Brisbane Lions win 2024 AFL Grand Final by 60 points over Sydney Swans
The Brisbane Lions have been knocking on the door for years, now after a ridiculous finals series they finally have their flag. But this might be just the beginning, CALLUM DICK writes.
After 21 long years the Brisbane Lions are kings of the AFL jungle once again.
Redemption has never tasted so sweet.
In the battle of two beaten grand finalists there had to be a repeat loser and the boys from Brisbane town refused to let it be them.
After holding himself responsible for the goal that crushed their grand final dreams last year, Jarrod Berry let his emotions spill over on the final siren.
His second quarter goal was one of many magic moments on a day where everything the Lions touched turned to gold.
Last year Kai Lohmann watched the grand final from the stands with his shoulder in a sling, having broken his collarbone weeks earlier.
His three goals in the first half-hour was the spark that set the Lions alight.
Will Ashcroft was sat alongside him last year. - his would-be Rising Star campaign cruelled by an ACL injury.
Twelve months later he is a Norm Smith Medallist.
This week we heard about Chris Fagan’s Fearless Five – the young cubs who had shone under the September spotlight.
And all of them – Lohmann, Ashcroft, Logan Morris, Jaspa Fletcher and Darcy Wilmot – showed on the game’s biggest stage.
Let the record show this flag was never meant to happen.
At 2-5, with the Gabba fortress walls crumbling and a season-ending injury list the length of the Flemington straight, the Lions’ finals hopes were served their last rites.
The path to the premiership crystallised for Fagan after the Canberra capitulation against the Giants on Anzac Day: time to take this show on the road.
After their semi-final win over the same opposition three weeks ago, Fagan pondered aloud on his walk back to the change rooms: “How many wins away from home have we had this year? I reckon it’s a lot.”
The answer then was eight.
Never had the Lions won more than six in a single season under Fagan; never better than 50-50 on the road.
When the final siren sounded on Saturday night it signalled the 10th win away from home for the 2024 premiers.
And what a stage to do it.
Forget unlikely. History and common sense combined to tell us this Brisbane premiership should have been impossible.
Good thing Fagan and his merry men believed in miracles.
In one fell swoop the Lions exorcised their 2023 grand final demons and put to bed a laundry list of checks and balances the AFL world had used to argue against their premiership credentials.
Can’t win away from home? Watch us.
MCG hoodoo? We just won the two biggest games on the calendar there, back-to-back.
Key stars on every line out for the season? Bring in the next man up.
Fagan’s finals record was 1-5 entering the 2022 post-season. His Lions were billed as home and away bullies. Now it sits at 9-7.
Only Damien Hardwick has coached more finals victories since 2017, when Fagan took over as Brisbane coach.
He was handed a 3-19 team and asked to work miracles. Within three years he steered them to the top four and they have played finals every year since.
Since that return to September five years ago, no side has won as many games as the Brisbane Lions.
In a season billed as equal as any this century, the Lions won 16 of their last 18 games.
Now, finally, they have their just desserts.
Brisbane town, your boys have played their part. Now it’s time to make them feel like rock stars when they return home.
Last year the Lions’ spotlight was hogged by the big brother Brisbane Broncos. A week that would have been dedicated to Fagan’s men – as it was this year - was instead shared by their rugby league rivals, who incredibly had also steered themselves to the grand final.
When both teams fell five minutes short of a premiership, Brisvegas felt bankrupt.
But this year its Lions went chips all in, and the payoff is a long-awaited premiership.
The scary thing is, this is not even their final form.
A father-son and Lions Academy gun will arrive at November’s national draft and injured stars will be fit to fire for next season.
Fagan’s men just manufactured a premiership they had no right to win after a season of constant roadblocks.
Imagine what they will be able to do when the stars align.
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