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..............................(CLUB HISTORY)...
The club was formed from the post-1996 merger of the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy, and is known as the Brisbane Lions. The side plays its home games at the Brisbane Cricket Ground (also known as the Gabba).
(the Gabba)(BACKGROUND TO THE MERGER)
Fitzroy was formed on 26 September 1883 at the Brunswick Hotel and was a founding member of the VFL. They wore blue shorts and their jersey and socks were maroon. Brunswick Street Oval in Fitzroy became the club’s home ground.Formed on 6 October 1986, the Brisbane Bears were a young club and during the club’s short ten year history the Bears were unable to win any Premierships. With Peter Knights as the club’s first coach, the Bears home ground became Carrara at the Gold Coast and being the first Queensland club in the VFL, this code was only just beginning. But in 1993 the Bears moved permanently to Brisbane, The Gabba.On 4 July 1996 the Australian Football League (AFL) approved the first ever club merger in Victorian Football League (VFL) and AFL history, between the Fitzroy Lions and the Brisbane Bears.The combination of the two clubs led to the creation of a great team. The Bears had unluckily lost the Preliminary final to the Kangaroos in 1996, and although Fitzroy had finished as wooden spooner during its last two seasons, the club did contain a number of promising young players. On 4 July 1996 it was decided that the Brisbane Lions would be created. The Brisbane Lions were officially launched on 1 November 1996, joining the national competition in 1997(POST MERGER).
In their first year as the Brisbane Lions they made the finals but despite a talented playing list, the club finished last the following year, resulting in the sacking of coach John Northey with eight rounds of the season remaining. Over the summer, the club replaced Northey with Leigh Matthews, who in 1990 delivered Collingwood its only premiership since 1958.Matthews, voted the player of the century in 2000, played his entire career with Hawthorn during the club's most successful period and brought many of the Hawthorn disciplines to the Lions game. Within a season he lead them from the bottom of the ladder to 4th, losing to the eventual premiers the Kangaroos in the preliminary final, before placing 5th in 2000.
(Leigh Matthews)...(2001 - FIRST PREMIERSHIP)...
The club won its first league premiership in 2001, by defeating Essendon in the grand final. The final score of the 2001 AFL Grand Final being Essendon 12.10.82 to Brisbane 15.18.108. Lions utility player Shaun Hart won the Norm Smith medal as best player on the ground and the match saw the Lions heavily supported by the neutral fans at the ground. On the morning after winning the flag, the club took the premiership cup to the Brunswick Street football ground, the original home of the Fitzroy football club. It was an important way of connecting with the traditional Lions fans and many of those disaffected when one of the foundations clubs was forced into a merger could truly see the way in which the new entity was honouring the history of its Melbourne based component. Then the premiership cup made its historic first trip to what had historically been a rugby league focussed state.In the same year, Brisbane Lion (and former Bear) Jason Akermanis won the league's highest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal(Jason Akermanis)(2002 - Back-to-back premierships)...
In 2002, the Lions repeated as premiers, defeating Collingwood in the 2002 AFL Grand Final 10.15.75 to 9.12.66 in freezing, wet conditions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Early in the contest the Lions lost both ruckman Beau McDonald and utility player Martin Pike (who had already amassed 9 possessions in the first quarter) to injury and had to complete the match with a limited substitute's bench. Despite not scoring a goal in the first quarter, the undermanned Lions overcame a spirited Collingwood in the tightest premiership decider in 15 years. Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley won the Norm Smith medal which was decided 20 minutes before the conclusion of the match. However, Lions captain Michael Voss, in an inspiring performance made the difference between the two clubs during that final phase of the match and it is now widely believed that he was the best on the ground that day.In 2002, former Brisbane lawyer, Michael Bowers became Chief Executive Officer, as part of as move to turnaround the Club's problematic finances.Brisbane Lion Simon Black won the Brownlow.(2003 - Three peat)...
In 2003, the Brisbane Lions became the first Grand Final participant in AFL history to have three Brownlow Medallists in its lineup, the third being 1996 winner Michael Voss. With a number of players under an injury cloud, and having lost to Collingwood in an earlier final that year, the Lions went into the game as underdogs. However they stamped their greatness on the competition by inflicting a humiliating thrashing upon the Magpies. At one stage in the final quarter the lions lead by almost 80 points before relaxing when the match was well and truly won and allowing Collingwood to score the last 4 goals. The final score of 20.14.134 to 12.12.84, saw the club become the first in the AFL to win three consecutive Premierships since Melbourne in 1957. Simon Black claimed the Norm Smith Medal with a compelling and dominant 39 possession match, which has been reported as the most possessions ever gathered by someone in a grand final.(2004)...
