Premierships aside, perhaps the most emotional weekend in the history of the Brisbane Football Club was Round 22 1995. A time when all the hard work by so many finally got a little reward. The Bears qualified for the AFL finals for the first time.

It was an extraordinary weekend and an easy choice to headline the ‘Remember When – Round 22’ flashback.

The moment that all involved in any way will never forget was the culmination of a climb that began at Round 15, when the bookies were offering 250-1 for the Bears to make the finals. They were 14^th on the 16-team ladder with a 4-11 win/loss record.

Six weeks later they were right in the mix. Going into Round 22 the Bears, still 10^th on the ladder, had to beat 8th-placed Melbourne at the Gabba on the Friday night, and had to rely on 13^th-placed Sydney beating 9th-placed Collingwood at the SCG on the Sunday.

The Bears did their bit in what would be Robert Walls’ last game as coach at the Gabba. Leading narrowly at each change – by five points, two points and two points – they kicked 4-8 to 2-1 in the final quarter to win 16-14 (110) to 13-11 (89).

To outsiders, it was a match most memorable for Shaun Smith’s ‘Mark of the Year’ standing on the shoulders of Bears pair Richard Champion and Nathan Chapman and Demons teammate Garry Lyon.

But for the entire Bears family it was about a young group that was finally starting to believe. And starting to play at a level whereby they could compete with the very best.

A 20-year-old Michael Voss, in just his 54^th game, showed the way with 28 possessions and three goals to be best afield in what at the time was the biggest game of his burgeoning career. Adrian Fletcher (29 possessions) earned two Brownlow Medal votes and Marcus Ashcroft, with 19 possessions and a goal, took one vote. Shaun Hart had 24 possessions to play a similarly important role, and ageless skipper Roger Merrett, uncertain at the time whether he would play on in 1996, kicked four goals in his 295^th game.

It wasn’t as if the Demons were just going through the motions. Not only were they playing for a final berth but it was the 200^th AFL game of Irishman Jim Stynes. It was a huge occasion, but they were simply out-gunned by the Bears.

And when the final siren sounded, just in case he didn’t play on, Queenslander pair Voss and Ashcroft carried captain Merrett from the ground.

But that was only part one of the weekend mission. And in the eyes of many, it was the easy part. For at least the Bears had some control over what happened. On the Sunday, in what became a national media event, it was all about hoping that the Swans could get the job done for them,

The Bears gathered at Kelly’s Saloon at South Brisbane to watch the Swans-Magpies game. Wives and girlfriends were there. Kids too. But for the duration of the match coach Walls asked that all television cameras and press photographers stay outside.

They were a somber bunch when Collingwood led by 25 points at halftime but slowly the noise level rose. Sydney, led by Tony Lockett, rallied. With every ‘Plugger’ goal the excitement grew. The barracking likewise. And when the Swans triumphed by 23 points bedlam broke out. There were cameras everywhere, reporters and microphones aplenty, everyone wanting a slice of football history in Brisbane.

Richard Champion was caught crying on national television. But there was no need for embarrassment. It was a measure of just how much it all meant to so many. To people who had done the hard yards through the early days at Carrara when 10 goal losses were the norm rather than the exception.

Walls quickly marshalled his troops, setting out a plan for the week ahead in an impromptu meeting upstairs. They shielded younger players from the swarming media and did their utmost to ‘keep a lid on it’. But it was impossible. This is what AFL fans in Brisbane had waited nine years to see.

The Bears would play minor premiers and raging flag favorites Carlton at the MCG the following week. And having been the only side to get even close to the Blues in the run to the finals it wasn’t the chronic miss-match that people would have thought six weeks earlier.

Overall, Brisbane have enjoyed a14-20 record in Round 22 matches since 1987 – 9-9 at home and 6-10 away. And that’s after going 3-7 during the Bears era from 1987-96.

But not all Round 22 matches have been as finite as the Round 22 of 1995, when it was finals or bust. Not always has it been the last round of the home-and-away season. In 1991-92-94 and in 2011 there were still two rounds to go after Round 22, and since 2012 there has been one round after Round 22 – except in the Covid season of 2020 when there were only 18 rounds.

Other highlights have included

1987 – Wooden-Spoon Grand Final

The Bears had endured a tough introduction to the big time in 1987, when the Brisbane Bears were born. They’d got to Round 8 with a respectable 4-4 split but won just one of their next 13 games and got to Round 22 in a dog fight to avoid the wooden-spoon.

It was Brisbane, with a 5-16 record and a percentage of 76.1, against Richmond, with the same record but a superior percentage of 83.5. It was win or nothing for the competition newcomers as they headed back to where it had all begun at the MCG on a Friday night in Round 1.

Oddly, what was tipped to be a battle to the final siren was over early. The Bears led by 12 points at quarter time, by 29 points at halftime and by 48 points at three-quarter time. Simply, they showed more fight than the Tigers, and had pushed the scoreboard out to 26-13 (169) to 17-11 (113) by the final siren.

There were two big-time heroes who both, oddly enough, were overlooked by the umpires when it came to Brownlow Medal votes.

Brownlow Medalist Brad Hardie put together a brilliant all-round game playing up forward. He had 26 possessions and kicked seven goals. Importantly, he kicked 7-1.

