BRISBANE is calling on a storied phrase from its history to slay the North Melbourne dragon in Saturday night’s AFLW decider at Ikon Park.
In 2001 ahead of a home and away match against the seemingly unbeatable Essendon, Leigh Matthews famously showed his players a scene from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s science-fiction film Predator where Big Arnie exclaimed: “If it bleeds, we can kill it”.
The Lions won that match and went on to win the first of three successive premierships that year, with the movie reference widely regarded as the starting point of the historic run.
Now, 24 years later, Brisbane captain Bre Koenen has called on the same phrase to inspire her team ahead of playing the Kangaroos, who have won a record-breaking 26 matches in succession.
“They are a great team and favourites for a reason,” Koenen told AFL.com.au.
“They’re going to be incredibly hard to beat.
“They’ve had an amazing year, but what’s Leigh Matthews’ old saying? If it bleeds, we can kill it. That’s our mentality.
“We’ve been building to this over the whole year, through all that adversity, there was this clear trajectory to get back here and now we’re here, we’re going to give it everything we can.
“If we can execute on the day, I have full belief that we can win.
“They’re beatable. Every team is beatable.”
For so long it’s seemed like North is unbeatable, so dominant it has been the past two years, but the “adversity” Koenen speaks of has come in all forms.
Brisbane started the season in scratchy fashion. The 29-point round five loss to the Kangaroos dropped it to 2-3 and well outside the finals race.
Trying to implement a slightly new game style that involved different ways of moving the ball, it wore losses to Hawthorn, Carlton and North– all at Springfield – before righting the ship.
The Lions have since won nine consecutive games to charge into the Grand Final, overcoming quarter-time deficits against both Melbourne and Carlton during November to qualify.
Koenen said learning to deal with that adversity, as a team and leader, had been a huge step forward for the experienced group.
Her own journey as a captain has ridden the ups and downs since stepping into the giant shoes vacated by inaugural skipper Emma Zielke ahead of the 2022 season.
Koenen, 30, will lead her team out for a fourth successive decider this weekend, and says she is constantly questioning her own methods and continuing to learn the style that works best.
“Having now been a few years into my journey, I have so much more appreciation for how much influence I can have on the group, and that calmness and clarity with myself just gives the rest of the group so much belief,” she said.
“I’m constantly learning. I feel like the more you learn, the less you realise you know.
“Everybody has such different ways.
“The group has so much belief in me, and as long as I’m continually trying to get better in the ways I’m good, I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Koenen is revered at the Lions, an inaugural team member alongside Ally Anderson and Shannon Campbell, growing into not only a formidable defender across her 10 seasons, but a fantastic captain.
Bre Koenen of the Lions is chaired off the field by Ally Anderson and Shannon Campbell during the AFLW Round 9 match between Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide Power. Image: AFL Photos
There’s been ups and downs during her leadership, losing the 2022 Grand Final to Melbourne at the opening of a packed Brighton Homes Arena, winning in 2023 against North Melbourne and then losing to the same opponent last year.
Koenen said following that 30-point loss 12 months ago, she and the team had some serious reflection.
“I’m sure Craig (Starcevich) could relate, you overanalyse everything, especially when you lose,” she said.
“You overanalyse everything you say, you overthink everything you want to do, how you want to be perceived, everything you do and say.
“Last year we weren’t even that far behind going into the last quarter (16 points), and it felt like we were down by a country mile.
“This year we’ve been able to turn things around, come back.
“Honestly, we’ve just learned so much in having belief in our process and trying to take as much of the emotion out as possible and staying task-driven and focused on what we need to actually do, rather than getting tied up in the emotion of the game.
“Just to be here again with the opportunity is so exciting.
“Seven in 10 years – I don’t think we’ll appreciate how amazing that is until we’re long retired.”