In 2004, the Lions fell just short in its quest for a fourth consecutive flag, losing to Port Adelaide in the 2004 AFL Grand Final. At the twenty minute mark of the third quarter, the Lions led, but were over-run by a fresher Port Adelaide which had two additional days to prepare for the match as a result of playing their preliminary final on a Friday night.Despite requests for fair treatment, the Lions were forced to play its preliminary final against Geelong in Melbourne on the following evening, despite the club having fairly earned the right to stage a home final. This resulted in Brisbane travelling home to prepare for the grand final on the Sunday morning while their grand final opponents Port Adelaide were into their second recovery day. It became a telling factor during the final 30 minutes of the premiership decider.During this four year period, the Brisbane Lions became the most dominant team of the modern era. Many purists have argued that in the time of salary cap and a player draft specifically designed to assist the weaker clubs, not to mention the travel demands of modern football, the performance of the Brisbane Lions during this period is unequalled by any club in history including the great Collingwood side to claim four consecutive flags in the late 1920s(2005)...The Lions had an inconsistent season in 2005, and fell away badly towards the end, losing many games by very large margins. They finished a disappointing eleventh - out of the finals for only the second time in the club's history. When able to field its strongest lineup, the Lions produced some strong performance reminiscent of its triple premiership days however, injuries to Justin Leppitsch, Jonathan Brown, Nigel Lappin, and the retirements of premiership players such as Marcus Ashcroft, Alastair Lynch, Martin Pike, Shaun Hart and Craig McRae had taken its toll and the club played more first year players than any other side in the competition.(2006)...
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.Justin Leppitsch was forced to retire through injury and with season ending injuries to prominent players Nigel Lappin, Chris Scott, Ashley McGrath, Richard Hadley, Anthony Corrie and key ruckman Jamie Charman, coach Leigh Matthews was forced to debut an unprecedented number of youngsters and rookies and due to this, the club experienced inconsistent results. While many of the new youngsters displayed great promise, and continued to attack the ball and tackle opponents in typical Brisbane Lions spirit, it became evident during the final few matches that the young Lions were clearly into rebuilding mode. With AFL Rising Star nominations to Michael Rischitelli, Cheynee Stiller and Matthew Moody and the emergence of rookie Jason Roe among others, the future looks promising, but the realists also know that the rebuilding phase will take a few years.Despite the young team losing more home games than ever before, and reducing the Gabba's status as a fortress that intimidated opposition teams, the Lions still produced average crowds the equal of the Rugby League premiership winning Brisbane Broncos.Justin Leppitsch and Brad Scott announced their retirements during the season. A controversial feud between the club and Jason Akermanis divided supporters of the club and received massive publicity, resulting in Akermanis being stood down for the last seven matches of the season by his senior playing peer group who felt that his loyalty to the club and playing group was compromised.After the 2006 home and away season it was revealed that major sponsor AAPT would not be renewing their sponsorship. It was announced shortly after that Vodafone had signed a sponsorship deal with the club worth 5.4 million dollars over three years.The Brisbane Lions team of the decade fullback Mal Michael announced his retirement from football on Thursday 5 October due to lack of motivation and desire to pursue other non-football related activities. He was one of the premier fullbacks in the AFL and was very unlucky not to receive an All-Australian honour, despite being one of the most consistent players in the AFL over many years. He represented his country in International Rules Football against Ireland in 2004, playing as a Goal-keeper, was a pivotal figure at the Brisbane Lions and played a significant role in each of the grand finals contested as, along with Justin Leppitsch and Chris Johnson he led the defence in limiting the output of the opposition's best forwards.Inspirational Skipper Michael Voss also announced his retirement from football on Friday 6 October due to the stress placed on his body from years of football and a chronic knee injury. He was the co-captain of the team from 1997 to 2000 with Alistair Lynch before leading the side for the remainder of his career, including the historic three straight premierships. In his final season of football, Voss still played 21 out of a possible 22 games, missing one game through knee soreness which turned out to be the same knee which led to his retirement.At the completion of the 2006 season Chris Johnson remains as the last ever representative of the Fitzroy Football Club to be playing senior AFL football.
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