Brisbane will enter Saturday’s AFL Grand Final with a united playing group that truly believes it can win a hard-earned premiership.
But 10 years ago, the Brisbane Lions were a shadow of that ruthless early 2000s dynasty team and the breathtaking, dynamic side of today.
Club legend Michael Voss had been sacked as senior coach three rounds before the end of the home away season – a campaign in which the Lions finished 12th on the ladder with a 10-12 record.
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But just weeks after another triple premiership star in Justin Leppitsch was named as Voss’ replacement, it was the shock departure of five players that truly rocked the club and forced it to re-evaluate its entire development program and culture.
The homesick Lions quintet of Billy Longer (St Kilda), Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Sam Docherty (Carlton), Elliot Yeo (West Coast) and Patrick Karnezis (Collingwood) all returned to their home states in the last two days of the 2013 trade period. The group would quickly become known as ‘The Go-Home Five’.
Polec and Karnezis were the Lions’ first two picks in the 2010 draft, while Longer, Docherty and Yeo were the first three players taken by the Lions in the 2011 draft.
In one month, the core of two consecutive Lions draft hauls had essentially been wiped out.
After four consecutive Grand Final appearances then several years stuck in the AFL ladder’s ‘no man’s lad’, the 2013 exodus was tough to take.
Senior players weren’t happy. Pearce Hanley famously had a public parting dig at the quintet, writing on X: “#mummiesboysarehomenow.”
Then-Lions list boss Rob Kerr said after that trade period: “It’s something the club, as a whole, has to own.
“We’ll spend a fair bit of time revisiting all aspects of how we bring them in, look after them and do our best to retain them.”
Lions legend Jonathan Brown, who played in all three Brisbane premierships in 2001, 2002 and 2003 but handed over the captaincy to Jed Adcock ahead of the 2014 season, remembers a grim stage in Brisbane’s history.
“That was a challenging time,” Brown told foxfooty.com.au’s David Zita.
“I’m not sure the leadership was great at the Lions from up top. The club just didn’t look like it was on a stable course.”
So how did Brisbane flip the script so dramatically to become perennial finalists and, ultimately, one win away from a premiership?
Time, patience, some defining off-field calls and a shrewd list strategy that’s paid big dividends.
“It’s not one particular decision. It’s a gradual process,” Brown said.
“When ‘Leppa’ was coaching, they were quite often the youngest team in the comp, as well as Gold Coast and GWS at that time. You just had to get games into them, got a lot of good young talent and then gradually got younger fellas to stay and commit to the club and gradually improve.
“You add that to players with invaluable on-field experience who’ve helped teach and mould the younger fellas.
“And then you’ve got to have team finals experience – and quite often we see with teams, it takes them multiple finals appearances to get to the Big Dance or get the job done, which they’re a good chance of doing on Saturday.”
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NEW LIONS SPINE ‘A STABLE HAND THE CLUB NEEDED’
The foundation of Brisbane’s whole-club turnaround was the appointment of Greg Swann as chief executive – a move driven by then-new AFL boss Gillon McLachlan.
One of the AFL’s most respected club administrators, Swann was Collingwood’s chief executive from 2000 to 2007 before taking up the same position at Carlton from 2007 to 2014.
After McLachlan took over from Andrew Demetriou in early June 2014, one of his first big moves was a left-field call to Swann. McLachlan essentially told Swann the AFL needed him at Brisbane.
Swann, after careful consideration, accepted the role just over one month later, although he spent the first six months living in an inner-city Brisbane hotel and flying home to Melbourne to see family on weekends.
Swann quickly discovered it was going to be a tough gig that required patience. The Lions finished the 2014 season in 15th spot with a 7-14 record. They then won just seven of their next 44 games to finish 17th at the end of both 2015 and 2016.
As Fox Footy’s David King says, “rebuild coaches don’t survive”. That was the case for Leppitsch, who was sacked by the Lions towards the end of the 2016 season.
Swann firstly made a play for respected industry figure David Noble, who’d spent 12 years at the Adelaide Crows as an assistant coach, list manager and head of footy. He accepted the gig in late September 2016.
Noble was quickly put to work, joining a five-man panel that would select the Lions’ new coach. And there were three main contenders for Leppitsch’s job: Carlton interim coach John Barker, Western Bulldogs assistant Brett Montgomery and Hawthorn football boss Chris Fagan, who played a key off-field role in all four Hawks premiership wins in 2008 then 2013 to 2015.
Fagan, who was the front-runner for weeks, was ultimately handed the job. Swann boldly said Fagan was “the perfect fit for the Brisbane Lions as we strive to regain relevance”.
Fagan declared at his first press conference: “Brisbane have a really talented young list and their best football is ahead of them. They really need a coach who can develop that talent and I feel like that’s one of my great strengths.
“One of things that ‘Swanny’ thought that was needed here … we could actually build that culture. Then obviously on top of that, performance will hopefully build as well – but you need to get the people in place first, so that this place is a really good place to come to.”
Man, has he delivered since.
Both Brown and fellow triple premiership Lion Alastair Lynch described Fagan as the “father figure” Brisbane desperately needed who’s played a big role in helping the club retain talent.
