As painful as result is for me, that game was a ripper up until the last quarter.
It's a pity Brisbane was gassed at 3 quarter time, but with our mounting injury count to our spine, it was unlikely we would have triumphed tbh despite the desperate efforts of Bradshaw, Aker, Notting all kicking multiple goals to keep us in the game, Nigel Lappin keeping the midfield afloat, and Big Mal performing an incredible shutdown on Tredrea after giving Leppitsch a bath in the first quarter.
With Voss down, we struggled to deal with the heavy tag of Kane Cornes on Simon Black, completely nullifying his influence and allowing center ball clearances out to Peter Burgoyne & Pickett, were they tore us to ribbons off the wings. Up forward Wanganeen proved too much for Chris Johnson to handle, and Toby Thurstan of all people gave Brisbane massive defensive headaches. When we did get the ball forward of center, we lacked cohesive structure due to Brown hobbling with a hip injury, and Lynch tearing his quad early in the first, resulting in Port's strong half back line of Hardwick, Chad Cornes, and Montgomery to mop us the ball with ease.
Que the second half of the 3rd quarter were the mounting injuries took their toll and Port seized the moment to gain ascendancy after fighting hard all afternoon. Port were awesome that day and hungry to strike after the preceding 3 years of finals failure, in comparison Brisbane were arrogant as the reigning premiers (Jonathan Brown admitted as much), and Port were always going to be extremely difficult to beat, dodgy home prelim or not.
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