Life’s all about change, and Youi’s the insurer for all the changes – big and small – that happen to you. That’s why the Brisbane
Lions and Youi have teamed-up for the ‘Moments of Change’ series, where each week they’ll look back at some of the defining moments that have shaped the club you know today.
There is no denying that for a long time when it came to winter sports Brisbane was first and foremost a rugby league city. And after the establishment of the Brisbane Bears in an expanded VFL competition in 1987 the follow-up entry of the Broncos to the NSW Rugby League 12 months later ensured other top-level sporting organisations were playing for second.
Even hard-headed rugby league fans admit unashamedly the Broncos were formed specifically to combat the barnstorming push of the then VFL into Queensland.
There had been an exhibition match at the 1982 Commonwealth Games between grand finalists Richmond and Carlton and a match for premiership points between pin-up teams Hawthorn and Essendon in ’83.
The Queensland State side won a round-robin series against NSW, Tasmania and the ACT in 1983-84-85 as television audiences for what was initially just the AFL Match of the Day on Channel 7 each Saturday boomed.
Australian football got the jump on rugby league in the expansion stakes, and even though the Christopher Skase initial decision to base the Bears at Carrara on the Gold Coast set the AFL push back significantly, the battle of the codes was on.
The rugby union Queensland Reds and the Queensland Roar football team, known primarily as soccer players at the time, were also in the market for the winter sporting dollar in a city that also accommodated cricket (Queensland Bulls), basketball (Brisbane Bullets), baseball (Brisbane Bandits) and others.
In 1990 the formal name change of the VFL to the AFL underlined and enhanced the game’s commitment to expansion, and after the Bears played four matches at the Gabba in 1991 on a trial basis, with a greyhound track still running around the playing surface, the club’s permanent move to a redeveloped Gabba in 1993 was a monumental step forward in club history.
Then the real battle began. Average crowds of 6350 at Carrara in 1992 became 10,392 at the Gabba in ’93 and 11,654 in ’94, with two sell-outs against Collingwood and Essendon of 18,000-plus.
Numbers moved with the ground capacity. Down to 9264 in 1994 while the ground was further redeveloped but back to 18,088 in 1995, when the club made the finals for the first time to start to capture a bigger slice of the sporting ‘pie’.
Michael Voss’ Brownlow Medal win in 1996 gave the club a home ground local name that sat alongside the best of the best of the rival codes as the Bears reached the preliminary final, and the 1999 appointment of coach Leigh Matthews, known to all across the sporting landscape, was massive.
Nine of 14 games at the Gabba in 1999 (including finals) were sold out in the low 20,000s, and in 2000, as the expanded Gabba prepared to host football/soccer as part of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the average AFL Gabba attendance was 27,406.
But, aside from a 1991 VFL Reserves premiership, the Bears trophy cabinet was bare. And they’d been wooden-spooners in 1990-91-98. The Broncos had won the premiership in 1992-93-97-98 and would do so again in 2000.
There was one big step to come. It would be THE moment of change in club history. The most significant strike by Australian football in the once foreign territory of Queensland.
After a semi-final appearance in 2000 it all fell into place in 2001 as the Lions became the first team from a developing AFL state to win the AFL premiership. West Coast had done it in 1992-94 and Adelaide in 1997-98 but until then the northern frontier of Queensland and New South Wales had been devoid of the ultimate prize.
In a barnstorming charge that began with a Round 10 win over defending premiers Essendon the Lions won 10 games in a row to finish equal top of the home-and-away ladder with a 17-5 record, behind the Bombers on percentage.
Six times through the season the Gabba crowd topped 30,000 as the average climbed to 26,593. Publicity exploded and match day corporate hospitality was sold out weeks in advance as the AFL became the hottest ticket in town.
And when they beat a finals-bound Sydney Swans in Round 22 to secure a top two finish they had secured the best possible finals draw. A home final in week one of September, a week off with a win, another home final in week three, and then a grand final. The script could not have been written any better.
It was like Brisbane had become AFL heaven through the back end of 2001 as the Lions took all before them. First a 32-point win over Port Adelaide in the qualifying final in front of 32,380 wildly passionate fans and then a 68-point demolition of Richmond in the preliminary final, when a packed house of 37,032 knew a long way out they were going to the grand final but couldn’t believe it.
In the best of good omens, 19 hours after the senior side qualified for the grand final the Lions Reserves won the AFL Queensland premiership at Coorparoo. On Sunday 23 September the “Cubs”, coached by Craig Brittain, came from 20 points down at halftime to end the four-year rule of competition heavyweights Southport 13-20 (98) to 13-8 (86).
