{"id":524706,"date":"2026-03-07T13:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524706\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T13:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:11:18","slug":"brisbane-nightmare-as-late-drama-sparks-shock-upset-at-home-to-western-bulldogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524706\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane nightmare as late drama sparks shock upset at home to Western Bulldogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane<\/a> have suffered an early setback in their quest for a hat-trick of premierships, going down to an inspired Western Bulldogs<\/a> side by five points on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Aaron Naughton levelled the scores with four minutes remaining with a goal from right in front thanks to an ill-disciplined Darcy Gardiner.<\/p>\n

Gardiner went hard at Naughton in the marking contest but caught him late and high to give away a 50m penalty.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Two minutes later the Dogs were ahead for good when Tim English pushed forward and marked on his own, converting easily for the match-winner.<\/p>\n

Ed Richards was the architect of both goals to cap off a stellar performance, having kicked his second earlier in the fourth quarter, alongside captain and three-goal star Marcus Bontempelli.<\/p>\n

Both sides finished the match a man down on the bench, with new Lions co-captain Hugh McCluggage sidelined by a calf problem \u2014 to the same leg that suffered a corkie in last week\u2019s practice match.<\/p>\n

Bulldogs young gun Arty Jones was concussed by Brisbane premiership captain Harris Andrews.<\/p>\n

Andrews looks set to miss at least next week\u2019s clash with Sydney after throwing an arm back to leave Jones unconscious before he hit the ground.<\/p>\n

His expected suspension will be felt greatly by the Lions, who are without possible replacements Jack Payne and Tom Doedee, against Swans talls Charlie Curnow, Joel Armatey and Justin McInerney next Saturday night.<\/p>\n

While Brisbane began to count the cost of the 15.16 (106) to 16.15 (111) defeat to the Bulldogs, Luke Beveridge\u2019s side launched into deserved celebrations after the full-time siren.<\/p>\n

The Dogs narrowly missed the finals last year but took it right to the premiers and never looked out of the contest even trailing by a game-high 26-point margin late in the third term.<\/p>\n

The visitors pegged it back with two goals before the last change and created outstanding chances for a 7.1 fourth quarter to sealed a mightily impressive win.<\/p>\n

Richards led the way with his seven clearances and 10 inside 50s but Matthew Kennedy (30 disposals, five tackles, five clearances) and new recruit Connor Budarick (27 disposals, one goal) both impressed, while 200-game milestone man Rory Lobb was crucial in defence.<\/p>\n

Bailey Williams ended the night with four behinds and one extraordinary solo goal.<\/p>\n

Brisbane were led in the midfield by former captain Lachie Neale (39 disposals, nine clearances) while Charlie Cameron kicked a game-high four goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo alarm bells,\u201d coach Chris Fagan said, ruing that the Lions gave the Bulldogs a sniff with the two goals late in the third term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at the stats and there\u2019s so much green here for us \u2014 against the Bulldogs you want to win territory, contested possession, clearances we won by five.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pressure was pretty good, we had 13 more inside 50s but they were able to take the ball into their forward line and 62 per cent of the time they were able to score.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were 49 per cent by comparison. Their efficiency going inside 50 definitely helped them win the game and we weren\u2019t as efficient as we hoped to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there were a lot of good things that we set out to do at the start that we ticked but it was all about making the most of our chances, and they did that better than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs beat the Lions at their own game, cleaning up centre-bounce stoppages and carving through the defence with short-angled kicks.<\/p>\n

Inaccuracy was all that stopped the Bulldogs building an early lead, as Cameron\u2019s individual brilliance and efficiency from intercepts helped the Lions to a three-point half-time lead.<\/p>\n

Bontempelli\u2019s second goal put the Bulldogs in front but the Lions responded with five straight majors, Kai Lohmann and star recruit Oscar Allen nabbing two each as Brisbane bulked up the lead.<\/p>\n

But the Bulldogs replied with five of their own to edge back ahead, headlined by Williams\u2019 goal.<\/p>\n

Again it was Cameron who stood up, outnumbered but still winning possession and finding Logan Morris at the top of the square.<\/p>\n

Sam Davidson snapped the Dogs ahead again before Bontempelli threaded the needle with a set shot for a seven-point lead with eight minutes to play.<\/p>\n

Darcy Fort squeaked a goal from a boundary throw-in and Cam Rayner bobbed up, turning swiftly and curling a goal through to put the hosts up by five.<\/p>\n

Naughton\u2019s goal was followed by a Cameron miss from in front, his minor score quickly trumped the Bulldogs blasted down the field to score through English.<\/p>\n

Lohmann squeezed a behind with 44 seconds on the clock to make it a five-point game but Brisbane came no closer, the final siren beating Naughton as he ran into an open goal.<\/p>\n

– with AAP<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sam Mitchell roasts \u2018outworked\u2019 Hawks after first-up fizzer<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Giants castaways dominate in front of Hollywood icon<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane have suffered an early setback in their quest for a hat-trick of premierships, going down to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,3237,1625,3863,588,85,698],"class_list":["post-524706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-lifestyle","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}