A total of 66 Bears players donned the guernsey that will be worn by the Brisbane Lions this Saturday night at the Gabba to commemorate the Club’s second biennial Hall of Fame.

The commemorative jumper is based on the design from 1989-91 – after the initial maroon colour was lightened and before the more contemporary ‘V’ design was introduced.

That particular period might not have been overly successful, but it still played an important role in shaping the Club’s history.

Importantly, the jumper was the first to appear in a match at the Gabba, as the Bears started playing home matches at the then 20,000-capacity stadium in 1991 before making a permanent move there at the end of 1992.

Some of the all-time Club greats were also recruited to the Bears between 1989-91, including local teenagers Marcus Ashcroft and Shaun Hart, South Australian Richard Champion, and even Michael ‘Magic’ McLean from Footscray.  

McLean (1991), David Bain (1990), Martin Leslie (1990) and John Gastev (1989) won the Bears’ Best and Fairest awards, while Brad Hardie booted a Club-high 133 goals across the three seasons –including a nine-goal haul against Carlton at Princes Park, which remained an individual goals record that would survive until the end of the Bears era.

Ironically, a match-winning Warwick Capper goal after the siren in that same game against the Blues resulted in the sacking of then Carlton coach, and future Bears coach, Robert Walls.

Remarkably, Walls was one of four different coaches that presided over the Bears in those three seasons – along with Peter Knights, Paul Feltham, and Norm Dare.

Walls, who was appointed at the beginning of 1991, went on to guide the Bears to their first ever AFL Finals appearance in 1995.

There was some on-field success for the Bears during that time, with Rodney Eade guiding the Club’s reserves side to the premiership. In fact, the reserves premiership remains the only piece of AFL silverware that was won by the Bears.

The Lions will acknowledge this period of the Club’s history this Saturday night at the Gabba by wearing a re-make of the Bears’ guernsey and organising a range of historical-type activities around the game.

In the meantime, please find below a list of all the Bears players who previously donned this week’s commemorative guernsey in a senior VFL/AFL match.  

*Player went on to play for the Brisbane Lio