Brisbane Lions

History: Start of a new era

The Brisbane Lions were officially launched on 1 November 1996, joining the national competition in 1997.

Beginnings: 1997–2000

In their first year as a combined club the Lions made the finals, finishing in eighth position after being defeated by the St Kilda Football Club in a qualifying final. The following year, however, they finished in last position, despite boasting a talented playing list.

Triple premiership success: 2001–2003

As the Brisbane Lions, the club won its first AFL premiership in the 2001 AFL Grand Final, defeating Essendon 15.18 (108) to 12.10 (82). Lions utility player Shaun Hart won the Norm Smith Medal as best on ground in the Grand Final.

In 2002, the Lions won back-to-back premierships when they again defeated Collingwood 9.12 (66) to 10.15 (75) in the 2002 AFL Grand Final in cold and wet conditions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Early in the contest the Lions lost both ruckman Beau McDonald and utility player Martin Pike (who had already had nine possessions in the first quarter) to injury and had to complete the match with a limited bench.

With a number of players under an injury cloud – and having lost to Collingwood in a qualifying final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground three weeks previously – the Lions went into the game as underdogs. However, they sealed their place in history as an AFL dynasty by thrashing the Magpies in cool but sunny conditions. At one stage in the final quarter the Lions led by almost 80 points before relaxing when the match was well and truly won, allowing Collingwood to score the last four goals. The final score of 20.14 (134) to 12.12 (84) saw the club become only the fourth in VFL/AFL history to win three consecutive premierships and the first since the creation of the AFL. Simon Black claimed the Norm Smith Medal with a dominant 39 possession match, the most possessions ever gathered by a player in a grand final.

The 2004 season saw Brisbane remain in the top portion of the ladder for most of the season. Reaching the finals in second position, Brisbane controversially had to travel to Melbourne to play against Geelong in the preliminary final, due to a contract between the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and the Australian Football League (AFL) that required one preliminary final to be played each year at the MCG. Port Adelaide had finished on top of the ladder and hosted the other preliminary final in Adelaide. Despite this setback, Brisbane beat Geelong and reached the AFL Grand Final for the fourth consecutive year. Their opponents, Port Adelaide, playing in their first ever grand final, were too good on the day and recorded a 40-point win.

Rebuild of the Lions' second generation: 2005–2008

The Lions began the 2006 season optimistically, but injuries again plagued the club, whose players recorded an AFL record total of 200 matches lost to injury for the season.

The Brisbane Lions finished runner up in the 2007 NAB Cup and then went on to create history by being the first team in the history of the AFL to have five co-captains. That year, the Lions failed to make the finals for a third successive year in 2007.

The Lions began the 2008 NAB Cup shakily, losing to Essendon by 27 points. The team struggled for the season and missed out on the finals with a 10–12 record, losing 3 games despite having at least 5 more scoring shots in each of those games. Coach Leigh Matthews resigned at the end of the season after 10 seasons and 3 premierships with the club.

Michael Voss: 2009–2013

The Lions made a good start in the 2009 NAB Cup under new senior coach Michael Voss by registering a 9-point win over St Kilda. However this was followed by a series of losses in the pre-season to Essendon, Melbourne and Richmond. Their season ended with a 51-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

The 2009/2010 off-season was dominated by the arrival of Brendan Fevola from Carlton, and the hype was focused on Fevola and Jonathan Brown in the sense that the Lions could capitalise on their strong 2009 season. Indeed, the Lions won their first four matches of the 2010 season to be top of the ladder after four rounds, but they would only win three more games after that to crash to a lowly finish by season's end. One of those wins however, was against eventual premiers Collingwood.

The Lions' 2010/2011 off-season was disrupted by the sacking of Fevola after just one season at the Lions, following repeated off-field indiscretions which included getting drunk in the Brisbane streets during New Year's Eve celebrations. On the field, the Lions won only four games for the year, but only one against any Victorian team, and that was North Melbourne, in Round 9. Despite their worst season since 1998, coach Michael Voss was granted a contract extension after the board recommended that Voss was the best man to take the club forward into the future. Leading into season 2012, only two players from the triple-premiership winning team of 2001–2003 remained: Simon Black and Jonathan Brown.

