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Brisbane are through to a home preliminary final after “torching” the Tigers on Saturday – and there’s more good news for the club.
The Lions have now set themselves up perfectly for a premiership push with the 17-point win, as they won’t have to leave their home state with victory in a fortnight’s time.
The Lions were on from the get-go in the 5.9 (39) to 3.4 (22) win as Jesse Wardlaw made AFLW history, becoming the first player to kick 20+ goals in a season.
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Only Katie Brennan’s three goals saved Richmond from total embarrassment in the qualifying final, as the Tigers were held goalless for a half of footy.
Richmond will need to dust themselves off and now face the winner of the Geelong/North Melbourne clash to be played later on Saturday.
MATCH REPORT
Jesse Wardlaw gave the Lions the perfect start by becoming the first player in the history of the competition to kick 20+ goals in a season.
Wardlaw flew early and had no trouble slotting the goal from just 20m out on a slight angle at Metricon Stadium.
But Tiger Katie Brennan had the reply down the other end of the ground minutes later.
Stella Reid had locked the footy in despite being outnumbered two to one and Brennan did the rest with her snap.
The footy just got away from Jade Ellenger as she streamed into goal, pulling her kick left as a result despite terrific lead up play from the Svarc sisters.
Richmond’s scramble defence once again forced another shot on goal wide as Isabel Dawes couldn’t convert, but the Lions were increasing their lead point by point.
“They are looking so dangerous going inside 50,” commentator Jason Bennett praised of Brisbane.
At quarter time it was Brisbane leading by just two points.
Eilish Sheerin coughed up a goal to start the second term when she failed to correctly give the footy back to the Lions and was hit by a 50m penalty.
Catherine Svarc made no mistake with her shot to open up a seven point lead.
Only a horror bounce stopped Brennan from kicking her second goal of the day as Richmond started to find their run.
But more ill-discipline cost the Tigers as Sophie Conway ran into an open goal after back-to-back free kicks to the Lions.
And from there, the ball then lived in the Lions’ front half as Richmond simply couldn’t clear.
“Richmond are really going to have to stay really switched on here with the pressure to stay in the contest to half time,” commentator Bec Goddard said.
“They’ve got their work cut out here.
“Normally they’ve been bringing the extra forward up… but they aren’t getting the first possession to help with that.”
When Dakota Davidson pulled a big mark down and convert, alarm bells were ringing for the Tigers as the margin pushed out to 22 points.
Wardlaw had her hand in the first goal of the third term, after taking a great grab at half forward before Taylor Smith converted her set shot.
“Brisbane were just able to move the ball so fast,” Goddard praised.
“The Lions are torching them.”
“They are carving the Tigers up at the moment,” Bennett added.
Richmond again failed to add a goal for the second successive quarter and were left staring down a 29-point deficit at the final change.
Brennan put it all on the line in the final term, bouncing up from a heavy collision with Lion Nat Grider before kicking the Tigers’ second goal.
It was more than 40 minutes between goals for Richmond but gave them one final chance to avoid a semi final clash with either Geelong or North Melbourne.
Brennan added her third with less than three minutes remaining to close the gap, but the Tigers ran out of time as Brisbane finished 17-point winners.
TRAVEL FEARS FOR TIGERS?
While there’s concerns about Richmond’s ability to head north after the physical season, Tigers star Monique Conti wasn’t concerned.
“It’s going to be a challenge – it’s going to go up another level, but I know our group is up for that,” she said.
“We have travelled quite well.
“I think having that pre-season travel to West Coast was really good to do and we’re a really well-connected team.
“We’re there to do a job and that’s what we’ll do.”
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Conti said her side took plenty of confidence from that Round 5 win into the qualifying final.
“We know that it’s been rounds since we played them, so it’ll be another challenge,” she said.
“They’ve got some great players, but we know we can match them if not beat them.”
The match gets underway from 4:10pm AEDT at Metricon Stadium.
Follow the match blog live below
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