It is more than 4000km from Brisbane to Perth. The longest trip in AFL.
The aggregate win/loss ratio by the combined opposition since Perth joined the AFL travel schedule is one in three, with a combined 655 games for 219 wins and a draw.
Only Geelong, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn have a record better than two wins in five, while Brisbane rank 10th among 17 clubs ahead of Gold Coast, GWS , Western Bulldogs and Melbourne.
Brisbane lost their first nine games in Perth by an average 51 points from 1987-96, twice going down by 100-plus, and lost eight in a row from 2010-18.
So wins in Perth are very special, and make the long trip home much more palatable.
Ahead of the Lions Round 21 clash with Fremantle in Perth on Sunday we’ve picked 10 memorable moments for the club in the WA capital. It could have been as simple as picking the 10 wins, but on the basis that memorable is not always good there are others that will resonate with Lions fans.
1. THE FIRST WIN
In Round 2 1996, in the Bears 199th game overall, their 15th against West Coast and their 10th in Perth, the team from Queensland finally bettered a team from WA.
Coming off of their first finals appearance in 1995, it was a turning point in club history. Enough for a young Michael Voss, who would go on to win the 1996 Brownlow Medal, to declare “it gave us the confidence to know where can beat any team anywhere”.
Eagles coach Mick Malthouse went so far as to rate the Bears “among the top four sides in the competition” after they led at every change and survived a mini Eagles fightback in the third term.
Under coach John Northey in his second game, they kicked the first four goals and were never headed by the 1992-94 premiers as Matthew Clarke, dominating in the ruck on his way to three Brownlow Medal votes, worked beautifully with midfielders Voss (two votes), Adrian Fletcher (one vote) and Craig Lambert.
Alastair Lynch, in his second comeback game after missing 12 months with Chronic Fatigue, kicked four goals to match that of Darryl White, who was branded ‘the Magician’ in commentary by Sandy Roberts. He also picked up 19 possessions and was at his mercurial best.
Amazingly, now, it was an 8.40pm game Saturday in Perth – 10.40pm in Brisbane.
2. TWO IN A ROW
After waiting more than nine years for their first win in Perth, the then Bears waited only four weeks for their second, beating Fremantle 110 to 85 in Round 6 1996 after being 10 points down at halftime.
It was a milestone feast. Andrew Bews played with 250th game, Richard Champion his 100th and a 20-year-old schoolboy rugby star made his AFL debut. Clark Keating.
It was one of those ‘all played well’ games, with 12 different goal-kickers combining for 17 goals.
3. AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER
Round 11 1998. The 17th-placed Lions were pumped by 71 points by the 15th-placed Dockers at Subiaco and lost a coach and a captain.
Michael Voss suffered a horrific broken leg that sentenced him to an extended hospital stay in Perth before coach John Northey was sacked mid-week and replaced by caretaker coach Roger Merrett.
It was quickly forgotten that Chris Scott, with 21 possessions and three goals, was a rare standout for the visitors in a 50 to 121 loss. But the pain of a team in trouble lived on.
4. JUST GETTING STARTED
Precisely three years later the Lions returned to Perth in circumstances that could not be more different. From the lowest of lows, they were just getting started on a run that would take them to the highest of highs.
It was Round 11 2001 – the week after the famous ‘if it bleeds we can kill it’ game in which coach Leigh Matthews used the Predator analogy to help inspire a sensational Gabba win over premiers Essendon.
It took until 21 minutes into the third quarter for the 8th-placed Lions to head the 17th-placed Eagles after they’d been 18 points down late in the second quarter, but after a 3-5 to 0-4 final quarter, they left Subiaco with an 84 - 62 win.
It was the 2nd win in a streak that what would take them all the way to the 2001 flag.
5. IF YOU DON’T WANT HIM …
Simon Black will always be one who got away from the WA clubs. An East Fremantle junior, he was drafted by the Lions with selection #31 in the 1997 National Draft after Fremantle and West Coast had each had three picks and just before they had another pick.
But it was Round 20 2001 against Fremantle at Subiaco when Black began to remind the Sandgropers what they had let go.
In his 61st game at 22, the silky-skilled left-footer recorded his first 30-possession Perth game and his first Perth Brownlow Medal votes as the Lions beat West Coast 84 - 62. It was the first of his club-record seven wins in Perth. He had 33 touches and a goal for three votes as Nigel Lappin had 31 possessions and three goals.
Twenty years on Black still heads the club’s overall vote count from 40 games in WA. He had two three-vote ratings in a total of 13 votes to lead a field in which only five Brisbane players have polled more than once in Perth. The others are Jonathan Brown (7), Michael Voss (6), Dayne Beams (6) and Jason Akermanis (4).
