2021: THE NEW ERA
Twenty years since the Brisbane Lions’ first Premiership, a new era of players were getting ready to etch their names into history.
Facing a familiar opponent, the Brisbane Lions AFL Women’s team readied themselves for another chance at Premiership glory. With the harsh loss of 2017 still lingering in the back of the minds of the remaining eight Foundation Lions, something felt different about 2021.
Courtney Hodder was there, weaving her magic deep inside forward 50. Having already booted numerous contenders for Goal of the Year throughout the season, the youngster kicked, arguably, one of the best AFL/AFLW grand final goals. Chasing the ball deep into the pocket under heavy pressure, Hodder soccered the ball of the ground while falling sideways for the Lions’ second major of the afternoon.
Kate Lutkins was phenomenal in defence. Backed up by Bre Koenen and Cathy Svarc, the trio held down Adelaide’s best. Lutkins was rewarded for her outstanding 18 disposals, eight marks and 10 rebounds with the Best on Ground medal.
An emotionally charged Premiership quarter saw the Lions settle and find their own, with three unanswered goals. Belle Dawes delivered the third with a flair only worthy of a Grand Final, kicking it right on the three-quarter-time siren to give the Lions a 22 point lead.
With a deafening Adelaide crowd and the heartbreaking loss of Captain Emma Zielke to a third-quarter hamstring injury spurring the Lions on, victory was all but theirs. The palpable drive and desperation for that elusive title carrying them over the line, as 22 players wrote their names into this history books as the Brisbane Lions’ first AFLW Premiers.
Read our in-depth recap of the 2001 Grand Final. The start of a Dynasty.
2002: GRAND FINAL THRILLER
Leigh Matthews screamed down the phone line from the coach’s box “Tell Aka to get to the front.” Seven words that turned to gold shortly after, as the Brisbane Lions waged football warfare with Collingwood in the closing minutes of a wet and brutal 2002 AFL grand final.
Inside the last seven minutes, with the Lions hanging on by three points, the master coach was asking goalsneak Jason Akermanis to crumb in front of full forward Alastair Lynch.
Shortly after, Brad Scott kicked long to Lynch in a one-on-one contest with Collingwood fullback Shane Wakelin. Wakelin spoiled and the ball fell to the front. Akermanis, exactly where he was told to be, swooped. Lynch screamed “you’ve got time” as Akermanis turned onto his left, steadied and snapped truly from 25m.
It was the last score of a game in which the lead changes hands 13 times. After six more minutes without even a scoring opportunity for either side the Lions won 75 to 66. It was the biggest margin of the game.
Like in 2001, it was a game of celebration. Simon Black had become just the sixth player in AFL history to win the Brownlow Medal, a premiership and his club best & fairest in the same year. Voss, third in the medal, was named captain of an All-Australian side that included teammates Black, Akermanis, Nigel Lappin, Justin Leppitsch and Chris Johnson. Brown and Akermanis won the Mark of the Year/Goal of the Year double. And Matthews had joined the elite as a three-time premiership coach.
2003: COURAGE PERSONIFIED
Nigel Lappin sat in the Lions rooms with his ribs numbered and painted black. Why? Because it was to guide the anaesthetic specialist who would administer a pain-killing injection that would allow him to play with two broken ribs. And as it turned out, a punctured lung.
It was courage personified. And not just Lappin. Injury ran through the side. Michael Voss had all but been ruled out for the season three weeks earlier with a bad knee but dragged himself through. Jonathan Brown broke his hand badly in the same qualifying final but gutted it out. And played out the game after being flattened by Scott Burns at the first bounce.
Marcus Ashcroft struggled to sleep due to a degenerative hip condition which long before grand final day had ensured this would be his last year. Alastair Lynch had more ailments that he cared to mention, and right up the last 48 hours there was doubt on him and Martin Pike.
Others too carried niggles that were never made public as medical staff used 18 vials of pain-killer on the day. The norm was three or four.
The Lions led at quarter-time despite several missed chances, and blew it open with a six-goal second term. They were seven goals up at halftime. Collingwood came with one last effort in the third quarter with the first two goals and five of eight, but when the Lions got the first major of the final term to make it 42 points again it was over.
It was party time. Goals to Lynch, Brown, Akermanis, Shaun Hart and Brown again blew it out to 69 points with six minutes to play before Collingwood kicked three late ones as the Lions boys ran around saying “how good is Mad Monday going to be?”
Another unforgettable chapter from one of the very best teams of all-time. They’d gone back-to-back-back to add three flags to eight won by Fitzroy in an era that had started 105 years earlier.
1898: THE FIRST FLAG
The VFL was two years old when Fitzroy played in and won the first grand final in 1898. Twice.
This confusing scenario was the result of a new system whereby the eight competing teams played a 14-match home-and-away series and then a three-match qualifying series in two pools, with the two pool winners to meet for the flag. It was to be Fitzroy and Collingwood in what was labelled ‘the final’, and Fitzroy won by 11 points at Brunswick Street Oval.
But because Essendon had finished top of the ladder after 14 rounds they were considered ‘minor premiers’ and had the right of challenge. The teams could not agree on a neutral venue. Fitzroy were happy to play at St.Kilda’s Junction Oval but Essendon said the surface was sub-standard and threatened forfeit. Even Fitzroy captain Alec Sloan agreed the surface was inadequate.
The stalemate was broken on grand final eve, when Essendon relented and Fitzroy, after a meeting of players at the Alexandra Hotel, voted to play. It was a dust bowl but Fitzroy prevailed 38 – 23.
