Over 36 years the Brisbane Bears/Lions have used 336 players and played at 25 different venues. They’ve kicked 10,560 goals and enjoyed 348 wins. And had eight draws. And this week they will play their 800^th game.

Almost fittingly, the milestone game will be played on a Sunday afternoon back at the original home of the then Brisbane Bears at Carrara on the Gold Coast. The Brisbane Lions against the Gold Coast Suns at 4.10pm at what is now Metricon Stadium.

How far the club has come. How much football has changed. It’s been an amazing journey and a test of the memory of even the most ardent supporters.

Not surprisingly, the club used 69 players in the first 100 games and a further 71 in the next 100. Since then it’s been a more modest 31-28-36-41-40-30 in each 100-game block.

Of course, new to the competition in 1987, they  played at nine different venues in their first 13 games in their first season. The MCG, Kardinia Park at Geelong, Moorabbin at StKilda, Carrara, Collingwood’s Victoria Park, the WACA in Perth, Whitten Oval, home of Footscray at the Western Bulldogs were then known, Carlton’s Princes Park and Essendon’s Windy Hill.

They added the SCG to the travel log in 1988, Waverley in Melbourne in 1989, Subiaco in Perth in 1990 and finally in the club’s 91^st game in 1991, the Gabba, future home of the 2032 Olympic Games.

Ten weeks later Adelaide’s Football Park became the club’s 15^th different travel destination in their 101^st game, but after that it was more moderate. Docklands, the stadium of many names and now Marvel Stadium, was Brisbane’s 16^th port of call in game #294 in 2000 and their first new venue post-merger.  

The Olympic Stadium in Sydney joined the list in game #391 in 2003, but thereafter it was slow. Game #502 in 2008 was the first in Launceston, and not until game #611 in 2013 did the club add Darwin to the travel schedule.

Since then it has been Adelaide Oval (game #621), Wellington in New Zealand (#623), the Sydney Showgrounds, now the GWS home at Accor Stadium (#649), the new Perth Stadium (#719), Mars Stadium in Ballarat (#735), Cazaly’s Stadium in Cairns in the first Covid season of 2020 (#767) and finally, Bellerive Stadium in Hobart in game #783 last year.

Curiously, of other grounds used by the AFL since 1987, the club has never played in Canberra, Alice Springs, the old Giants training base at Blacktown or Riverway Stadium in Townsville, which hosted one game in 2019. Or in Shanghai Stadium, China.

Among 336 players, 207 have been AFL debutants, 129 have been recruited from other clubs and 76 have been Queenslanders.

Brisbane player #100 was Russell Jeffrey, an ex-St Kilda player and eight-game Bear originally from the NT and father of current Suns player Joel Jeffrey. Llane Spaanderman, a three-gamer drafted from East Perth, was player #200. And Josh Clayton, two-game son of ex-Fitzroy star and Brisbane recruiting guru Scott Clayton, now at North Melbourne, was player #300.

Twelve coaches have been in charge through 799 games – four on a caretaker basis.

Peter Knights did games #1-59 before Paul Feltham oversaw games #60-66 at the end of the 1989. Norm Dare coached games #67-88 in 1990, and Robert Walls games #89-197 from 1991-95. John Northey followed in games #198-256 before he was sacked and Roger Merrett took over games #257-267 in the back half of 1998.

The golden era of Leigh Matthews took in games #268-505, with John Blakey deputising in game #435 in 2005 after Matthews’ mother died, and Michael Voss coached #506-614. Mark Harvey was caretaker coach in games #615-617 to see out 2013 before Justin Leppitsch saw the club through games #618-683. And from game #684 it’s been Chris Fagan.

The game-by-game split of captaincy is complicated by occasional injury fill-ins some of which were never even publicised, plus the joint captaincy of Michael Voss and Alastair Lynch from 1997-2000 and later Matthews’ decision to have five captains in 2007 and four captains in 2008.

Essentially Mark Mickan was in the nominated club captain for games #1-66 and Roger Merrett likewise from #67-222. Voss and Lynch shared games #223-316 before Lynch stepped down, and triple premiership captain Voss led the side did solo from games #317-461.

Simon Black, Jonathan Brown, Chris Johnson, Nigel Lappin and Luke Power were joint captains under Matthews in 2007 for games #462-483, and after Johnson stepped away from the in 2008 it was Black, Brown, Lappin and Power for games #484-505.

Brown was the sole captain from 2009-2012, taking in games #506-#595, before he shared the job with current assistant-coach Jed Adcock in 2013 through games #596-617 and was outright captain in 2014 for games #618-639.

Tom Rockliff captained the club in 2015-16 through games #640-683, Dayne Beams did the first 31 games under Fagan in 2017-18 for games #684-714 before Dayne Zorko replaced Beams in game #715.

The milestone games from 1-800 have been most notable for their place in history, with an occasional first, last or significant performance or milestone.

#100 – Brisbane lost by 87 points to Hawthorn under Walls at Princes Park in 1991 in front of a crowd of 5741. It was the last AFL game for David O’Keeffe, who had been a member of the first Bears side, and Robert Dickson, later a long-time club runner, film maker and winner of the first edition of ‘Australian Survivor’ before he was killed in a car accident holidaying in South Africa in 2009.

#200 – With new coach Northey coaching in 1996 against the club where he played, Brisbane, third on the ladder, suffered a surprise 18-point Gabba loss to Richmond coached ironically by Walls. Ex-Tiger Craig Lambert had 35 possessions for the home side.

#300 – Matthews and long-time sparring partner Kevin Sheedy were opposed as Essendon thumped the Lions by 64 points at the Gabba before a crowd of 31,887 in Round 8 2000.

#400 – Finally, a milestone win. In front of 34,368 people Brisbane beat Carlton by 38 points as Black (3), Lappin (2) and Power (1) claimed the club’s first milestone game Brownlow Medal votes. Jason Akermanis and Daniel Bradshaw each kicked five goals.

#500 – Brisbane, 25 points up at three-quarter time against Richmond at Docklands in 2008, lost a three-point heart-breaker when Matthew Richardson and Joel Bowden kicked the last two goals of the game for the Tigers.

#600 – Justin Clarke, so sadly forced into early retirement by concussion issues in 2016 after 56 games and later to become a Rhodes Scholar, made his AFL debut in 2013 as the Lions beat Melbourne by 28 points. Brent Moloney, playing against his old side, had 36 possessions to lead the count with Rockliff (34) and James Polkinghorne (30). The votes went to Matthew Leuenberger (3), Zorko (2) and Moloney (1).

#700 – It was the “Double Dayne” show in a 30-point win over Carlton at the Gabba in 2017, as Dayne Zorko (3 votes) and Dayne Beams (2 votes), the only two players named Dayne to represent the club, led the way with Ryan Lester (1 vote). Beams had a team-high 30 possessions.