Brisbane Lions
Names
Full name	Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club Limited, trading as Brisbane Lions Australian Football Club[1]
2023 season
After finals	AFL: 2nd AFLW: Premiers
Home-and-away season	AFL: 2nd AFLW: 4th
Leading goalkicker	AFL: Joe Daniher (61) AFLW:
Merrett–Murray Medal	AFL: Harris Andrews AFLW:
Club details
Founded	1 November 1996 From the Incorporated AFL operations of: Fitzroy Football Club (formed 1883)[2][3] Brisbane Bears (formed 1987)[4][5]
Colours	Maroon   Blue   Gold
Competition	AFL: Senior men AFLW: Senior women VFL: Reserves men
Chairman	Andrew Wellington[6]
CEO	Greg Swann
Coach	AFL: Chris Fagan AFLW: Craig Starcevich VFL: Ben Hudson
Captain(s)	AFL: Harris Andrews and Lachie Neale AFLW: Breanna Koenen
Number-one ticket holder(s)	Dan Anstey Abby Coleman
Premierships	AFL (3)[7] 2001 2002 2003 AFLW (2) 2021 2023 Reserves (5) 2001 2012 2013 2017 2019
Ground(s)	AFL: The Gabba (1997–present) AFLW: Springfield Central Stadium (8,000) VFL: Springfield Central Stadium
Training ground(s)	Springfield Central Stadium (2022–present)
Uniforms
Home Away Clash
Other information
Official website	lions.com.au
Current season

The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition.

The Lions came into existence in 1996 when the AFL expansion club the Brisbane Bears, established in 1987, absorbed the AFL operations of one of the league's foundation clubs, Fitzroy, established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1883.^{[8][9][10][11]} Its colours of maroon, blue, and gold were drawn from both Fitzroy and the Bears.^{[12][13][14][15]}

The club plays its home matches at the Gabba in Brisbane, and its headquarters and training facilities are located at Springfield Central Stadium. The Lions are one of the most successful AFL clubs of the 2000s, appearing in four consecutive grand finals from 2001 to 2004, a period in which they won three premierships (2001, 2002, 2003). They also finished runners-up in 2023.

The Lions were a foundation team in the AFL Women's competition in 2017, and have featured in five grand finals in that time, winning the premiership in 2021 and again in 2023 also finishing runners-up on the other occasions. They also field a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League, and operate an under-18s academy which contests Division 2 of the men's and women's underage national championships and the Talent League.

History of Fitzroy Football Club pre-1996, and Brisbane Bears

Fitzroy Football Club

The Melbourne-based Fitzroy Football Club was formed on 26 September 1883 at The Brunswick Hotel. The Victorian Football Association (VFA) made changes to their rules, allowing Fitzroy to join as the seventh club in 1884, playing in the maroon and blue colours of the local Normanby Junior Football Club.^[16]

They quickly became one of the most successful clubs, consistently in the top four, and drawing large crowds to their home at the Brunswick Street Oval in Edinburgh Gardens. This success was capped off by Fitzroy winning the VFA premiership in 1895.

Fitzroy then went on to be one of the eight break-away clubs who formed the Victorian Football League in 1897. They continued their VFA form and be a powerhouse in the early days of the new VFL, winning a total of eight premierships, of which seven (1898, 1899, 1904, 1905, 1913, 1916 and 1922) were won while they were nicknamed the Maroons, and one (1944) as the Gorillas. The club also boasted 6 Brownlow Medal winners who were Haydn Bunton Sr., Wilfred Smallhorn, Dinny Ryan, Allan Ruthven, Kevin Murray, and Bernie Quinlan.^[17]

The club changed its nickname to the Lions in 1957, but when Fitzroy was evicted from its home ground of Brunswick St Oval in 1965, this began a sustained period of poor on-field performance and financial losses. Fitzroy entered one of the least successful periods any VFL/AFL club has had. The club finished in the bottom three 11 times in the 1960s and 1970s, including three wooden spoons in four years between 1963 and 1966. The club won only a single game between 1963 and 1964 – known as the Miracle Match when it defeated eventual premiers Geelong in Round 10, 1963 – but its 1964 season was winless, and as of 2023 stands as the only winless season by any club since 1950.