The 2013 season started well for Brisbane, defeating Carlton in the final of the NAB Cup, with Daniel Rich winning the Michael Tuck Medal for best on ground and Aaron Cornelius showing some good form. However, things began to decline from then, with losses to the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide. However, in the 5th QClash match against Gold Coast, the Lions won by two points, with Jonathan Brown winning the Marcus Ashcroft Medal. Injuries were beginning to take a toll, with young players Claye Beams and Jared Polec suffering severe injuries. In Round 13, Brisbane defeated second-placed Geelong, coming from 52 points down late in the third quarter to win by 5 points due to an Ash McGrath goal after the siren in his 200th match.

On 13 August 2013, coach Michael Voss was told that his contract would not be renewed.

Playing under Justin Leppitsch: 2014–2016

On 25 August 2013, former premiership player of the Lions, Justin Leppitsch, was confirmed to be the senior coach of the Lions for the next 3 seasons starting in 2014

On 18 October 2013, Brisbane Lions legend Simon Black announced his retirement.

During round 13, 2014 Lions captain Jonathan Brown was the victim of a facial injury in a clash between the Lions and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. He collided with Tomas Bugg's knee and was taken off the ground. He suffered a concussion, which caused his retirement from football. Along with the retirement of Ashley McGrath in August 2014, no active players remain from any of the club's triple-premiership winning sides.

On 29 August 2016, Leppitsch was sacked as coach of the Lions.

Chris Fagan era: 2017–

On 4 October 2016, Chris Fagan was announced as the Lions' coach from the 2017 season onwards.

Membership base and sponsorship

Crowds and memberships for the Brisbane Lions grew dramatically during the four seasons in which they made the AFL Grand Final. Since then, with the team being less successful, attendances have declined, but have remained stable over the past three seasons. In 2009 the Lions found it so difficult to sell corporate boxes that they resorted to doing so on a game-by-game basis. 2011 saw the Brisbane Lions suffer their worst ever drop in support, as memberships decreased by 28%.The 2015 season has seen the membership rise to 25,109, a decent figure but still an 18% decrease from the club's peak membership of 30,941 in 2004. Consequently, the Brisbane Lions have the third lowest membership in the AFL.

Statistics highlighted in bold denote the best season for Brisbane in that category
Statistics highlighted in italic denote the worst season for Brisbane in that category
¹ following finals matches

Guernseys

The three types of guernsey are:

Mascot

As of 2016 the lions new mascot 'Roy' was introduced. The Lion's Mascot Manor representative and club mascot is Bernie "Gabba" Vegas, a caricature of a lion dressed in Brisbane Lions jumper, sunglasses, wide lapels, and flares, designed to resemble Elvis Presley.

Song

The club's team song, "The Pride of Brisbane Town", is based on the Fitzroy club song, and is sung to the music of "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem:

Rivalries

The Brisbane Lions have two main rivals, Collingwood and Port Adelaide.

The biggest rival for the Lions is Collingwood, having built up plenty of history in the relatively short existence as a merged club. Pre-merger Fitzroy was a neighbouring suburb to Collingwood, with the boundary being based on Smith Street, along with the fact that Fitzroy and Collingwood topped the VFL/AFL premiership tally during the early decades of the VFL competition. The Brisbane Bears also had a bit of history with the Magpies as Nathan Buckley famously deflected to Collingwood after one season on the Bears list, citing that he wanted to win premierships, ironically retiring at the end of the 2007 season without a premiership as a player in the AFL. The Bears also lost their final regular season match in their final season to the Magpies, costing the Bears the minor premiership that season. However the rivalry between the Lions and the Magpies has been properly ignited post-merger, starting in late 1999 when Collingwood played their last ever VFL/AFL game at their spiritual home ground, Victoria Park with the Lions emerging 42 point victors that day and consigning the Magpies to their second wooden spoon that day, to the dissatisfaction of the Collingwood supporters. The rivalry between the two clubs went to the next level as the clubs played off in two consecutive Grand Finals in 2002 and 2003, with the Lions emerging victors on both occasions. These grand final results further fueled the bitterness that Collingwood supporters and their president Eddie McGuire still have towards the Brisbane Lionsto this day, despite the Lions having a poor decade on the field after their golden era. Due to many Collingwood supporters migrating up to Queensland and many Brisbane Lions supporters residing in Victoria (many of which were ex-Fitzroy supporters), along with the on-field history between the two clubs, many Lions supporters consider a Brisbane Lions v Collingwood match-up to be their derby, despite the clubs being over 1700 km apart and the fact that there are many clubs in the competition that are geographically closer to each other.