That after they’d finished the home-and-away season ladder third on the ladder with a 12-6 win/loss record, beat the Northern Eagles in a tough qualifying final, were hammered by Southport in the second semi-final and brushed aside the Eagles in the preliminary final.
Captain Ben Robbins, who had played 11 senior games in 2001 and 52 games in six years in Brisbane, won the Joe Grant Medal as best afield in the first grand final of his life, collecting an astonishing 20 kicks and 24 handballs. But the heroes were many. Des Headland’s supreme running in the second half was pivotal in the turnaround together with the ruck work of Dylan McLaren, who carried the load solo after Jamie Charman was ko’d in the opening minutes.
Also, there was the in-and-under contribution of Robbins and Aaron Shattock, who set the aggressive tone early with his attack on the ball. Midfielder Richard Hadley shut down danger man Ashley Gehling, fullback Shane Morrison did likewise on the League’s No.1 goal-kicker Rod Mackay, Craig Bolton marshalled the back six nicely, and Ash McGrath, too, stepped up in the second half.
Critically, the club had a full list of players for the big one that was six days away. Everyone seriously in the selection mix was fit, plus the next few.
The Broncos had also qualified for the finals in a rugby league season that ran a week longer, but it was the Lions dominated publicity. Front page and back page of the paper, and whenever you turned on a television or radio. After all, this was new. Brisbane-ites lapped up every minute.
Media from across the country flocked to the Queensland capital and for the first time in AFL history a grand final club held a full open media day. Most players were available to whoever wanted them over a three-hour period. Nigel Lappin, Daniel Bradshaw and Tim Notting, who had steered clear of the media throughout the year, and Darryl White and Luke Power, who chose to focus on the grand final, were not included but barely anyone realised.
It was an unashamed copy from the American Super Bowl system designed to fulfill the players’ responsibilities and obligations and minimize the media intrusions later in the week. Eighteen players did their bit in between massage, conditioning and medical commitments.
It worked a treat. Almost. Jason Akermanis threw even the best-laid plans into turmoil on the Monday night when he won the Brownlow Medal. So, after an impromptu media conference about 11pm on the Monday night he went through it all again on Tuesday morning. There was barely a media outlet in Australia that didn’t want to speak to ‘Aka’ so another all-in was best.
At least Akermanis had slept in his own bed after winning the game’s highest individual honor. If, in fact, he slept at all. This followed a standoff between the Lions and the AFL over the attendance by the players at the Brownlow Medal dinner in Melbourne. The League, noting that Michael Voss, Nigel Lappin and Jason Akermanis had boycotted the All-Australian dinner on medical advice, wanted the Brisbane players to make an extra trip south and threatened them with fines ranging from $5000 to $10,000.
The club was vehemently opposed after medical staff advised an extra trip would be totally counter-productive. Only when it became obvious that, in the wake of the collapse of official AFL carriers Ansett, it was next to impossible for the players to get down and back on a reasonable time-frame did the AFL relent. So Akermanis, Voss, Lappin and Simon Black joined 450 guests in the Legends Room at the Gabba for a function linked back to Melbourne. The birth of the new normal for interstate clubs.
Tuesday morning was weights and stretching, and after Akermanis completed his second round of media responsibilities in front of a huge turnout the team gathered for their customary review meeting. The time when the players officially put the preliminary final against Richmond behind them, and preparations began in earnest for Essendon. A sharp skills session followed.
The main training session of the week was at Coorparoo on Wednesday afternoon. Windy conditions made it a perfect build-up for what they might expect at the MCG on the Saturday. Upwards of 3000 people came to watch, including ex-players Andrew Bews, Martin Leslie, Troy Clarke and Danny Craven. It was as many as used to watch the games in the early days at Carrara..
Shaun Hart and Alastair Lynch were on media duty with assistant-coach Gary O’Donnell before the official team photograph and a training session in which all eyes were on Daniel Bradshaw, who had been under a fitness cloud for a fortnight. He trained without any problems. Likewise Lappin, who, unbeknown to most, had carried a suspect thigh into the preliminary final.
O’Donnell, a 12-year player under Kevin Sheedy at Essendon and a member of the Bombers side that lost to the Matthews-coached Collingwood in 1990, was full of positives. “This is probably the best build-up I’ve seen in my 15 years of footy, so we can take some confidence out of that,” said O’Donnell, not prone to overstating situations. He said the team that wins the premiership generally has ‘the right mix’ of players and added: “This team has the right mix.”
