Heart. Fight. Passion. Controlled aggression.
The Brisbane Lions showed their fans all of those things tonight as they caused a huge boilover in QClash11 against Gold Coast at the Gabba.
The home side kicked 23 behinds out of 37 scoring shots but still managed to pull off an unlikely 13-point victory against their Queensland rivals on a night of high emotion.
A brutal hit by an airborne Steven May on Lions ruckman Stefan Martin just on halftime saw the local rivalry explode, with the famed Gabba crowd of 20,041 erupting unlike anytime in recent years.
The young home side drew on that energy and despite having no recognised ruckman and down a player with a groggy Martin out of the contest, finished over the top of the high-flying Suns in the second half.
Led by Pearce Hanley, Dayne Zorko, Rohan Bewick, Dan Rich and Mitch Robinson the Lions found their range to turn around an eight-point halftime deficit into a 80-79 lead at three-quarter time.
Josh Walker was enormous stepping into the ruck in Martin's absence, while draftee Josh Schache again showed why he is so highly rated with a number of big marks, contests and second efforts.
The Lions' pressure around the contest was intense and sustained as they applied the blow torch to the high-flying Suns, who did not like it.
And the home side cured it's free kick problems of recent weeks, conceding just 13 frees to the Suns' 23 as players were first to the ball more often than not.
In fact, the Lions led most statistical areas for the game - notably contested possession 155-131 and inside-50s 66-48 - with inaccuracy in front of goals the only reason they did not win the game by more.
Young Tom Cutler's huge effort to run the length of the field with eight minutes remaining and snap a sensational banana goal to put his team in front had the Gabba "jet engine" at full volume.
The crowd roared even louder when Hanley - whose was simply enormous for his side all night to win his second Marcus Ashcroft Medal - snapped off one step from 50 metres out to stretch the lead to a goal with 6 minutes to go.
And when Ryan Bastinac slotted a set shot from a free kick with two minutes remaining, it was the icing on a huge victory against the odds for a young Lions team that deserved nothing less.
