IN a new approach to the AFL Women’s end of season reviews, Rookie Me Central casts both a glass half full and half empty lens over each side’s campaigns.

Today’s team, in the penultimate article in this series, is Brisbane, who fell agonisingly short of its second AFLW Premiership.

GLASS HALF FULL

They made another Grand Final

Up until the Grand Final, Brisbane had a just about as dominant season that has been seen in the AFLW competition.

It was hard to stop and looked like it was racing towards its second flag in as many calendar years.

Unfortunately for the Lions, they could not continue that on the most important day, losing the Grand Final.

The surprise return of Kate Lutkins

When Brisbane started its Season 7 campaign, it probably was not expecting to get the services of Kate Lutkins back this season after she did her ACL back in January.

But, it did and when she did come back mid way through the season, she slotted back into the side so seamlessly it was like she had missed no time at all.

Jesse Wardlaw the leading goal kicker

Although Brisbane did not come away with the ultimate prize, it came away with a number of individual accolades.

One of those went to star forward Jesse Wardlaw, who topped the league’s leading goal kicker tally with 22 for the season.

Although she has always been one of the league’s best forwards, Season 7 really saw Wardlaw’s game grow again and she became Brisbane’s go to tall forward target.

Ally Anderson winning the League BnF

Another highlight for Brisbane and its fans on an individual level was Ally Anderson winning the League Best and Fairest.

Although everyone at Brisbane except her seemed to think she was a shot at winning heading into the last round, the fact that she did win is good recognition for her stellar season.

GLASS HALF EMPTY

They lost another Grand Final

At the end of the day, they were the team to beat all year and yet fell short on the day it mattered.

They were simply outclassed on the last Sunday in November by a team that was better on the day, and the Lions will be embarrassed they had a big debut for their new home and were not able to come home with the chocolates.

Will the Springfield turf affect their game style long term?

Speaking of their new home at Springfield, one glaring issue that the Grand Final brought to the fore was that because the turf was so new that it did not give much bounce off it, which did not allow either team to play their normal run and carry game.

Moving forward, this issue may be fixed with time, but if it does not how will this affect Brisbane’s game style moving forward?

CONCLUSION

Despite the heartbreak of the last Sunday in November, very little went wrong for the Lions this year.

They were one of, if not the team to beat all year, but they were just beaten by the better team on the day.

Brisbane are the kind of side that will use the pain of this loss as fuel, and the Lions will be up there again next year.