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Chaos as Brisbane’s game against Melbourne halted for over 30 MINUTES after the floodlights failed due to ‘big bang’ at the Gabba: ‘Absolutely no idea what’s going on’
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Brisbane’s clash with Melbourne suffered an unexpected stoppage as a power issue caused the Gabba floodlights to fail on Friday night.
The Lions – cruising towards a comfortable win over the 2021 premiers – defended an aerial ball kicked downfield when the lights cut out during the fourth quarter of their Round 3 contest.
Channel 7 broadcaster James Brayshaw immediately shouted: ‘Oh no! Oh no!’ and boundary rider Abbey Holmes explained that a ‘big bang’ was the possible cause for the failure.
‘We have absolutely no idea what’s going on,’ she said.
‘The torches from the iPhones here going on. There was another big bang about 10 seconds ago.’
The farcical scenes were reminiscent of the infamous Waverley Park incident back in 1996, when St Kilda’s game against Essendon was postponed and resumed days later due to a fire at the ground when one of the light bulbs burst into flames.
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Luke Hodge observed: ‘The power’s on at the hotel across the street! There was a big bang and out everything went.
‘The cost of electricity has gone up – have they paid the bill?’
It is not the first time that the floodlights have caused issues at the Gabba. Back in 2019, the Brisbane Heat’s game against the Sydney Thunder was abandoned when the lights went off during the Heat’s chase.
‘The AFL has 60 minutes to get the Gabba lights back on under its rules. Otherwise the Lions get the points,’ Jon Ralph said.
‘The players will now be in the rooms for at least 20 minutes and if the lights aren’t on by 60 minutes the game is abandoned given it is the second half.’
Fortunately, the issue was resolved in around half an hour and the match resumed.
After the game, Lions star Josh Dunkley said: ‘Very unique, I don’t reckon I’ve seen anything like that in world sport.
‘I wasn’t too sure what they’d do. Whether they’d reset the game or call it off at the time. Bit of a weird one but thankful we were able to come back out here and get the win.’
