Lions in preliminary final - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Lions in preliminary final

By Chris Herde 12/09/2003 10:35:19 PM Comments (0)

The Brisbane Lions ran over Adelaide with a 42-point margin to book an AFL preliminary final encounter with Sydney.

In front of a crowd of 32,432 on a hot Brisbane night, the patched up Lions, hampered by a string of injuries, kicked 18.16 (124) to 12.10 (82) to end Adelaide's season and keep alive their dream of an historic AFL premiership three-peat.

The Lions withstood a spirited fight back in the third quarter when the Crows kicked six goals to two in the first 15 minutes to grab the lead.

But, despite the efforts of Brett Burton with four goals in the second half, Mark Ricciutto and Simon Goodwin, the Lions over ran the Crows in the last quarter to keep intact their perfect finals record at the Gabba.

The Lions went into the last quarter with an 11-point lead but kicked seven goals to two in the final term, the Crows possibly affected by the heat.

The oldest man on the field, Alastair Lynch, kicked six goals for Brisbane and combined with the man most expected not to play, captain Michael Voss, to sink the visitors' hopes.

Lynch has kicked 24 goals against the Crows in their last four matches to give Adelaide coach Gary Ayres enough nightmares to last him a life time.

A temperature of 30 degrees at the kick-off meant both coaches used the interchange creatively and Voss started on the bench.

Coach Leigh Matthews unleashed him after 20 minutes after the Crows had a 13-point lead, forward Mark Stevens kicking three of his four goals in an eight-minute burst.

Voss made an immediate impact and had 22 possessions for the game until Matthews took him off with 10 minutes remaining and the result in no doubt.

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