AFL fans and players were left in the dark (literally) on Friday night when the lights at Brisbane’s The Gabba stadium went out. The umpires quickly halted the game as tech crews attempted to figure out whether the match could be completed.
Halfway through the final quarter of the Brisbane Lions vs Melbourne Demons game, the stadium went pitch black before a message on the screens read “The Gabba is investigating a technical issue that is impacting the venue’s power”.
The actual moment the lights went bust was met with cries of “oh no!” from the commentary team and who then said that “I think we’ve got comms back, but we’ve got lights out”.
If only their mics had turned off too… Oh well. We can dream!
@bestofafl02 Call the game off 😂 #Afl #melbourne #demons #brisbane #lions #football
Before long, the floodlights slowly began to illuminate again and the players from both teams completed a short (re)warm-up.
The Demons quickly booted five goals after play ramped up again to get within range of a massive comeback.
The scorecard eventually showed the Lions kicking 14.9 (93) to the Demons’ 13.4 (82), denying Melbourne’s a fairytale comeback.
Officially, the fourth quarter lasted 69 minutes (nice) which broke the record for the longest in AFL/VFL history per news.com.au.
the gabba staff rn pic.twitter.com/ZcIBNVNozj
— 𝕛𝕒𝕔𝕠𝕓 (@jaxxb3005) March 24, 2023
According to The Age, the cause of the outage was a fire in the light tower.
To be honest I was hoping for a sillier reason, like a possum chewing at some cables or someone accidentally pressing the big “do not press” button.
I’ve seen enough animated movies to know that there’s always one lying around!
Hilariously, Brisbane is set to host the Summer Olympics in 2032. Let’s hope The Gabba gets its lights well and truly sorted by then.
Otherwise, we run the risk of putting on the spookiest opening ceremony in Olympic history.
Actually, that sounds kinda fun when you think about it.
