The remarkable rebirths of Brisbane Broncos and Brisbane Lions ahead of grand finals

It’s astonishing to think that the Broncos and Lions could soon be the newly-crowned kings Australia because not long ago both cradled sport’s utensil of shame – the wooden spoon.

The Broncos and Lions are both in grand final this coming weekend.

They started with spoons and have ended with booms.

And that only makes the stories of the Brisbane Lions and Brisbane Broncos even more compelling as they enter the AFL and NRL grand finals on what is shaping as the greatest weekend in Queensland football history.

Beneath the headlines and hoopla that will shadow their every move this week lies the stories of two clubs more similar than fans realise.

It’s astonishing to think that by Sunday night the Lions and Broncos could be the newly crowned kings of Australian sport because it was not long ago both of them cradled sport’s utensil of shame – the wooden spoon – for finishing dead last.

It proves yet again the greatest stories in sport are often generated by a bounce off the bottom of the barrel.

And, in both cases, not just any old barrels but ones which felt deeper than an Arabian oil well.

It’s a great thing for the Lions that veteran Dayne Zorko is still a vibrant part of their premiership charge because somewhere in that compact, all action frame of his lies the fibre injected by the years when the Lions could not win a chook raffle, never mind a game of football.

Cam Rayner (left) and Jarrod Berry of the Lions celebrate winning the preliminary final. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The Lions five excellent years they have enjoyed in a row were preceded by a rugged period where they finished 15th, 17th, 17th, 18th (last) and 15th.

That’s half a decade of pure pain and Zorko hustled and bustled his way through, with each challenging year casting a pellet of steel in his soul.

They were long years for all involved but coach Chris Fagan did the equivalent of turning around the Queen Mary in Breakfast Creek when he absorbed the wooden spoon season, edged to 15th the next year then surged off to an era which has seen the Lions win more games than any club in the last five years.

Respect. Consistency. Crowd support. The desire of players to stay where they once wanted to leave. It’s all there now and has been for years.

Dayne Zorko (left) has been through the best and worst of times with the Lions. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The only thing lacking is the elusive title win which would be simply huge because it would define everything around it.

Solid finals performances eventually blur anonymously into the caramel pages of history. Premierships never do. You only need one of them but without that one a good era like this cannot be great.

That’s why the stakes against Collingwood on Saturday are so high. This match defines not simply a season but an era.

Both the Lions and Broncos have historical high bars set by history which can be challenging to live up to.

The great Brisbane Lions team that won three successive premierships from 2001-03 remains a side by which all other champion teams are measured – and normally found wanting.

They cast an enormous shadow.

Names of former champion Lions players like Black, Brown and Voss drop together as easily off the lips of Lions fans as the likes of Walters, Langer and Renouf do at the Broncos … great players from great eras eternally bracketed together.

Reece Walsh is a key player for the Broncos. Picture: Getty

Modern Broncos players, even if they have no historical interest, must be sick of hearing the last time the club won the title was back in 2006 when John Howard was Prime Minister.

When the Broncos order a coffee at the club café they only have to turn left to see the giant trophies from the club’s six premierships.

Their coach Kevin Walters won five titles with the club but most of the current crop are too young to recall them.

Like Zorko, the Broncos have their own selection of players hardened by more brutal times like the disastrous 2020 season when Brisbane won the wooden spoon, swallowed whole by a Covid-ravaged winter in which they won one of their last 18 games.

There is a special toughness about the players who endured that – Pat Carrigan, Payne Haas, Herbie Farnworth and Kotoni Staggs among them.

“It was tough,’’ said Flegler. “We were all young boys at the time and we were playing with men. It was really tough for us at the time but we knew if we stuck together we would see the light at the end of the tunnel but it is paying off now.’’

The stories of coaches Walters and Fagan have a similar thread as both got their first Australian head coaching club roles after their 50th birthday, not the customary route to the top.

Both have done well to combine old school directness with the new world nuance no modern coach can do without. Both men grew up in a harsh world but are now coaching in a softer one.

Bookmakers have the Brisbane teams underdogs in both games – just – but you can tell the bookies are scratching their chins and that both Brisbane teams might be slightly under-rated. This group of Lions players may feel they are overdue for a premiership. The Broncos may feel they got their ahead of time.

None of it matters. The reality is both generations may never get a better chance.

Originally published as The remarkable rebirths of Brisbane Broncos and Brisbane Lions ahead of grand finals