Fed to the Lions and the Wolves? One down!

Our own Ethan Leary made this masterpiece. One Lion down and the South Hobart underdogs are on the loose.

Well, well, well.

Who would have thought?

South Hobart. The little Tasmanian club apparently sent off to be eaten by the Lions and the Wolves.

Bottom of the pre-tournament rankings. Rank outsiders with the bookmakers.

And after Sunday's result in Brisbane?

Lions FC 1, South Hobart 2.

TOP OF THE GROUP! NAH NAH NAH!

Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

Football just makes you smile sometimes.

Nobody told the lads

When the Australian Championship groups were announced, someone on Reddit suggested South Hobart had been fed to the Lions and the Wolves.

Two Lions and a Wolf, to be precise.

Lions FC from Queensland. Preston Lions from Victoria. Wollongong Wolves from New South Wales.

What could possibly go wrong?

South were rated last of the 16 clubs before a ball was kicked.

Lions FC are the Queensland champions. They'd just made the Australia Cup semi-finals.

The bookmakers had Lions at $1.05. South Hobart were $15.

Fifteen dollars!

I wonder how many Tasmanians had a little flutter?

The rankings don't score goals. Neither do the bookmakers.

The players do.

Two goals and a very long second half

It was a grey, mild Brisbane evening.

Low twenties. A bit of cloud about.

Proper football weather.

Jesse Spang opened the scoring in the 27th minute after some lovely work from Dawit Son.

Mitchell Hore equalised for Lions in the 34th minute. A cracking goal, to be fair.

Then a minute later Kobe Kemp put us back in front.

1–2.

That was how it finished.

Of course, there were still 55 minutes or so to survive.

My goodness, didn't we have to survive!

By the second half the lights were on and the temperature was dropping.

The Lions weren't.

They had 23 shots to our six. Eleven on target.

Our six? Every one of them on target.

South managed one shot in the entire second half.

One!

We were pushed deeper and deeper as Lions came at us again and again.

Every clearance seemed to come straight back.

I was willing the clock to move faster.

But the lads just kept going.

That wonderful Tasmanian grit.

They worked their frickin socks off.

They chased. They tackled. They threw themselves in front of just about everything.

Most importantly, they kept the ball OUT.

Football isn't always pretty.

Sometimes you just have to dig in and find a way.

That's exactly what South Hobart did.

Would someone please confiscate those horns?

I enjoy a bit of atmosphere at football.

I really do.

But those vuvuzelas!

The noise was horrible.

One of the TV commentators wondered whether Luca's defenders could hear a word he was saying over the supporters behind his goal.

I doubt it.

That was the last we heard of the commentary for a while. We turned the sound down.

So did Cathy Hancox. She said so on social media.

I know exactly how she felt!

Poor Luca.

Those horns were right behind him for the whole first half.

He was probably deaf by half-time.

At least he got a bit of peace in the second half.

Well, apart from the Lions peppering his goal.

Reddit was having fun with the horns too.

One person wondered whether the noise was coming from squeaking ducks.

Another suggested the traffic on Brisbane's Centenary Highway couldn't possibly be that bad.

I love enthusiastic supporters. I wouldn't begrudge the Lions juniors making plenty of noise.

But perhaps we could introduce an international vuvuzela limit.

Just a thought.

Apparently we parked the bus

Apparently South Hobart parked the bus.

One Lions supporter said as much on their Facebook page.

To be fair to him, he also gave us credit for keeping Lions out and taking a couple of our very limited chances.

Well, perhaps we did park the bus.

I think it was more a case of being pushed so far back that the bus ended up in our penalty area whether we wanted it there or not.

Since when was defending well something to be ashamed of?

Remember Chelsea against Barcelona in the 2012 Champions League semi-final? Ten men, backs to the wall, hanging on for dear life. They knocked Barcelona out and went on to win the whole thing.

Or Mourinho's Inter Milan against Barcelona in 2010? Ten men again. Another Champions League trophy.

I'm not suggesting we're about to win the Champions League!

But defending is part of football.

If that's parking the bus, perhaps we should leave the engine running.

One Reddit contributor had some tactical advice for Lions.

"Note to self. Don't let hobart have the ball. 2 possessions, 2 goals."

Excellent advice.

Another declared:

"Never in doubt."

Ha!

Clearly that person wasn't sitting in my lounge room.

Then there was this less charming contribution on X:

"Good fixed match. Isn't there any laws to prevent this c**ts?"

Good grief.

Apparently an unfancied Tasmanian club winning away from home is now evidence of match fixing.

Whatever happened to simply saying well played?

Enough of that nonsense.

There were plenty of lovely comments too.

Our players are getting noticed

This is one of the best things about the Australian Championship.

Our footballers get to show people what they can do.

And people are noticing.

Rex Maddock certainly caught the eye on Reddit. Only this week he worked at our holiday clinics mixing it with 6 year olds.

One person called him a speed demon who could play A-League.

Another, who had apparently played against him, said being pressed by Rex was genuinely frightening!

I loved reading that.

We know what our players are capable of. They just don't often get the chance to show it outside Tasmania.

That's what makes this competition so valuable.

A little bit of history

My thanks to Paul (@HaulPunt), who was tweeting some terrific statistics on Sunday.

According to Paul, the win was:

• South Hobart's first win in a national competition since 2013. A NPL Finals win, no less.

• Tasmania's first competitive win in a national competition since August 2018.

• Tasmania's fourth win against a big five NPL side since 2013.

• Tasmania's first ever win against a Queensland side.

Kobe Kemp also joined a very select group.

He became the fifth Tasmanian to score in multiple national competitions, alongside Chris Hunt, Miles Barnard, Brayden Mann and Nick Morton.

That last name gave me a particular smile.

I love the history side of football. Wonderful stuff, Paul.

This one belongs to the lads

I've spent a great many years at South Hobart.

I've watched children come into the club, grow up and become senior footballers.

I know how hard they work.

I know the hours they put in and the sacrifices they make.

Lions hadn't lost at home since Round 22 of last year's NPL Queensland season. Twenty matches, according to Brisbane Football Review.

So when our lads go to Brisbane and beat the Queensland champions on their own patch, I think we're entitled to make a bit of noise.

Last year's Australian Championship gave us one point from six matches.

This year we have three points from one match.

And we're top of the group.

Did I mention that?

TOP OF THE GROUP!

Next stop, Wollongong

Ah, Wollongong.

A place we know well.

The jacarandas, the heat and memories of matches that left us shaking our heads.

Last November we lost 3–2 there.

Nick Morton scored. Harry Oates equalised. Then Wollongong found the winner.

So close.

This time it's Macedonia Park in Berkeley, not Collegians where we played last year.

Sunday 25 October at 3 pm.

I wonder whether the jacarandas will be putting on their usual October show.

And whether we'll get another of those hot Wollongong afternoons.

The Wolves will be waiting.

After Sunday, perhaps they'll be looking at us a little differently.

Of course, we're still the underdogs.

The little club from Tasmania.

The one supposedly fed to the Lions and the Wolves.

That's fine with me.

I like being the underdog.

Especially when the underdog bites back.

Congratulations, lads.

What a wonderful result. You've earned every bit of it.

One Lion down.

Wollongong, we're coming for you!

Nah nah nah!