The Brisbane Lions will play Fremantle in the 2026 AFL grand final at the MCG on Saturday, chasing a third consecutive premiership. It is their fourth grand final in a row, but the first time they have entered the decider as favourites.
A record of sustained excellence
Brisbane have been at the pointy end of the ladder for seven years. In that time, the competition has completely changed. The rules have changed, the way the game is played has changed, and their grand final opponents have all dipped in and out of contention. But the Lions have remained football's great constant. They have lost players and shifted the way they play, but their excellence has not waned.
They remain a rather bewildering team at times. Every six or seven weeks, they throw in a howler. Against weaker teams, they toy with them like a cat with a piece of string, winning in ten-minute bursts of interest. Against stronger teams, especially at the Gabba and the MCG, they come with nostrils flared. It is the mid-tier teams and the mid-winter games that bring out their sleepy side.
Flaws and risk-taking
Even when fully locked in, they have flaws. They are not as defensively sound as in previous campaigns. All year, they have conceded big scores. They let Carlton kick their biggest score since 2012, with Brodie Kemp putting four goals on them in a dozen minutes. By the end of the season, their defensive numbers were roughly the same as North Melbourne's. In this finals series, they have conceded an average of nearly 20 goals a game.
They are not a team that dwells on poor games and bad quarters, however. Coach Chris Fagan is not afraid to give them a rocket, but he never loses faith in them and almost never drops them. He will say words to the effect of "it better be a one-week thing" – and it almost always is. Even after a loss or a run of goals against, it does not temper their appetite for risk. Dayne Zorko will get the ball at full back, look up and ask himself what the hardest kick with the biggest possible payoff is. This is a team prepared to lose by 15 goals rather than forfeit their preferred way of playing – a team that won't die wondering.
Pacing and the road to the grand final
They have great pacing, knowing when to coast, when to dig in, and when to unleash – a great trait with the season never being longer. Operating out of the football bubbles of Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth has to help. For Collingwood, Carlton or Adelaide, a lean patch in March or April can feel like those cities are closing in on a club. But in Brisbane, they can avoid a lot of the lunacy and calls for heads. All through the Fagan era, they have had the added advantage of always being respected and in the mix, but never being the hype team.
There is no real mystery to how they play. They say to the opposition: this is what we do, this is what we're good at, good luck beating us. They play and carry themselves like a team that has done it all before, met every challenge, and knows they are better than anyone when it matters most.
With the other great dynasty teams of this century – Brisbane, Hawthorn and Richmond – there was always a reach for reasons to write them off. They rarely finished top of the ladder after the home and away season, and all of them lost their first final in at least one of their premiership years. But all of them relished taking the long road home. "The only way we can do it now is the hard way," Fagan said earlier this month. That sort of talk is usually a harbinger for the best of Brisbane to re-emerge – and the best of Brisbane is almost without peer in the modern era of football.
