Thursday Fallout: No Nick (or Moore or Pendles), no hope for Pies

The Brisbane Lions put the rest of the competition on notice after demolishing Collingwood by 54 points on Thursday night.

The ravenous Lions feasted on a depleted Magpies side on Easter Thursday at the Gabba, proving that they are intent on making it a three-peat of premierships.

But it must be noted that without superstar Nick Daicos, who was a late withdrawal with a corked calf, as well as captain and key defensive figure Darcy Moore and composed veteran Scott Pendlebury, the Pies are just a fairly average team.

They were lucky the Lions couldn’t finish a set shot otherwise it might have ballooned out to 70-plus points.

It was a Lions onslaught - they had 34 scoring shots to 15, 64 inside 50s to 45, 42 clearances to 24, 131 contested possessions to 92, 150 marks to 71, they kicked 72 points from stoppage which is the most the Pies have conceded from stoppage since 2019… the list goes on.

Chris Fagan’s back-to-back side weirdly looked stronger last night even without Hugh McCluggage and Harris Andrews. They had Keidean Coleman back in form, prized recruit Oscar Allen kicked three goals in his best Lions showing, Bruce Reville was excellent on the wing, Ty Gallop did the job as a defender, and Sam Draper took some nice grabs.

The usual suspects all played well - Lachie Neale, Will Ashcroft, Dayne Zorko, Zac Bailey, Josh Dunkley… the list goes on.

Beware the hungry Lion.

You could usually pin a Collingwood team based on its defensive system. That would normally keep them in games - which it did at stages - but overall it was a night to forget for Craig McRae’s Pies.

They badly need Daicos, Moore and Pendles back. And it gets no easier with Freo in Gather Round.

Andrew Slevison