AFL finals: It’s been a dismal decade for Lions fans
Watching embarrassing losses, talented players booking one-way tickets out of Brisbane and having to sack, not one, but two, premiership heroes as coach. It’s been a tough road back to the top for Lions fans.
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The early 2000s were a magical time to be a Brisbane Lions fan.
Never in my wildest primary school dreams did I believe my once-battling team would win one premiership, let alone three in a row.
To go from a wooden spoon in 1998 to defeating all-conquering Essendon for the flag three years later was completely surreal.
The outpouring of emotion at Brunswick St Oval following that 2001 victory was at an extraordinary level because of the long struggles of Fitzroy, and the Bears in their foundation years.
But scaling those heights to then become one of the greatest sides in VFL/AFL history meant there was always going to be a fall.
I was prepared for it.
My thinking after the Lions eventually fell off the cliff at the end of 2005 was that we’d had our time — we’ll have a few average years and be back dominating September in no time.
After Daniel Bradshaw’s heroics to inspire an incredible 30-point last quarter comeback in the 2009 elimination final against Carlton, my post-flag era optimism seemed to be on the mark.
Despite recruiting Brendan Fevola in controversial circumstances (19-year-old me fired off an angry email to the club about offering Bradshaw up as trade bait), new coach Michael Voss appeared to be getting it right.
But after winning the first four games of 2010 in fairly impressive fashion, the club’s winning prospects faded to black like the end of The Sopranos.
As improbable as the premiership trifecta seemed in the late-nineties, equally so was the ongoing nightmare that would follow from 2010.
Embarrassing losses, talented players booking one-way tickets out of Brisbane, and having to sack, not one, but two, premiership heroes as coach.
Until this year, 2013 (10-12 record, 12th-place finish) had sadly been, by far, the high-point of seasons this decade.
The Miracle on Grass still gets me up and about even after the 10,000th viewing.
But that campaign still resulted in sacking Voss, three games before the end of the season even with finals still a possibility, in a clumsy, failed bid to sign Paul Roos.
Just when you thought we were at rock bottom, something far worse would happen.
It was ultimate despair by 2016.
We were almost as bad as a professional football team could possibly be.
You think ‘surely we’re at least a chance of beating the 1-11 Dockers at the Gabba’.
Nope, we’ll just get smacked by 83 points in front of 12,000 fans instead.
There just seemed to be no way of escaping the death spiral.
That was until Chris Fagan and David Noble walked through the door — two of the most important appointments in the history of the Lions/Bears.
Those two, along with chief executive Greg Swann, have ensured a brightness has returned to the club.
For just getting us back in the finals for the first time in 10 years, I’m putting the case forward for automatic inclusion into the club’s hall-of-fame.
MORE: WHERE ARE THEY NOW: THE LIONS OF 2009
GREATS REVEAL WHY LIONS CAN WIN FLAG
If we win a flag, I’ll be starting at Change. Org petition for bronze statues of them outside the Gabba.
But seriously, whatever happens this September, Lions supporters are just thrilled to be back in the AFL’s elite and no longer a laughing stock.
Just making finals would have been amazing, finishing top-two was mind-blowing, and I don’t even have words to describe how much another grand final appearance would mean.
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