Sunday Territorian

Silky-skilled Cameron the star of Q-Clash hammering with six goals

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CHARLIE Cameron kicked a career-high six goals to inspire Brisbane’s record 91-point thumping of the Gold Coast at the Gabba last night, lifting the Lions provisiona­lly to the top of the AFL table.

What was billed as a QClash became the Charlie Cameron Show as the Lions livewire shone in the 22.12 (144) to 8.5 (53) romp – Brisbane’s eighth straight victory - in a timely percentage booster in front of 22,538 fans.

Not content with earning their first finals berth in 10 years, Brisbane now have a top-two finish in sight with two regular season rounds left thanks to the club record rout of a sorry Suns.

Their victory easily beat their previous best win of 65 points over the Gold Coast in round four 2012.

The Lions expected the Suns to come out swinging in the derby, predicting the cellar dwellers to be galvanised by a week marred by Gold Coast teenager Brayden Crossley being provisiona­lly banned for reportedly testing positive to cocaine after a NEAFL match back in May.

But after an early arm wrestle, Cameron blew the contest open with four goals by halftime including three in the second term to be a unanimous choice for the derby’s Marcus Ashcroft Medal.

Cameron bettered his previous best bag of five goals notched in Round 14 against St Kilda this year and again for Adelaide in their 2017 preliminar­y final victory over Geelong.

At one stage Brisbane kicked 14 straight majors before Alex Sexton booted truly for the Gold Coast midway in the fourth term.

Brisbane are now on their biggest winning run since 2002 after the Gabba cricket score.

The scoreline last night marked their most points in a game since Round 17, 2007.

Remarkably the Lions had previously not secured a win of more than 70 points in the past seven years.

In contrast, the dead-last Gold Coast were condemned to their 16th straight loss.

The Gold Coast held on to keep the deficit to 4.3 (27) to 2.2 (14) by the first break and only trailed by 20 late in the second before the levee broke.

Brisbane booted three goals in barely 20 seconds to blow the halftime deficit out to 10.5 (65) to 4.3 (27).

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