The second biggest rival of the Lions is Port Adelaide, with the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy merging to become the Brisbane Lions in order to allow Port Adelaide to enter the AFL competition. This created some dissatisfaction between old Bears and Fitzroy supporters who have felt that they have lost their clubs. In their first season in the AFL, the Lions narrowly made the finals at the expense of Port Adelaide, with the Power narrowly missing out on percentage. However the rivalry was properly ignited during the early 2000s, as both clubs fielded strong teams during that period. In 2001 the Lions defeated the Power in the Qualifying final en route to their first of three consecutive premierships, with Port bowing out in straight sets that year. In 2002 Port defeated Brisbane by 6 points in the final regular season game to narrowly claim the minor premiership, however Brisbane would eliminate Port in the Preliminary Final that year to claim their second premiership out of their hat-trick of premierships. In 2003 Port would claim their second consecutive minor premiership, however they would go on to lose their qualifying and preliminary finals again, as the Lions would claim their hat-trick of premierships that season. However, in 2004 Port Adelaide would finally break through and win their first AFL premiership, defeating the Brisbane Lions in the Grand Final and preventing them from what would have been a historic four premierships in a row. In adding further insult to injury for Lions fans, it meant that their biggest rivals, Collingwood, would remain the only team in the VFL/AFL to win four-in-a-row. The rivalry between the two clubs has cooled down since the early 2000s, however there are a few Lions supporters that still consider Port Adelaide to be a bigger rival than Collingwood.

The Lions have no genuine rivalry with any other team in the AFL, despite the AFL trying to manufacture a rivalry with the Sydney Swans and Gold Coast Suns.

Club

Reserves

Club facts

Premierships

Runners Up

Coaches

Captains

Biggest home crowds

Reserves team

The Brisbane Lions have entered a reserves team in the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) competition since 2011. The club had previously entered a reserves team in the local Queensland Australian Football League in 1998, known as the Lion Cubs but became the Suncoast Lions Football Club in 2004 and were based on the Sunshine Coast. They would win their first premiership in 2001 when they defeated the Southport Sharks in the QAFL Grand Final. A stand-alone Brisbane Lions reserves team was created in 2011 and began playing in the Northern Conference of the North East Australian Football League. In 2012, the Lions won the Northern Conference and overall NEAFL premierships, a feat which was repeated in 2013. The Lions reserves play home games at the South Pine Sports Complex in Brendale, a facility opened in 2016.

Coaches

AFL Women's team

In May 2016, the club launched a bid to enter a team in the inaugural AFL Women's season in 2017. The Brisbane Lions were granted a license on 15 June 2016, becoming one of eight teams to compete in the league's first season. Former AFL Queensland employee Breeanna Brock was appointed to the position of Women’s CEO the following day.

Tayla Harris and Sabrina Frederick-Traub were the club's first signings, unveiled along with the league's other 14 marquee players on 27 July 2016. A further 23 senior players and two rookie players were added to the club's inaugural list in the league's drafting and signing period. Emma Zielke will captain the team for their inaugural season.

Former Collingwood and Brisbane Bears player and AFL Queensland coach Craig Starcevich was appointed the team's inaugural head coach in June 2016. The rest of the coaching team was announced on 8 November 2016 as David Lake as the midfield coach, Daniel Merrett as the backline coach and Brent Staker as the forward coach.

Existing club sponsor Hyundai, along with Epic Pharmacy, will sponsor the team in 2017.

The team plays its home games at the South Pine Sports Complex in Brendale.