Lynch said he was delighted to be playing in his first Grand Final after 248 games and a huge battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but was quick to warn fans about getting ahead of themselves. “It’s a good start to hopefully a good feeling, but we haven’t won anything by getting through to this week. Certainly getting to this stage is not the be all and end all,” he said.
The former Fitzroy favourite, who at 33 would be the oldest player in the grand final side, confirmed that regardless of the result outcome he would play on in season 2002. “I’m enjoying my footy and being a part of this club as much as ever and I feel I am building my game. I really enjoy the place. I’m loving my footy that much that I’d by silly not to keep going.”
Hart, a 12th-year Bears/Lions veteran, reflected the growing profile of the code and the club. “Up until six years ago I was probably recognised on two occasions – once in a restaurant and once in a shopping centre. Now it’s five or six times a week. It was unbelievable the amount of people who went to see an AFL game in the year of the Super League demise who previously said no way…and they saw the product was better than rugby league.”
The diminutive tagger, who six days later would win the Norm Smith Medal as best afield in the grand final, said he was really enjoying the build-up to the biggest game of his career. “It’s good, it’s exciting,” he said. “It’s hard to keep the smile off your face, although I don’t know if that’s good or not – this is a serious time. There’s no higher peak – this is the Mount Everest of football.”
After one last weights session Thursday morning it was off to the airport. This was where routine varied because of the Ansett collapse. With no domestic flights available the club had chartered two 91-seat Flight West jets to transport everyone connected with the club to Melbourne.
It had been an operational headache for long-serving and ever-efficient football department secretary Nicole Duncan, who had been with the club since April 1993. In eight years with the Brisbane Junior League and going on 10 years with the Bears/Lions, the daughter of ex-Fitzroy player Stewart Duncan and cousin of ex-Fitzroy great Gary Pert had never had to contemplate anything quite as extensive as this.
Certainly, it wasn’t what you’d normally do. Players traveling with wives, girlfriends, children, directors and administration staff. Even a few selected sponsors. But it was a winner. The team had the plane to themselves. No stewards telling them what to do. No other passengers complaining of blocked aisles. It was so relaxed.
First off the plane in Melbourne, besieged by TV cameras and press photographers, was Bradshaw, carrying 13-month-old son Jake. Ordinarily, Bradshaw might have been overcome by the moment, but this wasn’t a football moment. It was a father’s moment. Just like taking his son to the shops.
Quickly they made their way to the luggage area and were loaded onto the awaiting bus. Players and team officials went on one bus bound for the Park Royal Hotel on St.Kilda Road, where long-time host Brett Whicker and his staff knew exactly what was required. The rest of the travel party boarded the other bus heading for the Holiday Inn. It was the last time the players would see their partners until after the game.
Friday morning most Lions players took part in the customary Grand Final Parade through the inner-city streets of Melbourne, watched by more than 100,000 fans. Not Chris and Brad Scott. They played golf. For all but Voss, who had joined the 1996 Parade after his Brownlow Medal winner, and Martin Pike, a 1998-99 grand final player with North Melbourne, it was a first. A wonderful first as they savored the atmosphere of a crowd in which the northerner’s had the lions’ share of the support. It was almost ‘spot the Bombers fan’. And not altogether surprising. After all, not since Fitzroy’s last flag in 1944 had the lion gone so deep into an AFL season.
When Essendon captain James Hird was introduced at the end of the procession he was roundly booed by the majority of the crowd. Matthews and Voss were noticeably relaxed at the obligatory Grand Final media conference for coaches and captains that followed, while, according to the media in attendance, Hird and Sheedy looked to be more on edge.
“I’m pleasantly surprised,” says Matthews. “I guess we’re the genuine two-state club. There’s obviously a vibrant base in Brisbane but the Melbourne-based part of our club is growing too. Today is obvious recognition of that and it’s fantastic.”
On Friday afternoon about 8,000 Lions fans packed Albert Oval, opposite the team hotel, for the last training session of the year. Another fantastic tribute from the ever-growing Lions army. A quick and incident-free closure to a faultless preparation. The players, protected as best they could by security staff from would-be autograph-hunters, made the short walk back to the hotel and into the “bubble” that was the last 24 hours before game time.
They were there. One sleep to go before THE moment of change.
Thanks to our friends at Youi for helping bring this series to life.