Carlton beats Brisbane by a point in AFL Opening Round clash at Gabba as Keidean Coleman injures knee
Brisbane’s AFL premiership charge has taken an early hammering with Keidean Coleman suffering a suspected ACL tear before the side gave up a 46-point lead to lose by one point to Carlton.
Coleman was helped from the field at halftime on Friday at the Gabba after his left leg clashed with Carlton tackler Lachie Fogarty as he kicked.
The Lions had blitzed the Blues early but in the third term had eight-straight goals kicked on them in a 13.8 (86) 12.13 (85) loss that ended a 14-game winning streak at the Gabba stronghold.
Initial reports were of a hyper-extended knee for Coleman but coach Chris Fagan delivered worse news of a likely season-ending injury in the post-game press conference.
“He’ll get a scan tomorrow but at this stage it looks like an ACL,” he said.
“We haven’t had much luck with ACLs, think about (Eric) Hipwood, (Cam) Rayner, Ashy (Will Ashcroft) last year.
Conor McKenna could return from a hamstring injury next week while Ashcroft won’t be back until the later half of this season after his setback in 2023.
But Coleman’s ball use and dare out of defence will be hard to replace, the 23-year-old dominant in the first half of last season’s grand final.
“We get disappointed for all the lads with those sorts of injuries, because we know the way back’s a long way back,” Fagan said.
“It’ll create an opportunity for somebody else, which will be their good fortune.”
Fagan rattled off the statistics after the game as if to figure out what went wrong, but admitted he wasn’t quite sure.
“We don’t walk away from what happened tonight,” he said.
“It wasn’t a terrible performance, it was just a really bad one quarter.
“We need to chat about it and address it.
“You need to sleep on it, need to watch the vision and get the absolute truth of what happened and understand that.”
Veteran defender Darcy Gardiner (11 disposals) started in the opposition’s goal square while Rayner was at the first bounce and veteran Dayne Zorko was best on ground in the first half up front.
“We’ll keep trying things, because we have to get better,” Fagan said of his positional tweaks.
Stunning comeback a ‘significant moment’ for rising Blues
Carlton coach Michael Voss admitted his side’s incredible comeback could be one of those moments for the Blues, declaring “we’ll remember this day”.
Harry McKay (three goals) kicked the winning goal with 90 seconds to go before the Blues resisted the hosts in a mad goal-mouth scramble in the final seconds.
Carlton’s win was their first at the Gabba in more than a decade, and ended the Lions’ 14-game home winning streak dating back to round 23 in 2022.
“Amazing win, like, amazing win … we had to overcome a bit,” Voss, who piloted Carlton to the finals for first time in nine years last year, said.
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