Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has highlighted a costly tactical move made by Melbourne that he believes proved a turning point for Brisbane in their come-from-behind Semi-Final win.
In the first half of Friday’s clash, Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw ran with Brisbane’s Lachie Neale, restricting the Brownlow medallist to just nine disposals and zero score involvements.
That curtailment led to Melbourne holding a 22-point lead at the main break, but just as the matchup was working for the Demons, coach Simon Goodwin decided to move Tom Sparrow onto Neale, relieving Brayshaw of the role.
Matched up against the younger player in the second half, Neale had 18 disposals, five clearances and four score involvements as the Lions came from behind to win by 13 points.
Cornes pondered why that move would be made given how well it was tracking for Melbourne, with a lack of fitness the only explanation he could come up with.
“Lachie Neale was kept so quiet in the first half,” Cornes said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“Angus Brayshaw did a terrific job, he kept him to three effective disposals to half-time, and guess what? Brisbane were down by 22 points.
“I don’t know why they changed the matchup at half-time, it was (Tom) Sparrow who went to him and Brayshaw was moved off him, so perhaps Brayshaw is not fit enough, that’s the only explanation I can find.”
With fitness perhaps playing a part in the shift, Cornes then asked whether the Demons had worked hard enough across the pre-season as they again coughed up a second-half lead to lose a close game.
“Perhaps the Melbourne side across the board aren’t fit enough, back-to-back premierships are hard to win, had they taken the foot off the gas through the pre-season?,” Cornes questioned.
“They lost Darren Burgess as their fitness man, have they taken a few liberties and was Brayshaw unable to run with a midfielder that you know is going to play for 120 minutes?
“He didn’t come off the ground in the second half against Richmond the week before and he ran them (Melbourne) into the ground.
“He and (Jarrod) Berry lit the fuse for Brisbane in the midfield, Simon Goodwin’s going to review that game and look at a number of the matchup mistakes that he made including that one in the midfield.”
Melbourne will now reload for the 2023 season while Brisbane faces Geelong in a Preliminary Final on Friday at the MCG.
"I don't know why they changed the match-up at halftime."@kanecornes on the costly mistake that freed up Lachie Neale in the second half. #9AFLSFS | Watch on @Channel9 pic.twitter.com/JFTmIwjNjK
— Footy on Nine (@FootyonNine) September 11, 2022