For 11 months and 18 games it had been like the calm before the storm. The big deluge that everyone new was coming which hadn’t arrived yet. And then it hit … ‘Cyclone Browny’.

Jonathan Brown was 19 and set to play his 19^th game in Round 6 2001. After the ignominy of going without a possession on debut he’d kicked 10 goals in his first 18 games. Solid but nothing special from the big key forward signed as a Fitzroy father/son draftee.

And then Geelong came to town. It was like his ‘home’ team. The boy from Warrnambool had played in the Victorian Under 18 competition with the Geelong Falcons, most notably alongside future Cats premiership captain Cameron Ling. He wanted to impress.

And impress he did. In a breakout game that set a standard he would maintain for the next decade, Brown kicked seven thumping goals to lead the Lions to a 55-point win at the Gabba.

It was a win that put the Lions sixth on the AFL ladder with a 3-3 record. And although there were some ups and downs to follow, most notably a 74-point loss to Carlton a fortnight later, the Lions were building.

With Brown emerging as a wonderful ally for the established key forward pairing of Alastair Lynch and Daniel Bradshaw hopes were high. And six months later they would be proven right on the money when the Lions won their first flag.

‘Cyclone Brown’ is this the headline piece of the ‘Remember When – Round 6’ flashback which recalls special moments across the club’s history in Round 6 matches.

In 35 years the Bears/Lions have gone 18-17 overall and 10-5 at home. Craig Lambert’s 37 possessions against Fremantle in 1996 has been the club high, while Brown’s eight goals against Essendon in 2005 has been the best in front of the big sticks.

Other special Round 6 highlights include:-

1996 – PERFECT IN PERTH

In Round 6 1996 the then Brisbane Bears completed a double that no team in the competition would replicate that year. They beat Fremantle at Subiaco by 25 points after having accounted for West Coast by 26 points at the WACA four weeks earlier.

This was the side that had played finals for the first time in 1995 under outgoing coach Robert Walls, and was building nicely under John Northey in ’96.

The club’s second trek across the Nullarbor was special not just because they came from 10 points down at halftime to account for the Dockers in Andrew Bews’ 250^th AFL game and Richard Champion’s 100th, but they unearthed a new ‘weapon’. Clark Keating.

On the club books since the age of 15, having graduated from The Southport School on the Gold Coast, the 20-year-old ruckman made a most encouraging AFL debut against the Fremantle pairing of Daniel Bandy and Matthew Bandy.

And although his season would be cut short by injury in Round 20, denying him a role in a finals campaign that stalled at the preliminary final, the Brisbane brainstrust knew they had a beauty. A man who would go on to play a key role in three premierships. So good they called him ‘Mr September’.

2003 – A DOUBLE TON FOR ‘MY BOY NIGEL’

Danny Craven, jockey-sized ex-StKilda rover, had his own special Round 6 moment in 1993 when he picked up two Brownlow votes in his Bears debut against Fitzroy at the Gabba. And 10 years on he looked on proudly as his adopted prodigy went one better.

Nigel Lappin, the boy from Chiltern in north-east Victoria, had lived with Craven and his wife Kim when he arrived at the club in November ‘93. After all, they were almost neighbours back home, with Craven living just 25 minutes away at Wangaratta.

It was a bond that out-lasted Craven’s time at the club, but there was nobody more proud when Lappin jetted south to play his 200^th game against Geelong in Round 6 2003.

The Lions, sitting top of the ladder with four wins and a draw as they began their quest for a premiership hat-trick, faced a Cats side that was 1-4 at the bottom of the ladder. But this Kardinia Park. Nothing came easily at the ‘Cattery’.

Geelong led by 10 points at quarter-time before slowly the Lions got into stride. A 6-3 to 0-1 surge in the second term  swung things around, and the visitors won 13-14 (92) to 12-6 (78).

And who was best afield? Lappin, of course. With a game-high 29 possessions and a goal he picked up three Brownlow votes. Michael Voss was another standout, with 28 possessions and a goal for two votes, while Craig McRae topped the Brisbane goal sheet with four.

Also in the Brisbane side that day were Chris Scott, with whom Lappin had shared several homes in Brisbane, Justin Leppitsch and Luke Power. Plus Brad Scott.