“He sounded like the stable hand that the club needed,” Brown said of Fagan.
“He reached out to me very quickly, so we had some conversations, got to know each other right from the get-go and I’ve been thoroughly impressed all the way through.
“He’s been very consistent with his staff. A lot of those staff members have continued on all the way through. He’s really embraced the footy club – he didn’t try and come in wanting to make sweeping changes and clean the whole joint out – and put his arm around the people and said: ‘You’re my army and this is how we’re going to get it done.’
“He’s helped guide them through some difficult times and created a lot of positivity around the club. He’s just been able to get them to the level where they can contend every year.”
Lynch added: “He’s got that good balance between support and firm direction if required.”
Noble would ultimately leave the Lions at the end of 2020 to become North Melbourne’s new senior coach – a journey that lasted, remarkably, just 32 games. But Brown said Noble and Swann were so crucial in the “consistency with the senior leadership”, which trickled down to the playing group.
DRAFTING TOP TALENT AND ‘HIGH-QUALITY GUYS’
After the ‘Go-Home Five’ departures, player retention became a top priority. And as Brown said this week: “They’ve been able to build and grow the list – and have the list stay there and recommit to the footy club.”
Under Swann’s leadership – and then with help from Fagan and Noble – the Lions took a more holistic approach to player welfare, especially with their recent recruits.
They were more intentional with living arrangements for new players, thoroughly deciphering whether they should start with a host family or teammates. A greater emphasis was also placed on communication and interaction with the players’ families outside of Queensland.
“We actually challenged ourselves, because it’s easy just to sit there … they all keep going home, but that’s because of the environment. We had to change a lot of the things we were doing,” Swann told SEN in 2018.
When Fagan took over in late 2017, the Lions had already undergone a significant cull, to the point where they were the youngest list in the competition.
But little did most of the footy world know that the foundation of a 2023 Grand Final side had already been put in place.
Lions academy graduates Harris Andrews (zone selection, 2014) and Eric Hipwood (Pick 14, 2015) had been exposed at senior level for several years already. But it would be the players the Lions selected in the next two drafts that proved crucial.
Brisbane used two first-round picks to draft Hugh McCluggage (Pick 3, 2016) and Jarrod Berry (Pick 17, 2016). Crucially, both were Victorian country kids from the same Talent League club, GWV Rebels.
Twelve months later, Brisbane took Western Jets product Cameron Rayner (Pick 1, 2017) with the opening selection, then plucked Zac Bailey (Pick 15, 2017) out of South Australia and Brandon Starcevich (Pick 18, 2017) out of Western Australia with their other two first-rounders.
All seven aforementioned players featured in at least 23 games for the Lions this season and have turned into excellent players in their own right. They’ll all have significant roles to play in Saturday’s Grand Final against Collingwood – and academy graduate Jack Payne (Pick 54, 2017) would’ve played too if not for a late-season injury.
Just as noteworthy is the fact all of those draft acquisitions have signed long-term contract extensions since joining the club. Hipwood signed for six seasons late last year, Andrews and Berry for four, McCluggage, Starcevich and Bailey for three.
McCluggage, in fact, signed a three-year extension – on top of the one year he already had left on his deal – after just one season at the Lions – a dramatic contract narrative shift compared to what the Lions experienced five years earlier.
“The board, along with the appointments of Chris Fagan and David Noble, were significant appointments to try to stop the player issues of going, so. Then they’ve picked high quality guys,” Lynch told foxfooty.com.au’s David Zita.
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“Even Berry and McCluggage – those picks in that draft, that was a little bit around the quality of person and player, but also they were mates and from the same club. So at least they’re going to Brisbane with someone they know.
“The strategy around the list build and who they brought in was important in bringing the club back together.”
TOPPING UP CONFIRMS ‘COMPLETE TURNAROUND’
The Lions in recent years have turned to trade and free agency to top up.
Poaching Charlie Cameron from the Crows in 2017 was a significant get, justified by the fact he’s now a two-time All-Australian. Twelve months later, best mates Lincoln McCarthy and Lachie Neale joined Brisbane. McCarthy has fitted into the Lions’ dynamic forward line with aplomb, while Neale … yeah he’s turned out pretty well for Brisbane and was worth the high trade price the Lions paid for him.
The Lions traded in winger Callum Ah Chee from the Suns in 2019 before landing a splash and signing free agent Joe Daniher, who’s turned his footy fortunes around since walking through the club’s doors. And the acquisition of Bulldogs star Josh Dunkley 12 months ago has given the Lions’ midfield an element of much-needed grunt.
“You know you’re in a good spot when you’ve got the likes of Lachie Neale and Josh Dunkley and Joe Daniher wanting to go to the club,” Lynch said.
“It’s been a complete turnaround. Now you’ve got high-class players wanting to go to your club. Over the last couple of years, you can see where the Lions had their little gaps and they’ve been able to go out from a list management point of view and find those players and put them in into the places.”
