that and Melbourne ran away with it.
“Your captain has to be better, all your players have to be better, but particularly your skipper.
“It was a poor moment from Dayne who has a little bit of a history of doing that.”
Garry Lyon was also critical of the Lions skipper, who numbers-wise had a decent night with 22 touches and 10 tackles, plus a goal which came not long after he was reported.
“It was a really important time. They were about 15 points up, they had control of the game,” Lyon said.
“The narrative can be swung any way you want. From that point on they (the Lions) just got on the back foot.
“I though it was really poor from him. Off the ball, elbow to the head, irrespective of force I think you’re always going to be in some sort of an issue.”
Gerard Whateley also commented on Zorko’s ill-discipline, saying he has no issues with the “obligatory” one-week sanction.
“Elbows have been a scourge this year,” he said on SEN’s Whateley.
“I don’t understand why they have returned. To a degree, the AFL owns this as they could have planted their flag a bit earlier.
“They’ve sort of been sliding up and down the scale of what are we going to do about elbows. They missed their moment right at the start of the season to go, ‘Hey, hey, put your elbows down’.
“Now Dayne Zorko picks up an obligatory week and he’s absolutely entitled to that week.
“You put an elbow on your opponent’s chin, sit for a week. I like that rule.”
The defeat leaves the Lions in fourth position with a record of 8-4, dropping behind Geelong on percentage.
Brisbane has a bye in Round 13 before taking on North Melbourne without Zorko in Round 14.