Fast forward 19 years and what do you have? A giant legacy of the AFL superpower of the early 2000s that now makes up the coaching brainstrust of three AFL clubs, with an ex-coach now in charge of the AFL competition.

Lappin is the senior deputy to Chris Scott at Geelong, Leppitsch is McRae’s off-sider at Collingwood, and Power is a Voss lieutenant at Carlton. And Brad Scott, former North Melbourne coach, is the AFL football boss.

Memories of the Lappin milestone win in game #200 at Geelong also live on at the Gabba because 19 years on it is still the last time the Lions won at Kardinia Park.

2014 – PACK THE PASSPORT, BOYS

Over 36 years in the AFL the Lions have played at 25 different venues across the country, but only once have the players had to pack a  passport. It was Round 6 2014, when they jetted across the Tasman to play St.Kilda in Wellington, New Zealand, on Anzac Day.

It was the second leg of a three-year commitment by the Saints to play a home game in ‘Windy Wellington’ and the Lions delivered the second of what 12 months later would become three losses for the ‘hosts’.

Brisbane had started horribly under new coach Justin Leppitsch and were 0-5, while the Saints were a win off second spot at 3-2. But in front of a crowd of 13,409, with a baby-faced Darcy Gardiner playing his second side, the Lions led at every change and withstood a late surge from the ‘home’ side to take the points. Just.

Nineteen points clear at three-quarter time, Brisbane conceded four of the first five goals of the final term inside 11 minutes and suddenly scores were level.

The winning ‘goal’ came 10 minutes from full-time and wasn’t without controversy after James Aish fired a clever overhead handball to Daniel Merrett, who chipped short to Jack Redden. Playing on quickly, Redden let fly from the 50m arc.

Brown was one on two in the goalsquare and worked over-time to make sure Redden’s long bomb just cleared him and St.Kilda’s Leigh Montagna. Or did it? The goal umpire signalled ‘goal’, but the field umpire called for a review.

Danny Frawley and Anthony Hudson suggested in commentary that the ball appeared to flick Brown’s outstretched hand  but it wasn’t clear so it was ‘umpires call’. Goal to Brisbane.

With 15 minutes still to play the Lions led by six. Both sides had their chances. A Jack Billings dribble kick slid across the face of goal for a Saints behind before a long shot from Brisbane’s Sam Mayes went just wide. Shane Savage pulled a running shot left for the Saints before Jed Adcock pulled off not one but two match-saving smothers. First on Jack Steven and then Tom Curren.

It looked like Adcock’s heroics would all be for nothing when the ball spilled over the back of a marking contest at centre half forward for StKilda and into the arms of Farren Ray. He was 40m out with plenty of time. He steadied as Daniel Merrett charged at him, hands up. The Brisbane fullback did just enough to force an error. He sliced it right. Three points with 69 seconds to play. The Lions hung on. Redden’s 29 possessions and two goals earned him two Brownlow Medal votes.

2019 – A Q-CLASH WITH EXTRA SPICE

There’s always a little extra spice at Q-Clash time, when the Lions face the Suns, and it was no different in Round 6 2019. Especially for Jarryd Lyons.

The then 26-year-old was set to play his sixth game for the Lions and his first against his previous club, who had effectively given him up for nothing. After 37 games for the Suns in 2017-18 he’d joined the Lions as a delisted free agent, and this week he was going ‘home’ to the Gold Coast.

The Suns led by three points at quarter-time before the Lions ran over the top of them, pilling on 10-7 to 3-6 in the second half to win by 49 points.

Mitch Robinson earned three Brownlow Medal votes and the Marcus Ashcroft Medal with 26 possessions and three goals. Lachie Neale received two votes and Lyons, very satisfied with 27 possessions and two goals, one vote.

It was early days in a golden run for Lyons, who has now played 72 games without a miss in Brisbane colors as he prepares to return to the tourist strip for another Q-Clash this week.

Lyons and current teammate Callum Ah Chee are two of three players to have played for both Brisbane and Gold Coast in a Q-Clash. The other is Pearce Hanley. Two others have played for both clubs without doing so in a Q-Clash – foundation Suns signings Jared Brennan and Michael Rischitelli.