Despite a revival in the '80s, when the Lions made the finals four times under the coaching of Robert Walls and David Parkin, and the playing group of 1981 Brownlow Medallist Bernie Quinlan, Ron Alexander, Garry Wilson, Gary Pert and Paul Roos, the club's financial situation was perilous.

The VFL's plans to move or merge struggling Fitzroy to Brisbane pre-dated the Brisbane Bears, and negotiations between the league and the club began in 1986 with the playing group voting for a move to Brisbane.^[18] However, Fitzroy resisted the move despite significant incentives and in response, the VFL made the decision to cut any further financial assistance to the club. By the start of the 1996 season, they were almost at the end of their financial tether. With no home ground, back to back wooden spoons, and their future under a cloud, Fitzroy began to consider options for survival.^[3]

Brisbane Bears (1987–1996)

The Brisbane Bears were born in 1987 and initially played home matches at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast. In its early days, the club was uncompetitive on the field and struggled to shake the derisive tags which included "The Carrara Koalas" (in reference to the Gold Coast home and the somewhat tame marsupial) and "The Bad News Bears".

After the collapse of the business empire belonging to Bears deputy chairman Christopher Skase and the resignation of chairman Paul Cronin, the club was taken over by the AFL and re-sold to Gold Coast hospitality businessman Reuben Pelerman. Off-field, Pelerman was losing millions of dollars annually on the club and at one point in 1991 told Bears coach Robert Walls that he was closing it down. The Bears finished last in 1990 and 1991.^[19]

To survive, The Bears experimented with playing matches at the Gabba in Brisbane in 1991, moving all home matches to the venue ahead of the 1993 season. As part of the club's move to the Gabba, Pelerman agreed to release the Bears from private ownership and revert to a traditional club structure in which the club's members were able to elect the board. Membership and attendances instantly tripled now that the club was finally playing in their home city of Brisbane.^[19]

The Bears only qualified for the finals series in 1995 and 1996, and the closest the club came to a Grand Final was a preliminary final in 1996.

On extremely shaky financial ground, the Bears struggled to generate many revenue opportunities in their short and turbulent ten-year existence. Despite improving its on-field fortunes, and drafting exciting young players on such as Michael Voss, Justin Leppitsch, Jason Akermanis, Darryl White, and Nigel Lappin, the club's existence was still at threat due to severe financial problems, and since 1990, The Bears had been actively exploring merger options with Fitzroy.^[20]

Brisbane Bears absorb Fitzroy's AFL operations, become Brisbane Lions

Fitzroy's directors had agreed in principle to merge with the eventual 1996 premiers, North Melbourne, as the "North-Fitzroy Kangaroos". However, that proposal was rejected 15–1 by the club presidents, reportedly out of concern that an all-Victorian merge would be too powerful. Instead, Fitzroy was placed into administration, and its administrator accepted an offer to merge its AFL operations with Brisbane.

The club became the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (trading as Brisbane Lions),^[21] remained at the Gabba, and were coached by Bears coach John Northey. However, the club's identity, logo, song, and guernsey were based on those of Fitzroy, three Fitzroy representatives served on the board, and the Lions kept an office in Melbourne. None of the Fitzroy representatives, former Fitzroy champion Laurie Serafini, David Lucas and Ken Levy, chosen to serve on Brisbane's board, were Fitzroy directors at that time.^[22][23]

Eight Fitzroy players were allowed to be recruited to the Brisbane Lions outside of the normal draft or trade system. They were Brad Boyd, Chris Johnson, Jarrod Molloy, John Barker, Nick Carter, Simon Hawking, Scott Bamford and Shane Clayton.^[24]

Fitzroy played its last VFL/AFL game on 1 September 1996 against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, and the Bears' last match was a preliminary final on Saturday 21 September 1996 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against North Melbourne.

