As 2024 draws to a close I wanted to write and thank all of our members for your support of the Brisbane Lions this year.
What a year it has been for the club.
On Field
Our men’s team tasted September glory for the first time since 2003, with a Norm Smith medal for Will Ashcroft.
Our AFLW team played in their third consecutive grand final in their quest for back-to-back premierships, before being defeated by North Melbourne.
Our presence in the 2024 AFLW grand final made it the fifth consecutive grand final across the two competitions that the Brisbane Lions have participated in.
Thanks to your support, we had nine sell outs at the Gabba this year and a club record 63,268 members who signed up for 2024. You are the lifeblood of our club, and I thank you for your ongoing commitment.
AFLW crowds at Brighton Homes Arena grew by more than 10% and Brighton Homes Arena had the highest average attendance across all grounds in the AFLW that held more than one match.
Our players were awarded All-Australian honours with Dayne Zorko claiming his second blazer, while Lachie Neale was awarded his fourth.
In our AFLW program, Belle Dawes and Taylor Smith were rewarded with their first All-Australian blazers, Sophie Conway her second and the evergreen Ally Anderson her third.
Lachie Neale and Ally Anderson were awarded our club champion awards at this year’s respective best and fairest events.
The depth in our men’s squad remains in great health with the VFL team competing in their third Preliminary Final in a row.
Chris Fagan was awarded the AFLCA 2024 AFL Coach of the Year as well as the QSport Queensland Government 2024 Queensland Sport Coach of the Year, which is a tremendous achievement. Chris has acknowledged this is a great reflection on all our coaching staff, not just Chris.
Pleasingly, Chris and the club have recently agreed to a two year contract extension, which will keep Chris with the Lions until the end of 2027.
To have all three of our teams making preliminary finals, with one going onto a grand final and one onto a premiership is a tremendous reflection on all our coaching, recruiting, high-performance and medical staff.
The depth of our AFL squad was further enhanced by the addition of Levi Ashcroft as a father-son draftee as well as Sam Marshall and Ty Gallop from our Youi Brisbane Lions Academy. Sam Day has joined us from the Gold Coast Suns through the Telstra pre-season AFL draft.
Claudia Wright and Lilly Baker have joined our AFLW squad via the AFL daft. Lilly is another member of our Youi Brisbane Lions Academy to join our AFLW list. Neasa Dooley joins the squad as a rookie from County Kildare.
There have been some notable retirees from our playing groups. Firstly, Joe Daniher from the AFL program. Joe has been an incredible player, playing 204 games for Essendon and the Brisbane Lions. He has been a fantastic addition to our club since joining us at the end of the 2020 season and we will all remember his heroics in our semi-final win against GWS this year. It was fitting that Joe kicked our final goal of the grand final in our premiership win.
Jarryd Lyons announced his retirement after 194 AFL games, 104 with the Brisbane Lions. Jarryd joined us from the Gold Coast Suns and in a testament to his competitiveness, he twice won the Marcus Ashcroft medal for best on ground in the Q Clash. As well as making a tremendous contribution at AFL level, Jarryd won the J.J Liston medal as the Best & Fairest player in the VFL in 2023.
Kate Lutkins also announced her retirement this year. Kate was one of our foundation AFLW players and was awarded the medal for best on ground in our first AFLW premiership win in 2021. During her career at the Lions Kate has battled back from an ACL reconstruction and also gave birth to her daughter Reilly. The impact Kate has had on our AFLW program and the role she has played in it’s sustained success can’t be overstated.
We wish Joe, Jarryd, Kate and their families all the best with this next stage of their lives.
Off Field
In September, triple Premiership player and former Brisbane Lions Co-Captain, Chris Johnson was appointed to the Lions Board, replacing long serving director, Ross Thornton who passed away in April.
Sadly, in January this year, club stalwart, Nicole Duncan, who had worked at the Lions for 31 years under seven coaches, passed following a short battle with leukemia. Nicole was posthumously awarded life membership at our Club Champion event in October.
Earlier this year, Lions Chief Executive, Greg Swann, was awarded an AFL Life Membership in recognition of his 25 years of service to the game. Greg has served as CEO of three AFL clubs, Collingwood, Carlton and Brisbane Lions. In July he celebrated ten years with the Brisbane Lions and we have seen significant on field and off field improvement during Greg’s tenure with the Brisbane Lions.
On the commercial front, I thank all our sponsor family for their continued support, including Youi, who have signed on as the club’s Principal partner until the end of the 2029 season.
In 2024 we will again achieve an operating profit and remain on track to have eliminated our club debt in the next two years. We are currently revisiting whether it makes strategic sense to retire all our club debt, or whether we may maintain some manageable debt to continue to invest in projects that will provide ongoing returns to the club. For example, we have invested in the Total Fusion Lions health and wellness centre at Brighton Homes Arena which is operating profitably. We have also invested in solar energy infrastructure at Brighton Homes Arena, which will significantly reduce our energy costs as well as enhancing our sustainability footprint.
The club remains highly engaged in the ongoing discussions surrounding the Olympics and has made a submission to the newly formed Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority as part of their 100-day review. Along with Cricket, we remain of the view that a stadium at Victoria Park requires further investigation, and is likely to provide the greatest long-term legacy for Queensland. A rebuild of a stadium on the current Gabba site for limited additional capacity, along with the significant disruption to AFL and cricket (most likely 4 to 5 years of having no access to a stadium in Brisbane with any significant capacity) makes a Gabba rebuild a sub-optimal outcome for the state, Cricket and the Lions. We look forward to sharing more information with members in due course as the review progresses.
As the men’s players return to start their pre-season, the program for a premiership defence has been set with the 2025 fixture released in mid-November.
In a treat for fans, the Lions will unfurl the 2024 Premiership flag ahead of our Opening Round clash against Geelong on Thursday 6 March, before heading to the SCG for a Grand Final rematch in Round 1 against the Swans.
On top of that, the Lions will host Thursday night blockbusters against some of the league’s biggest Victorian clubs including the Easter Thursday Round 6 clash against Collingwood and Essendon in Round 12.
Membership renewals are underway and we’re already seeing heavy demand for 2025.
We expect to break 70,000 members next season. While this is twice the capacity of the Gabba, not all members are Queensland based and not all members subscribe for every game (eg. some are three game members). So the club still have a wide range of memberships suitable for any age and any budget, allowing fans to customise their experience. If you do have friends or family who would like to become new members, I am sure we can accommodate them.
Finally, on behalf of the Board and Executive Management I would like to thank all of the staff at the Lions who play their role each and every week to support the players, members and fans of this great club.
Here’s to a happy and safe Christmas and holiday period. I look forward to seeing you at the footy in 2025.
