AFL grand final celebrations: Lions the toast of the town, Geelong commiserate after 2025 AFL decider

We’re wrapping up our live blog coverage of the Brisbane Lions’ day-after celebrations for their back-to-back flags. The Lions have celebrated the club’s fifth flag since the merger between Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy in the mid-1990s, saluting their supporter bases at the club’s historic home in Brunswick Street and their headquarters at Springfield in Brisbane.

It’s been a busy couple of days for our reporting team, and here are just some of the highlights:

• Jake Niall: Brisbane’s stunning back-to-back triumph is a premiership that holds ramifications for the competition, on three key questions.
• Andrew Wu: In the 129 years of the V/AFL, there would not be a premier who has lifted the cup with a deck as stacked against them as Brisbane’s back-to-back premiership team. The Lions’ fifth flag (as a merged entity) has been won the hard way.
• Peter Ryan: Chris Fagan told Lachie Neale he felt “like a bit of a dickhead” even asking the dual Brownlow medallist: What would he think about being the sub in the grand final?

Harris Andrews celebrates with Lachie Neale in Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images

Brisbane Lions fans gather in Springfield on Sunday.Credit: AFL Photos

While next month’s trade period might be just around the corner, we’re also looking forward to AFL season 2026.

Good night and thank you.

They now have back-to-back premierships, so how far can the Brisbane Lions take this dynasty? On today’s edition of the Real Footy podcast, Michael Gleeson, Jake Niall and Marc McGowan pore over the Lions’ 47-point upset grand final defeat of Geelong. Click below to have a listen.

The focus will turn to the trade period immediately as the Lions celebrate their win over Geelong, and their 17 rivals do their darnedest to catch the premiers in 2026.

In a move that has been on the cards all season, Fremantle, who lost their elimination final to the Suns, have managed to convince Melbourne’s Judd McVee to ask for a trade to the Dockers.

Competition sources have confirmed the out-of-contract 22-year-old has told the Demons he wants to return to Western Australia to play for Fremantle.

Judd McVee playing for MelbourneCredit: Getty Images

Instead of worrying about an expected move to Adelaide, Brisbane utility Callum Ah Chee was daydreaming about a second premiership for the Lions.

A year after kicking four goals in a grand final smashing of Sydney, Ah Chee played a pivotal role on dashing Geelong winger Ollie Dempsey in the Lions’ 47-point win on Saturday.

It was almost certainly his last game for the club before he accepts a long-term deal to play for the Crows next year.

Callum Ah Chee signing autographs for Lions fans at Sunday’s family day at Brusnwick Oval.Credit: Getty Images

Ah Chee brushed off talk about his future, saying he tried not to think about it, or listen to any of the commentary.

“Obviously, a lot of talk going on here and there, but my focus has just been on playing finals ... I love this footy club,” the 27-year-old said.

“The boys take the piss out of me a little bit, but I really try not to listen to the outside noise.”

Dubbed “Mr September” by great mate and fellow Lions forward Charlie Cameron, Ah Chee lives for the big stage.

“I was daydreaming a little bit before the game,” he said. “It’s hard not to, then the dreams came true.

Ah Chee with friend and teammate Charlie Cameron after Saturday’s win. Cameron crossed from Adelaide to the Lions, and Ah Chee is poised to do the opposite.Credit: Getty Images

“It was a little bit easier this year having been here the two years prior, knowing what the build-up’s like. To be playing in the grand final, it’s unbelievable and you cherish it.”

Dempsey destroyed the Lions with his devastating running power in the Cats’ qualifying final win three weeks ago.

In the rematch, Ah Chee – mostly a forward for the past 18 months – was tasked with making him accountable.

Dempsey was still one of Geelong’s best players with four goals, but Ah Chee had 17 disposals, six intercept possessions and was a crucial link in getting the Lions forward.

“I knew earlier in the week that I was going to be playing the role, so got my head around it,” Ah Chee said.

“It probably doesn’t mean I’m going to be kicking fancy goals and whatever, but happy to do it for the team.”

Ah Chee might not be the only dual premiership Lion moving on, with the Western Australian-raised defender Brandon Starcevich weighing up a monster offer from West Coast.

Starcevich spent much of the second half on the bench after being ruled out with concussion.

The 26-year-old missed three months this season after suffering a concussion in round one against Sydney and has had a history of head knocks.

Starcevich insisted post-game he was feeling fine and the move to leave him out the bench was more precautionary given his history with concussion.

