It is an audacious passage that defined the brilliance and precision with which Brisbane broke a 21-year premiership drought when destroying the Swans by 60 points at the MCG. Midway through the first term, Hugh McCluggage marked the ball on the defensive side of the centre square after the Lions had chipped the ball this way and that to get it to him. The Lions were yet to kick a goal.
Instead they had conceded two in quick fashion to their rivals after Will Hayward brilliantly roved a pack to kick the opening goal under the advantage rule before Tom Papley snapped a superb goal on the run from 45m. McCluggage paused briefly before spotting Ryan Lester, who had chipped the ball to him, dashing to the right of the centre circle amid a flock of Swans set up in a defensive zone. The pass had to be centimetre perfect, to quote broadcasting great Dennis Cometti.
It was. Lester marked on the run and was able to find the mercurial Kai Lohmann, who kicked Brisbane’s opening goal of the grand final and the first of his three in a stellar opening half. The kick was a gamble.
Turn it over and the Swans would be able to sweep the ball forward again. But it proved the pass that kickstarted an astonishing premiership performance. This was a prime example of “dancing on thin ice”, the theme of Brisbane’s season which has seen it overcome adversity time and again, including in the semi and preliminary finals, to clinch the club’s first premiership since the threepeat between 2001 .