For the first time in almost four years the Brisbane Lions will head to Hobart on Sunday as they take on North Melbourne at Ninja Stadium.
It will be only the club’s second game in the Tasmanian capital after the first delivered a special moment for premiership coach and Tasmanian Hall of Fame legend Chris Fagan.
In Round 14, 2021 the Lions beat North by 33 points to mark the 100th AFL game for coach Fagan, who was born in Queenstown on the Tasmanian west coast but is a footballing product of Hobart before also playing with Sandy Bay and Devonport.
Jarryd Lyons, Lachie Neale and Hugh McCluggage had 30-plus possessions each to claim the 3-2-1 Brownlow Medal votes as the Lions came from two points down at halftime to win 9-14 (68) to 6-9 (45).
Only Neale, McCluggage, Callum Ah Chee, Harris Andrews, Zac Bailey, Charlie Cameron, Eric Hipwood and Oscar McInerney have played at Bellerive.
There have been 40 AFL games at Bellerive, where ex-North ruckman Todd Goldstein, now at Essendon, holds the Bellerive games record at 33, and North spearhead Nick Larkey has the goals record at 46.
Alastair Lynch is one of 17 Tasmanians who have played with Brisbane, including Hall of Famers Adrian Fletcher, Dion Scott, Danny Noonan, Trent Bartlett and Grant Birchall.
Will Ashcroft also celebrated a 21st birthday this week like no other in recent years in the AFL.
What Ashcroft has squeezed into his career already is extraordinary, 39 games for 31 wins at a 79.5% win-rate, a premiership, a Norm Smith Medal, a shared ‘best finals player’ club award, a Marcus Ashcroft Medal, 10 Brownlow Medal votes and eight 30-possession games. And a knee reconstruction.
While the Lions will find an upgraded Hobart and a new-look North Melbourne side this week, if it’s as long again before their next visit it will be an altogether new experience completely.
In chronological order, with their Brisbane player number, the players hailing from Tasmania have been:
#31 - Rod MacPherson.
#39 - Mark Withers
#80 - Danny Noonan
#91 - Colin Alexander
#94 – Nigel Palfreyman
#99 - Heath Shephard
#107 – Adrian Fletcher
#112 – Dion Scott
#127 – Alastair Lynch
#136 – Trent Bartlett
#168 – Michael Martin
#197 - Justin Sherman
#224 - Tom Collier
#231 - Aaron Cornelius
#241 - Ryan Harwood
#249 - Josh Green
#284 – Mitch Robinson
#325 - Grant Birchall