There’s been some great bargain picks along the way too: Oscar McInerney (2016 rookie), Jarryd Lyons (delisted free agent, 2018), Keidean Coleman (Pick 37, 2019) and Conor McKenna (SSP 2022).
And then there’s Dayne Zorko, who’s been there through the lowest of lows and could experience the highest of highs on Saturday. A mature-age recruit ahead of the 2012 season, Zorko has won five of Brisbane’s past nine best and fairests. As Brown said this week: “Dayne Zorko will go down as one of the Lions’ greats, especially if he caps it off with a premiership.”
Fagan during the build has also lured ex-Hawks Luke Hodge, Grant Birchall and Jack Gunston to the Lions for a few years each to help develop the club’s younger players, almost as on-field coaches. Hodge and Birchall have retired, while Gunston has been out of favour this year.
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And then there’s the hardluck stories of Daniel Rich, Marcus Adams, who recently retired from the game due to lingering concussion issues, and Will Ashcroft, who’ll miss the Grand Final due to an ACL rupture after being taken with Pick 2 last year.
But the Lions have the list depth to cover them.
RISING UP THE RANKS
Brisbane’s surge into a Grand Final hasn’t happened quickly.
The Lions won just five of 44 games in Fagan’s first two years at the helm, including claiming the wooden spoon in 2017.
But the green shoots were evident in 2018. Despite winning just five games for the season, the Lions finished with a percentage of 89.1 in a season where 13 teams had at least 12 wins and a percentage of at least 104.
Although no one expected Fagan’s Lions to surge like they did in 2019, winning 16 games to finish second on the ladder and earn a home final.
It would be the first of four top-four finishes across the next five years. And when they didn’t finish in the top four last year, they still made a preliminary final from sixth spot.
But when it mattered most, the Lions were 3-6 in finals across those five seasons, including straight-sets exits in 2019 and 2021.
Despite the frustrating finals loss trend, both Brown and Lynch could see gradual improvement and self-belief in the Lions, which has culminated in two finals wins this year to finally make a Grand Final.
“There’s pivotal moments all through this, whether it be the list build or key appointments, but the key is they’ve continued to improve,” Lynch said. “It wasn’t just one day where you think ‘now they’re a premiership contender’. It’s been those small improvements over the last handful of years, really.
“I think they’ve embraced this final series much differently to how they’ve embraced previous years – and maybe that is on the back of they’re confident they can win it.
“Hearing Chris Fagan in his press conferences and all the players in their press conferences, they aren’t shying away from the enormity of what the first final was or the prelim final was or going into this game.
“They seemed anxious and maybe a bit uncertain in previous years, but they seem confident and want to take it on and they’re putting themselves out there to really embrace what’s ahead of them.”
Brown added: “Fages has just been able to gradually help the team develop their own belief – and they now genuinely believe they can get it done on the weekend. I don’t think that was the case before this year.”
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CAN THEY REACH THE PINNACLE?
This is no set-and-forget Grand Final tip. Of the 26 Fox Footy pundits surveyed this week, 13 predicted Collingwood to win and 13 tipped Brisbane.
Collingwood’s form hasn’t been as convincing as other teams during the back-half of the season, but if it brings elite pressure and gets its slingshot run from defence going, it’ll be tough to beat.
The Lions have more depth across all three lines, especially inside 50. Give Brisbane’s forward six enough opportunities and they’ll make you pay.
The first-quarter lapse against Carlton in the prelim last week, though, was concerning. Plus there’s that nagging stat the Lions hate talking about – the fact they’ve won just one of their past 15 games at the MCG.
But that win was in a final last year – and three of their past four losses at the venue have been by 25 points or less.
“They beat Melbourne at the MCG last year in a final – and I thought they played particularly well when they played there a few weeks ago (against the Dees). I believe from that point on they walked away as a team and thought: ‘The MCG doesn’t hold any fears for us,’” Brown said.
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“It was only the late-game scenario work that just wasn’t tuned in enough that they coughed that game up. From that point on, the way the season panned out a few weeks after that, they played in some close, narrow victories where they got that late-game scenario right.
“The way the last six weeks out from that Melbourne game fell I think has them primed for Grand Final day. And not that it’s the be-all and end-all, but when you look at recent history, they’ve played their best football against Collingwood. Their brand of footy stacks up well against this particular opponent – and that gives you tremendous belief as a player.”
Lynch said the Lions should go into Saturday’s decider “very confident that they’re in the best position they’ve been in the last 20 years to challenge for a flag”.
“I think they’re playing some good football. They’ve had moments, as all teams have over the last few weeks, where they drop away. But they’re also having periods in games where they score and they really score quickly and heavily,” he said.
“They should be very confident in their game plan – I think more so than ever. They’re prepared to play roles and stick to what Fages is trying to convince them will work, rather than just thinking each individual has got to go out there and play the best they can to help the team win. It’s more team and role-focused, which is very important.
“I’m confident they can win. There’s no doubt they’ve got the talent. Their forward line is the most talented in our league, their midfield has got better with Dunkley going in there compared to previous years, down back they’re significantly better – and that’s with the speed across half-back. Harris Andrews’ level of play and Darcy Gardner can hold down that spot as well.”