1899: A FAIRYTALE, A NIGHTMARE & A FLAG
Twelve months on the same format was in place without the need for a challenge. Fitzroy topped the home-and-away campaign and South Melbourne came from sixth after 14 games to win their pool and qualify for the grand final.
In horrific conditions at Junction Oval which kept the crowd to 4823, the Maroons started hot favorites but trailed at quarter-time. With a ‘challenge’ up their sleeve if they needed it, they led one point at halftime and seven points at three-quarter time before rover Bill McSpeerin, a wet-weather specialist, goaled to claim the flag.
It was the first of four one-point results in now 123 grand finals on top of three draws.
1904: A HOME-GROWN HERO
Percy Trotter was a home-grown hero. Born in Fitzroy, he was rover who played 109 games for the club from 1901-06 and was considered special at the time on two counts – he could kick both feet and always wore a distinctive red cap.
Coming off a club champion win in 1903 when Fitzroy lost the grand final to Collingwood by two points, Trotter led the ultimate response when he spearheaded the Maroons to their third premiership with a 24-point win over Carlton in the 1904 grand final.
On a dry but windy day in the third grand final played at the MCG Fitzroy led 3-1 to 1-1 despite kicking into the wind in the first term but trailed by a point at halftime. But with the brilliant Trotter kicking a critical goal just before three-quarter time and Herbert Milne and Les Mills other standouts the Maroons ran the Blues off their legs to win 61 – 37.
1905: FOUR-FLAG FRED
Frederick Ernest De La Fontaine, known as Fred Fontaine, became the League’s first four-time premiership player when Fitzroy beat Collingwood in a 1905 grand final billed as the battle of the powerhouse teams.
Percy Trotter, named VFL player of the year, kicked the first goal after halftime and when Gerald Brosnan and Lou Barker followed they had a winning lead before stacking the backline in an early pointer to modern day flooding.
1913: A FITZROY CHALLENGE
With club favorite and Team of the Century choice Percy Parratt in his first season as playing coach after Geoff Moriarty had been the club’s first coach in 1911-12, they beat third-placed Collingwood in the semi-final but in the ‘final’ were shock 25-point losers to perennial battlers St.Kilda, wooden-spooners nine times in 16 years. So they did it all again.
Infront of a then MCG record crowd of 59,79, they jumped the Saints in the first term and led 5-11 to 1-10 at three-quarter time.
But St.Kilda kicked the next four goals and pulled to within a point. Half back flanker took a crucial intercept mark and after a string of possessions James ‘Bull’ Martin marked right in front. They won 56 - 43 to give captain Bill Walker his third flag.
1916: A BIZARRE DOUBLE
It is one of football’s most bizarre stories. Fitzroy collected the wooden-spoon and premiership flag in a season in which only four teams participated due to the First World War.
They beat Collingwood by six points in what was labelled a semi-final and Carlton by 23 points in the ‘final’. With the right of challenge, Fitzroy and Carlton played a second time when Fitzroy prevailed 85 – 56.
They led by 30 points at halftime and although Carlton challenged in the final quarter late goals to Horrie Jenkin and Percy Parratt saw them home in front of just 21,130 people at the MCG. They’d been the first club to win two, three, four and five premierships. And now six.
1922: A ‘FREAKE’ FLAG
Jimmy Freake was an under-sized full forward. Only 178cm and 63kg but quick and skilful, he played 174 games for Fitzroy and was the first Fitzroy player to kick 10 goals in a game. His 45 finals goals is a club record, but four goals in the 1922 grand final were as big as any.
It was another club record that would outlast the club itself as a separate entity and has only been bettered once in the combined Brisbane/Fitzroy history – Jason Akermanis kicked five in 2003.
They beat Collingwood by four points in the semi-final and Essendon by 23 points in the final before topping Collingwood by 11 points in the grand final after the minor premiers had challenged.
Fitzroy were the first club to win seven premierships.
1944: NORMAL TRANSMISSION RESTORED
The Second World War was still raging through the 1944 AFL season, but the football world was almost back to normal. It was a 12-team 18-game season with the return of Geelong, who sat out two years due to war-time travel restrictions. The one missing piece was the MCG.
The 1943-43 grand finals had been played at Carlton’s Princes Park while the ‘G’ was used for war purposes, and in 1944, when Fitzroy won their eighth and last premiership, the grand final was played at Junction Oval, long-time home of St.Kilda.
The Gorillas, as Fitzroy where now known, had been preliminary finalists in 1943 in their first season under captain-coach Fred Hughson. It was their first finals appearance since 1924.
The grand final was played in blistering 30-degree heat on the day of a snap tram and bus strike, which caused much chaos. More than 32,000 people travelled by train and by midday all public stands were full and more than 41,000 people jammed into a ground with a capacity of 32,000.
Fitzroy kicked with a strong wind in the second half to turn a six-point deficit at quarter-time into a 12-point lead at halftime. The third quarter was always going to be critical and Hughson double-teamed Richmond captain-coach and chief dangerman Jack Dyer.
The man they called ‘ Captain Blood’ kicked one for the Tigers, but Jack Symons, a member of losing grand final sides with Richmond in 1940 and ’42, jagged a late one against his old side to give Fitzroy an 11-point advantage at the last change.
With both sides out on their feet in the oppressive conditions Richmond threatened twice in the final quarter before 22-year-old Ken Sier, in his second season and just his 25th game, kicked what was to be the last two goals of the game to get Fitzroy home 9-12 (66) to 7-9 (51).`
