1. The growth and development of the young group who are being exposed to senior football is exciting. Each week there is another positive from that cohort and against the Lions it was the performance of second year defender Brady Hough. The 20-year-old played on perhaps the most dangerous small forward in the game, Charlie Cameron, and held him goal-less while also racking up 22 possessions and 14 marks.

2. Four-time all-Australian Jeremy McGovern provided a reminder of his attributes with a quality return from 14 weeks on the sidelines after hamstring surgery. He had 20 possessions and nine marks before being subbed out of the contest as a precautionary measure at three-quarter time. In conjunction with Tom Barrass they did a solid job on the Lions key forwards.

3. After a seven-goal onslaught at the start of the game, the Eagles did well to bring the game back to a contest and stymie Brisbane’s brilliant run-on football. The Lions moved the ball slickly through the middle of the ground with little pressure at the outset, but the Eagles tightened things up from there before the hosts finished off strongly and blew the margin out to 81 points.

4. It was no surprise that Brisbane, who arguably boast the biggest home ground advantage in the competition proved more than formidable and their numbers were imposing. They had 62 inside forward 50 entries compared to 29, 23 marks inside 50, 126 handball receives to 103 and 39 clearances to 25. They kicked all of their seven goals in the opening term from stoppage.

5. Experienced midfielder Tim Kelly worked hard alongside rookie Elijah Hewett around the stoppages and was one player standing up in the heat of the initial burst from Brisbane. He had 10 first quarter possessions before a clash of heads with Jack Gunston. Both players recovered after bandaging their heads, with Kelly having 26 possessions and winning six clearances, while Gunston finished with six goals for the Lions.