It is going on 26 years since the Brisbane Lions were formed via the merger of the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy. A Club built on change that has seen many pivotal moments since. This year the Brisbane Lions and youi are teaming up for the ‘Moments Of Change’ series where each week they’ll look back at some of the defining moments that shaped them as the Club they are today.

Thursday night, 17 April, 2003. It was Easter Thursday. And a monumental night for the Brisbane Lions and for AFL football in Queensland.

For the first time in club history the Lions celebrated the traditional holiday and one of the blockbuster nights on the football calendar at the Gabba. And they did it in spectacular fashion, hosting Collingwood in front a sell-out crowd of 36,803.

That the Lions won by 14 points was a huge local bonus. But more important in the bigger scheme of things was the national television audience of 1.3million – second only to the grand final that year.

The game was shown live in Brisbane and pulled 347,000 viewers to beat the equivalent Easter figures for the Brisbane Broncos. Another first. Another landmark victory.

It was a moment of change not just for the Lions but for the broader AFL, and irrefutable evidence of a changing mindset among key decision-makers in the sports media and entertainment industry.

It was in itself a massive moment of change. Proof that just because things had been done one way for years on end they couldn’t be done differently with equal success. Or more.

The Lions had tried for years to crack the blockbuster television market with limited success. And while the flow-on from the club’s first flag in 2001 was enormous in a marketing and promotional sense it didn’t guarantee an immediate TV flow-on.

Especially when Channel Nine, the traditional rugby league network, shared the AFL rights with Channel 10 and Fox from 2002-06, and were steadfastly opposed at least initially to prime-time AFL football on free-to-air channels.

So, for the club and the code to pull off the Easter Thursday Extravaganza of 2003 with such monumental success was a cornerstone moment in history.

The very topic of blockbuster matches and prime-time television slots has been one of extraordinary change since the Brisbane Bears and the West Coast joined the AFL in 1987. And not just in Queensland.

Take ’87 for example. Despite the fact that the AFL had taken their first steps down the national path Friday night was so far from the prime time slot it has become that five times in 22 rounds there was no Friday night match. Rounds 4-10-11-16-20 began on Saturday.

Of 17 Friday night games seven were played at the MCG, five were at the WACA in Perth, four were at the SCG in Sydney and one was at Waverley in Melbourne.

North Melbourne played seven of 17 Friday night games because … well, they were the Friday night club. They had been the pioneers of Friday night football when it was down on popularity and so they retained the largest share.

In 1987 West Coast played six Friday night games, and Brisbane three, book-ending the Friday night season in Round 1 and Round 22 at the MCG and meeting the Eagles at the WACA ion Round 7.

Fitzroy and Richmond also played three Friday night. Hawthorn, the 1986 premiers, did not play even one Friday night game. Nor did Geelong, who had finished ninth on the 12-team ladder, or Footscray, as the Western Bulldogs were then known. They had finished eighth.

Why and why not? There was never any great explanation. It just was and was not.

In 1988 there were 18 Friday night games, with Rounds 1-3-13-15 missing out. Brisbane, West Coast and Sydney played six each, with defending premiers Carlton just one and Hawthorn, the beaten 1987 grand finalists, none. Again. The MCG hosted nine Friday night games, the SCG five and the WACA four.

In 1989 there seven free Friday nights in the home-and-away season, and in 1990-91-92 no less than nine each year. And after ‘only’ four in 1993 it was back to nine in 1994.

In 1995-96 there were two free Friday nights, but since 1997 they have been scarce. Mainly only because the administration of the time refused to play football on Good Friday.

That it took so long for change to be implemented underlines just how critical the Easter Thursday game at the Gabba in 2003 was in breaking down the toughest of tough barriers.

On the field, too, the 14-point Lions win didn’t do the performance justice. Coming off back-to-back interstate trips and a five-day break, they trailed by 19 points late in the second term.

But, almost as if sensing the importance of the occasion, they lifted magnificently. They before leading by 20 points at three-quarter time and getting 33 points clear before three consolation goals for the Pies.

Almost fittingly, it was the night on which skipper Michael Voss became just the fifth player to post 100 games at the Gabba. He had 24 possessions and two goals and shared top billing in Merrett-Murray Medal voting with Jonathan Brown, Shaun Hart and Luke Power. The Brownlow Medal votes went to Brown, Chris Johnson and Simon Black, while Jared Brennan picked up a Rising Star nomination after a sparkling debut in what was also Brad Scott’s 100^th AFL game.

It was the first of nine Easter Thursday games at the Gabba and the start of a golden run. They beat Collingwood by 60 points in a return ‘bout’ in 2004 and StKilda by 23 points in what was the AFL season-opener in 2005.

Further wins over St.Kilda by 52 points in 2007 and Carlton by 19 points in 2010 followed, but thereafter Easter Thursday games at the Gabba have seen losses to StKilda in 2011, Carlton in 2012, Richmond in 2014 and Collingwood in 2019.

So, the Lions’ record overall is 5-4. With Collingwood back at the Gabba on Thursday night, and triple premiership Lion Craig McRae coaching against Brisbane for the first time, it will either be 6-4 or 5-5.

Thanks to our friends at Youi for helping bring this series to life.