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Geelong president Grant McCabe has paid tribute to the Brisbane at his club’s supporters day, saying the Lions were now the team to chase.

“They were epic. I thought all year they had the best list in it, and you can see that the coaching group is fantastic, [their president] Andrew Wellington is one of the best people I have met in football, so they are doing a lot right,” McCabe told this masthead.

“They have talked about replicating Geelong, and there will be plenty of clubs looking at them working out, ‘How do I chase Brisbane now?’ They are so impressive and the Ashcroft boys are something to behold.”

Brisbane Lions president Andrew Wellington today.Credit: Getty Images

Geelong defender Zach Guthrie says it was a remarkable effort of Jeremy Cameron to play on after fracturing his arm in the second quarter of yesterday’s grand final.

Guthrie said the inspirational tackle Cameron laid on the Lions’ Jaspa Fletcher in the third quarter, which led a goal for the Cats, was typical of the moments the Coleman medallist provided for the team all season.

He attended hospital on Sunday for scans.

“He was still around last night and that is the sort of guy he is, that he wants to celebrate the year as a whole,” Guthrie said.

It was the second grand final loss for Cameron, who also played in the Giants’ 2019 loss to Richmond and Geelong’s 2022 triumph over Sydney.

Chris Fagan says there’s one piece of advice former Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews gave him during their weekly dinners together that helped carry the club to glory once again.

“He’s always said to me that the coach has got to be the calmest person in the place,” Fagan said today.

“The players and the whole footy club look to you to set the right example, and if you’re a bit unpredictable, that’s not a good thing.”

Former Lions coach Leigh Matthews congratulates forward Zac Bailey after the game.Credit: AFL Photos

A three-time Lions premiership coach, Matthews was in the club’s rooms on Saturday to celebrate with the team.

Fagan said he was going to soak in the win for “a week or two”, before eyeing off Lethal’s premiership three-peat.

“I want to talk to my wife, Ursula, about [the off-season], want to have a bit of a break. I’m a bit tempted to go on one of those health retreats … I’d probably hate it though, I don’t know.”

Brisbane-based sisters Caitlin and Alycia Johnston have travelled to Melbourne for the grand final three years on the trot, content with joining the team’s faithful sitting outside the ’G during the season decider.

“It was not a vibe the first year,” Caitlin said wryly.

Sisters Alycia (left) and Caitlin Johnston from Brisbane.Credit: Penny Stephens

The Lions became Caitlin’s “die-hard” teenage obsession around the time of the club’s three-peat from 2001 to 2003. She still wears the vintage lion ears and scarf she picked up outside a game in 2002.

The duo joined the thousands of Lions tragics in Fitzroy North on Sunday, hoping to get a signature from their premiership heroes.

“A lot of people wrote us off this year, but this team is all about belief,” Caitlin said. “I’m ecstatic now, but during the game I was so nervous I wasn’t even sure if I was enjoying it any more.”

For Alycia, the club means more than just triumphant wins and premiership cups.

“This footy community is so important – it brings people together and gives them something that bonds them,” she said. “We share the nerves and we share the joy. That’s vital, especially right now.”

Geelong coach Chris Scott told the Cats fans today the side will reload and go again once they have absorbed the disappointment of Saturday’s grand final loss to the Lions.

“We have had plenty of forks in the road if you like over the past decade or two where there was a possibility that we could turn up our toes and go through a bit of a rebuilding process and maybe accept that our best was behind us, and we are just not prepared to concede that,” Scott said.

Geelong coach Chris Scott congratulates Brisbane counterpart Chris Fagan on Saturday.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“I think it is pretty safe to say I speak for everyone when I say we are not prepared to concede now either.

“We are bitterly disappointed. In this game sometimes all you can ask for is to give yourself a chance and our players and our club did that for us this year.”

A harder draw. A stack of injuries to key players. Constant doubt from outside the club that the Lions could go back-to-back in 2025.

That’s what this year’s playing group were faced with, according to Lions co-captain Lachie Neale.

“I’m really proud of the group for sticking fat,” he said, acknowledging the premiership was a more difficult mountain to climb the second time around.

“I think we were called cockroaches a couple of weeks ago: you just can’t kill us off.

“[The win] has sunk in a little bit, but it’s still pretty crazy.”

When it comes to the Lions’ chances for 2026, Neale is adamant they’ll be celebrating with fans in Fitzroy again next year.

“Oh yeah, we’re running it back for sure.”