Longest wait for a Rich reward
HIS advancing years and several seasons of Brisbane Lions mediocrity have Daniel Rich relishing the prospect of a preliminary final at the MCG on Friday night.
Rich, 32, is the longestserving Lion in the squad.
In a Lions career dating to 2009 and 267 AFL games, the WA product has learnt to take nothing “for granted”.
And with good reason. Rich seemed to have the world at his feet in his first year of AFL football, winning the Rising Star as part of a Lions side that played finals.
You could not have blamed him for expecting a steady diet of finals football for years to come, but things soon went pear-shaped for Brisbane.
While the club won a preseason title in 2013, Brisbane was barely credible for the best part of a decade and Rich did not play in another finals series until 2019.
“Naturally you relish these big games as you get older – you don’t know when your last finals game’s going to be,” he said ahead of the Lions’ preliminary final date with minor premier Geelong on Friday.
“A lot of work goes into getting there and I definitely don’t take it for granted, having played finals in my first year and then not playing finals for 10 years after that.
“I definitely just relish the opportunity we’ve been given. Even though we’ve played in the finals for the last few years now, you just can’t expect that it’s just going to happen year in, year out.”
This is the fourth straight season the Lions have made finals under coach Chris Fagan. Three top-four finishes were followed by a sixthplaced effort this year.
The Lions’ ability to deliver in September was already questioned, given a record of one win from six finals appearances in the previous three years, and the sudden-death nature of this month’s journey added to the doubt.
However, thrilling wins over Richmond and Melbourne have the Lions only one victory away from their first AFL grand final appearance since 2004.
“There has been a bit of a different mentality this year, but it’s been exciting at the same time,” Rich said. “We know we’ve had to win each week to stay alive. Nobody really expected us to beat Melbourne, and they don’t expect us to win this weekend either, but there’s nothing wrong with being an underdog.”