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

Brisbane Lions history

Beginnings: 1997–2000

In 1997, the Lions narrowly made the finals, finishing eighth. They ended up with the same win–loss record as fellow 1997 newcomers Port Adelaide, who missed out due to having an inferior percentage.^[25] Their first two games were against the eventual grand finalists of that year, Adelaide and St Kilda. They went down to Adelaide by 36 points before recording an emphatic 97-point thrashing of St Kilda in round 2. The Lions met St Kilda again in a cut-throat away qualifying final, going down by 46 points after leading the Saints at half-time. The Brisbane Lions in 1997 remain the only team in VFL/AFL history to have made the finals in their first season.

Despite a talented playing list, the disruption of the merger and injuries to key players Michael Voss and Brad Boyd took their toll. The Lions finished last at the end of the 1998 season. Accordingly, Northey was sacked as coach with eight rounds remaining in the season. During the off-season, the club hired Leigh Matthews, who in 1990 had delivered Collingwood its first premiership since 1958.

Matthews, who was voted "Player of the Century" in 2000, played his entire career with Hawthorn and brought many of the Hawthorn disciplines to the Lions. Importantly, he forced the Lions to embrace and acknowledge their Fitzroy heritage with murals and records being erected at the Gabba, and past players names being placed on lockers.^[26] Within a year, the Lions rose from the bottom of the ladder to fourth. The 1999 season included a Round 20 Gabba match where the Lions led Fremantle by 113 points at half-time after having kicked 21 goals. Their half-time score of 21.5 (131) still remains the highest half-time score in VFL/AFL history.^[27] Brisbane won their first finals as a merged entity against Carlton and the Western Bulldogs before losing to the eventual premiers, the Kangaroos, in a 1999 preliminary final. The Lions played finals again in 2000 but bowed out in the second week after losing an away game to Carlton by 82 points.

In this period the club drafted and recruited key players who went on to be pillars of the Lions triple premiership years. Victorian Luke Power, Fitzroy father-son selection Jonathan Brown, and exciting WA product Simon Black came via the draft, and Brad Scott, Mal Michael, and ex-Fitzroy B&F winner Martin Pike were recruited from Hawthorn, Collingwood, and North Melbourne respectively.

Triple premiership success: 2001–2004

The Lions began 2001 by making the final of the Ansett Australia Cup, their first pre-season grand final. They went down by 85 points away to Port Adelaide,^[28] who they had also been scheduled to play in Round 1 at the same venue. After an inconsistent start to their 2001 season, the Lions took on the reigning premiers Essendon in Round 10. Brisbane finished as 28-point victors, and head coach Leigh Matthews famously used a Predator quote, "if it bleeds, we can kill it", to inspire his team for the game.^[29] The Lions then won 16 games straight, finishing the year undefeated and booking their place in the 2001 AFL Grand Final to play Essendon.

Going in as underdogs, Brisbane started the game well, scoring the first goal of the match from a free kick awarded to Alastair Lynch for holding against Dustin Fletcher. Essendon fought back late in the first quarter and then took control of the game in the second term. The Lions' poor kicking for goal almost put them out of the game in the second quarter as Essendon blew their lead out to 20 points late in the term.

2001 AFL Grand Final	G	B	Total
Brisbane Lions	15	18	108
Essendon	12	10	82
Venue: MCG	Crowd: 91,482

However, The Lions managed to overrun Essendon in the third term, kicking six goals to one and turning a 14-point deficit into a 16-point lead. Brisbane's pace in the midfield and the tiring legs of most of the Essendon players played a pivotal role in them taking full control of the game in the second half. The Lions won their first premiership comfortably, with a final score of 15.18 (108) to 12.10 (82).

The win was topped off with Lions utility player Shaun Hart winning the Norm Smith Medal after being judged best on ground in the Grand Final.^[30]: 521

2002 AFL Grand Final	G	B	Total
Brisbane Lions	10	15	75
Collingwood	9	12	66
Venue: MCG	Crowd: 91,817

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Brisbane_Lions_(AFL_Women's)
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