Lions score Aussie Rules hat-trick
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The Brisbane Lions are only the fourth team to score three consecutive wins.
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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- The Brisbane Lions became the most successful Australian Rules football team in nearly 50 years Saturday, winning their third consecutive grand final championship with a 50-point win over the Collingwood Magpies.
The Lions won 20.14 (134) to 12.12 (84) before a crowd of 79,451 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with Jason Akermanis kicking five goals and Alastair Lynch four.
Live television provided the match to 170 million homes in 72 countries.
The Australian Football League victory put coach Leigh Matthews' side in illustrious company as just the fourth team to win three consecutive premierships and the first since Melbourne in 1955-57.
Brisbane midfielder Simon Black was awarded the Norm Smith Medal as the best player in the match.
The Lions withstood an early challenge from Collingwood and took control in the second quarter by kicking six goals to one, a burst that blew the game open and made the margin 42 points at halftime.
Collingwood narrowed the gap to 30 points with two goals in the first five minutes of the second half, but Akermanis' third goal restored the margin and the Lions never looked back.
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Disappointment for Collingwood fans.
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The Lions had 19 players in the lineup that were part of the two previous championship teams. The Magpies were without one of their best and most popular players -- forward Anthony Rocca -- who was suspended for elbowing an opponent.
The Magpies became the first team to lose successive grand finals since Geelong in 1994-95 and the first side to lose to the same team in successive grand finals since Hawthorn lost to Essendon in 1984-85.
Australian Rules football is played with two teams of 18 players. Goals, which are worth six points, are scored when the oval-shaped ball is kicked by the attacking team between the tall upright posts.
A behind, worth one point, is scored when the ball touches one of the tall posts or passes between the short posts that flank each side of the tall posts.
The game was first played in Australia in 1858 and has its origins in both rugby and Gaelic football.
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