AFL grand final 2023: the advantage call that wasn’t
In a game of centimetres and seconds, and less than a kick in it, it mattered: With one minute and 18 seconds to go, Lachie Neale was legged by Oleg Markov. And then the whistle blew.
No one heard it. Zac Bailey, who’d kicked two incredible early goals, grabbed the ball and hoicked it forward.
The umpire called advantage, but there was none, and Bailey’s ball landed harmlessly. The game played on.
Half an hour later, in the Brisbane Lions’ rooms, children ran amok – playing kick-to-kick across the room, heedless of the adults in various states of mourning around them.
Lachie Neale embraced his wife, Jules. He was quiet, but his body shook with sobs. To his own surprise more than most, he’d won his second Brownlow Medal early in the week.
He’d played in one grand final before – as substitute, for Fremantle in 2013 – but the biggest prize still eluded him.
By the far wall, his co-captain, Harris Andrews, lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. When he had composed himself, he stood taller than ever after a superb season – his back straight and chin up.
“It was a fantastic game. I thought the boys really rallied hard,” Andrews said.
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