‘It’s shattering’: Goodwin laments eleventh hour Lions loss as finals chances suffer major blow

Melbourne Demons coach Simon Goodwin was extremely disappointed by his side giving away a last-minute goal to the Brisbane Lions, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a five-point loss.

“It’s shattering to lose the game, we came up here on a mission where a lot of people didn’t give us a chance,” he said.

“We’re proud of how the boys performed but incredibly disappointed with the result at the end. There was a game there for the taking and we walk away losing.

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“We were pretty determined and felt like we had some things come back in our territory and contest game and the way we were defending, we knew we had some things going in the right direction.

“Their midfield got on top in the last quarter and in reality I think we went a bit safe, we’ve got a lot of young players and there’s a lot for us to unpack there.”

Goodwin said he was rapt by the bounce back performance of midfield star Clayton Oliver, who has had a quiet month.

“He’s worked incredibly hard, there’s been a lot of criticism out there about Clayton but I think he showed tonight why teams go to him.

“He’s a very important player who has a high level of skill and we’re rapt to see him back to his best tonight.”

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan said he unusually put the stats up on the whiteboard of his key midfield brigade at half time, to encourage them to come out firing.

“I put Huey’s (Hugh McCluggage), Lachie’s (Lachie Neale) and Dunk’s (Josh Dunkley) stats up on the board at half time and the opposition’s and said “boys, we need to lift”.

“To their credit they gave us a massive lift in the second half and that just shows what great character those guys have.”

Fagan said it was an unpredictable game and his side was possibly a bit sluggish after a big win the week prior against Port Adelaide.

“It was a rollercoaster game, we had so many opportunities but the good thing is we found a way,” he said.

“Sometimes when you have big wins like we did last week, you get performances like that.”