But the young man who captured the hearts of people inside the club was 20-year-old Gold Coaster Darren Carlson. In just his 11^th game, having won only one of his first 10, he made the MCG wing his own, collecting a team-high 28 possessions as time and again he turned Richmond forward thrusts around to create opportunities for the Bears up forward.

Mike Richardson had 25 possessions and kicked three goals for three Brownlow votes, while Geoff Raines, playing against the club where he was a past champion, had 22 possessions and two goals for two votes. Mark Mickan, who had done a sterling job as the Bears’ inaugural skipper, had 19 possessions and a goal for one vote.

And so the final AFL ladder in the Bears first season had the club 13^th at 6-16 with a percentage of 79.3, with Richmond 14^th at 5-17 and 82.5 percent

1999 – Farewell to Victoria Park

Leigh Matthews had had a massive impact in his first season as Brisbane Lions coach in 1999. They’d gone unbeaten from Round 15 in putting together what would be a 10-match winning streak that set an AFL benchmark for complete and utter domination.

It would stretch into the finals and at the time clearly the most comprehensive 10-game winning streak in AFL history, with an average winning margin of a staggering 59.8 points. It included two triple-figure victories over Fremantle and West Coast, and a lowest winning margin of 31 points against Hawthorn at the outset of the dream run. This surpassed easily the average winning margin of any other sides that won 10 games in a row in AFL history. The previous best was Hawthorn’s average margin of 47.6 points in 1983-84.

The winning streak included five wins at the Gabba, back-to-back wins at Football Park, and victories at three different Melbourne grounds – Waverley, in the club’s premiership farewell to the now defunct ground, the MCG and at Victoria Park.

But Round 22 posed a potential problem. Not so much because they were playing Collingwood – the Magpies had endured a horror season and sat at the bottom of the ladder at 4-17.

But it was the end of an era …. The last game ever at Collingwood’s Victoria Park. If ever there was going to be a response from the Collingwood side as the club’s 1990 premiership coach returned wearing Brisbane colors this was it.

The Lions went into the game third on the ladder with 60 premiership points and a percentage of 143.8. Ahead of them were Essendon (68 – 126.3) and North Melbourne (64 – 112.5), and below them were the Western Bulldogs (58 – 115.8).

The top four was set but Brisbane could displace North from the top two. But first they had to conquer the countless thousands who had packed Victoria Park hoping for a farewell miracle.

The build-up was intense but the home side’s response limited. Brisbane led 6-4 to 1-1 at quarter time and very quickly the mood of the locals switched from fierce to fun. They slipped into party mode, and their players pretty much did the same. The visitors coasted to a 13-16 (94) to 8-4 (52) win after Luke Power kicked the last goal ever at Victoria Park.

Marcus Ashcroft (24 possessions) and Chris Scott (20) topped the possession count as Craig McRae, who amazingly would coach Collingwood 23 years later, kicked four goals to share the spoils with teammate Alastair Lynch (4 goals).

Steven Lawrence, whose father Barry had played at Victoria Park during his time at St.Kilda, collected the last three-vote Brownlow Medal rating at the venue, while Nigel Lappin picked up two votes and Clark Keating one vote.

The Lions had give themselves a chance of grabbing the double chance, but it amounted to nothing when North beat Adelaide at Football Park the following day by 13 points. Brisbane began the finals campaign from third and beat Carlton and the Bulldogs before falling to North, the eventual premiers, in the preliminary final.

2006 – Farewell to a Legend

Michael Voss had known all along that Round 22 2006 would be his last game, but he hadn’t told anyone. At least not outside his inner circle. He was determined just to enjoy it without too much fuss or fanfare.

Brisbane were 13^th at 7-14 going into the last round of the year against a St.Kilda side that sat 6^th and had plenty to play for. And after a tight first quarter they were always going like winners after a 6-3 to 1-3 second term. They won 16-12 (108) to 7-15 (57).

St.Kilda champion Robert Harvey, with 21 possessions and three goals, was best afield before

Voss, who had gathered a game high 34 possessions, walked off like each of the other Lions players at the end of a long season. No fuss or fanfare, although he would later be rewarded with two Brownlow Medal votes in his final game.

2019 – A Magic McCarthy Moment

The Lions went into Round 22 2019 one of three teams sharing top spot on the ladder with 60 premiership points. It was Geelong, Brisbane and West Coast. And it was a massive challenge as the ladder-leading Cats headed to the Gabba for the penultimate round of the season.

Geelong were the better side for most of the night in what was Dan McStay’s 100^th game. They led by five points at quarter-time, 17 points at halftime and nine points at three-quarter time. And 19 minutes into the final quarter they were 18 points clear and coasting to victory.

But something clicked. First Jarryd Lyons hit the scoreboard. Then Charlie Cameron, And finally ex-Cat Lincoln McCarthy, who had spent six years with the Cats dogged by injuries and left not because he didn’t love the place and the people but because he needed a fresh start,

McCarthy kicked the winner as the Lions prevailed 10-15 (75) to 10-14 (74). Cameron, wit 17 possessions and five goals, was judged best afield in a win which took the Lions to the top of the ladder but ultimately meant nothing when they lost to Richmond in Round 23.

Still, it was a moment that McCarthy, who has become such an important member of the Lions team, will never forget.