It was their 16th win in succession to round out 2001, and started a dynasty that hadn't been seen since Melbourne won three consecutive flags in the 1950s.
Michael Voss had reached the pinnacle as a captain, Leigh Matthews had won coaching a second club, and Jason Akermanis added a premiership to the Brownlow Medal he won earlier that week.
A young Luke Power starred, workaholic Shaun Hart won the Norm Smith Medal, and despite his poor kicking, Alastair Lynch had the better of his battle with Dustin Fletcher.
The Lions went on to defeat Collingwood in 2002 and 2003 before finishing its run with a loss to Port Adelaide in the 2004 decider.
The impact of that Lions' dynasty is still being felt around the AFL today, and will be felt in Saturday's Grand Final between Geelong and Collingwood.
Chris Scott is the Geelong head coach and Nigel Lappin one of his assistants.
Elsewhere around the league Voss is now coaching the Lions and Brad Scott (who outplayed James Hird in the 2001 victory) the Kangaroos.
Justin Leppitsch (Richmond) and Shaun Hart (Gold Coast) are assistant coaches, while Marcus Ashcroft (Gold Coast) is a football manager.
It was a great team with a great legacy.
One of the unsung Lions on that historic day was goalkicking winger Tim Notting, who is still playing in the AFLQ competition for Labrador.
Notting, 32, admitted time went "pretty quickly" when asked about the 10-year anniversary.
"You remember the years leading in were progressive years and that year we were win, loss, win, loss, and then all of a sudden we got on a roll," he said.
"Personally I got more of an opportunity and then we developed this backline that was impenetrable. And Lynchy (Alastair Lynch) and Braddy (Daniel Bradshaw) were great up forward … it was just a great year and the celebrations afterwards were fantastic.
"You start to forget but you watch Foxtel on Tuesday nights and they showed that Grand Final a little while back.
"All of a sudden your phone starts going crazy and you've got Leppa down in Melbourne cracking a joke or Vossy up here at you for missing a mark and it jogs your memory. It was a great time."
Notting said some of his fondest memories from that first premiership were the celebrations.
He said it was in the era where the team could go out and have a drink and celebrate together before professionalism began to rein that in a little.
"To be that close to winning four in a row was unbelievable. You look at Geelong, how good are they? They won two out of three, so to actually clinch three in a row is very hard to do and that's the luck of the draw I guess."
If Geelong wins on Saturday it will be three flags in five years, and if Collingwood wins it will be back-to-back.
Either way they will still be chasing an AFL benchmark the Lions began to establish precisely 10 years ago.
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mike_whiting
