47 Facts About Brisbane Lions

Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League.

Brisbane Lions Bears were born in 1987 and initially played home matches at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast.

Eight Fitzroy players who would join the Brisbane Lions were Brad Boyd, Chris Johnson, Jarrod Molloy, John Barker, Nick Carter, Simon Hawking, Scott Bamford and Shane Clayton.

Brisbane Lions were officially launched on 1 November 1996, joining the national competition in 1997.

The Brisbane Lions met St Kilda again in a cut-throat away qualifying final, going down by 46 points after leading the Saints at half-time.

Related searches

The Brisbane Lions would go onto finish in last position at the end of the 1998 season.

The 1999 season included a round 20 Gabba match where the Brisbane Lions led Fremantle by 113 points at half-time, after having kicked 21 goals.

The Brisbane Lions played finals again in 2000, but bowed out in the second week after losing away to Carlton by 82 points.

Brisbane Lions began 2001 by making the final of the Ansett Australia Cup, their first pre-season grand final.

Brisbane Lions finished as 28-point victors and head coach Leigh Matthews famously used the Predator quote, "if it bleeds, we can kill it", to inspire his team for the game.

The Brisbane Lions poor kicking for goal almost put them out of the game in the second quarter as Essendon blew their lead out to 20 points late in the term.

However, The Brisbane Lions managed to overrun Essendon in the third term kicking six goals to one and turning a 14-point deficit into a 16-point lead.

The Brisbane Lions won their first premiership as a merged club comfortably, with a final score of 15.

In 2002, the Brisbane Lions won a club record 17 games, spending most of the season firmly entrenched in the top two with Port Adelaide.

Early in the contest, the Brisbane Lions lost both ruckman Beau McDonald and utility player Martin Pike to injury and had to complete the match with a limited bench.

In 2003, the Brisbane Lions became the first team in the national era to win 3 consecutive premierships.

At one stage in the final quarter, the Brisbane Lions led by almost 80 points before relaxing when the match was well and truly won, allowing Collingwood to score the last four goals.

Brisbane Lions endured a slow start to the 2005 season, before having a form reversal towards the end of the year, which included ten goal thrashings of top four contenders Geelong and Melbourne.

The Brisbane Lions would fail to make the finals for a third successive year, again showing promising glimpses at stages, with a shock away win against reigning premiers the West Coast Eagles, and a 93-point hiding of finalists Collingwood at the MCG.

The Brisbane Lions appointed former player and Captain Michael Voss as the coach ahead of 2009.

Indeed, the Brisbane Lions won their first four matches of the 2010 season to be top of the ladder after four rounds, but they would only win three more games after that to finish 13th by the end of the season.

In Round 13, Brisbane Lions defeated second-placed Geelong, coming from 52 points down late in the third quarter to win by 5 points due to an Ash McGrath goal after the siren in his 200th match, in what would become known as the Miracle on Grass.

Brisbane Lions collided with Tomas Bugg's knee and was taken off the ground.

Brisbane Lions suffered a concussion, and subsequently retired from football.

Brisbane Lions claimed the 2017 wooden spoon, despite winning 5 games for the season, 2 more than the previous season.

Related searches

Brisbane Lions had a magnificent 2019 season, making the finals for the first time since 2009 and finishing second on the AFL ladder with 16 wins, behind minor premiers Geelong on percentage.

However, Brisbane Lions were bundled out of the finals in straight sets at the Gabba, losing to eventual premiers Richmond by 47 points in their qualifying final and then to eventual runners-up Greater Western Sydney by three points in their semi-final due to a late Brent Daniels goal.

The Brisbane Lions became the first team since Geelong in 1997 to finish second on the ladder and not progress to a preliminary final.

Brisbane Lions repeated their form displayed in 2019 the following year, finishing in second position on percentage at the conclusion of the Home and Away season.

However, the Brisbane Lions bowed out in straight sets for the second time in three years after suffering losses to eventual premiers Melbourne and eventual runners-up Western Bulldogs in the finals, with the latter winning by a single point due to a contentious free kick paid to the Bulldogs in the final seconds of the game.

Brisbane Lions reached the finals in 2022, but this time missed the top four.

Crowds and memberships for the Brisbane Lions grew dramatically during the four seasons in which they made the AFL Grand Final.

Club still maintains healthy Victorian support due to their Fitzroy origins, and The Royal Derby Hotel in Fitzroy is the official social venue for Victorian Brisbane Lions fans, showing all televised games, and displaying a mural of club greats Kevin Murray and Jonathan Brown on its Alexandra Parade side.

In that time Brisbane Lions acknowledged the two parent clubs for the merger with the letters BBFFC printed below the back of the neck of the club's guernseys from 2002.

Fitzroy's VAFA side played the curtain-raiser at the MCG when the Brisbane Lions met the Collingwood Magpies in the AFL Heritage Round of 2003.

Brisbane Lions now wears a version of Fitzroy's AFL guernsey with red instead of maroon in most matches played in Victoria, consistent with Fitzroy's most recent colours.

Relationships between Fitzroy and Brisbane Lions however were strained in late 2009, when Brisbane Lions announced that it was adopting a new logo for season 2010 and beyond, which Fitzroy Football Club believed contravened Section 7.

On 22 December 2009, Fitzroy lodged a Statement of Claim with the Supreme Court of Victoria, seeking an order that the Brisbane Lions be restrained from using as its logo, the new logo or any other logo other than 'the Fitzroy lion logo'.

Brisbane Lions returned to using the old logo on its playing guernseys from 2015, but the new logo will remain for corporate purposes.

Since 2015, The Brisbane Lions have kept strong ties with the Fitzroy Football Club in the VAFA and the Fitzroy junior football club.

Club's team song, "The Pride of Brisbane Lions Town", is based on the Fitzroy club song, and is sung to the music of "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem.

Angst between supporters of Collingwood and Brisbane Lions had been caused by plenty of history between the two clubs.

Brisbane Lions have a rivalry with fellow Queensland AFL team the Gold Coast Suns.

Brisbane Lions have fielded reserves teams in various competitions since 1998.

In 2011 the team, whose name was now formally the "Brisbane Lions reserves", moved to the multi-state North East Australian Football League.

Related searches

The Brisbane Lions were granted a licence on 15 June 2016, becoming one of eight teams to compete in the league's first season.

Brisbane Lions have been a successful team in the AFLW reaching the finals in 4 of the first 5 seasons.