6. END OF A GOLDEN RUN
The Lions flew home from Perth after Round 5 2002 disappointed on two fronts. Not just because they’d lost by 46 points to West Coast at Subiaco but because they’d lost a chance to become the ‘winningest’ team in AFL football.
The Lions were a 20-game streak that had started with the ‘if it bleeds we can kill it’ game against Essendon in 2001, continued through the finals to the club’s first Premiership, and then stretched through the first four games of 2002.
Still, it was the equal second-longest winning streak in AFL history. Collingwood and Essendon had also won 20 on the trot, leaving only Geelong’s 23-game streak in 1952-53 ahead of them.
Had they beaten West Coast they would have got to 23 because they won their next two against Geelong and Port but fell at what would have been the record-breaker against Collingwood in Round 8 if the streak was still alive.
Eleven players had played in each of the 16 consecutive wins in 2001 – Marcus Ashcroft, Simon Black, Daniel Bradshaw, Jonathon Brown, Nigel Lappin, Tim Notting, Brad Scott and Michael Scott.
Things looked good when Bradshaw, McRae and Chris Scott kicked the first three goals, but the Eagles kicked the next five and 10 of the next 12 to feed the Lions the bitter taste of defeat for the first time in 328 days.
7. SIX OF THE BEST
Jonathan Brown kicked an equal club record six goals against West Coast at Subiaco in Round 1 2008, but even that wasn’t enough to get his side over the line.
Brown’s sixth major, 12 minutes from full time, cut the deficit to 11 points, but an Eagles goal from Brent Staker, who would join Brisbane in 2010, sealed a 16-point win.
There have been three five-goal Brisbane hauls in Perth. Rod Owen kicked five in a 131-point Bears loss in Round 20 1992, when a 17-year-old Michael Voss picked up 11 possessions in his second game. Jarrod Molloy bagged five in Round 5 1999, when they beat Fremantle by 55 points at Subiaco and the medal votes went to Voss (3), Steven Lawrence (2) and Darryl White (1). And Brown booted five in Round 19 2010 over West Coast at Subiaco including the winner inside the last minute.
8. WELCOME HOME
Daniel Rich, like Simon Black, is a draftee from WA who has been a wonderful player for Brisbane. He made his debut against West Coast at the Gabba in Round 1 2009 and made his first visit ‘home’ in Round 16 that year to play Fremantle it Subiaco.
It was a special homecoming in a 15-point Lions win. Only 41 days beyond his 19th birthday and in his 16th game, he had his second consecutive 30-possession game and, as was revealed later that year after he had won the AFL Rising Star Award, picked up his second consecutive three-vote rating in the Brownlow after he’d had 32 possessions the week before against Geelong.
The Lions came from seven points down at halftime to win 62 - 47, with Jonathan Brown kicking four of his team’s goals for two votes.
9. A PERTH CLUB RECORD
Former captain Tom Rockliff wrote himself into the Brisbane club record books in Round 14 2014, when he had a club-record 45 possessions to go with 12 tackles and 13 clearances in an 83-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco.
Rockliff’s total was more than double the Lions’ next best and saw him better the then club record of 40 possessions he had matched in 2012 after it was set by Luke Power in 2008.
10. THE SECOND DROUGHT-BREAKER
The Lions’ rebuilding years from 2011-17 produced eight consecutive losses in Perth by an average of 55 points. It was like the early years all over again. Even Chris Fagan’s first trip west as coach ended in a 68-point loss. But it all changed when Fagan and the Lions visited the new Perth Stadium for the first time in Round 15 2018.
The Lions were 17th on the ladder when they took on a Fremantle side 13th coming off a bye after back-to-back wins. And they’d lost Harris Andrews to concussion after a clash which cost GWS’ Jeremy Cameron a five-week suspension.
But in perfect conditions, they produced a performance for the ages.
Cam Rayner, in his 14th game, kicked the opening goal on his way to a Rising Star nomination and the Lions had four before the Dockers found the big sticks. They ‘won’ every quarter and took the points 119 - 64 to celebrate Stefan Martin’s 150th game in style.
Dayne Beams led the way with 33 possessions and 12 clearances to pick up three Brownlow votes, while Martin’s 19 possessions and 46 hit-outs earned him two votes. A 20-year-old Jarrod Berry had 24 possessions and a goal for one vote – his first in his 29th game.
Best for the Dockers with 31 possessions, six tackles and 10 clearances? Lachie Neale.
