How did you start supporting the Brisbane Lions?

How did you start supporting the Lions?

  • Was a Brisbane Bears fan

    Votes: 36 34.3%

  • Was a Fitzroy Lions fan

    Votes: 38 36.2%

  • Started following them after they became the Brisbane Lions

    Votes: 19 18.1%

  • QUEENSLANDER!!!

    Votes: 12 11.4%
  • Total voters
    105

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Thanks for the replies, I like hearing personal stories from fans, how they got into the sport/team etc. Especially in a state where it's not the dominant sport. Was in Brisbane recently (after more than 10 years), it's a great town, and always had a soft spot for the Lions too. Hope you go all the way this year!
 
The Flying Belgian said:
Mine's a bit like BangyBangy... Was brainwashed into following Carlton as a 4yo by my uncle as Dad was more of a rugby man. But my grandmother lived out the back of Tweed Heads and we'd be down visiting her every other weekend. Some of those weekends, we'd call through Carrara on the way home on the Sunday afternoon to watch a Bears game and when they moved up the highway in '93 I started going to a few more games. I flew down to Melbourne to catch the first week of finals in '95 which was the season the Bears caught on fire on the back end of the season. Watched them take it up to Carlton at the G - when I started wanting the Bears to beat the Blues, I knew my allegiances has shifted.
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Yeah well I was also hood winked to follow Carlton.
The reason I was lured to the dark navy blue side was different though , it was those navy bluebird cheerleaders, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I was about 13 ok, so please forgive me.

But although playing assie rules for Tingalpa state primary , kind of gravitated to playing league in my late teens. Followed wynnum manly. So started following the rabbitohs, same colours, lol.
Followed the rabbitohs until their coach ( Jason Taylor) got the arse in 2009 got sick of rugby league and after that started only following the Lions hook, line and sinker .
I think it was a Vossy thing , felt like a fresh start as it kind of got a bit stale , having not been that interested when we actually won 3 grammys, go figure.
Been truly a great experience getting on board when we were somewhat laughable , when the crowds were low, right up to now where we are so close to the Cup.
 
My family moved to Brisbane from Melbourne as Collingwood supporters in 1979 when I was 9. Mum and Dad were/are diehards, they still had their 1958 membership cards. I'd only been to my first games that year -- 2 games at VFL Park -- and loved it.

I was much happier when we moved to Brisbane but my footy fix was limited to the one Saturday afternoon match of the day on TV. I met a kid at primary school who was a Bombers fan who became my best mate, and he'd come over to watch games with us. It was annoying when the Bombers started getting good and winning flags though!

It was very exciting when the Bears started because they felt like they'd be a great second team and there'd be a good chance I'd get to see the Pies play. My mate got his license and we were able to go to games down the Gold Coast regularly from 1988. We started to get pretty invested in the team. It felt very unfair that the club had been hijacked by shonks and left to rot on the coast in a town that didn't love them and didn't even carry their name.

The Pies won the 1990 premiership and it was wonderful for us, but next year Brisbane played a Fosters Cup pre-season game against the Pies at the Gabba. My whole family went to support the Pies but by the end of the game the Bears had their first win of any kind against them, and to my surprise I didn't actually mind very much and was actually quite excited. Later that season the Bears announced their intention to move permanently to Brisbane by 1993. I didn't go to any games in 1992 as a personal effort to make sure they didn't change their mind but in 1993 I signed up as a member for the first full Gabba season.

At the end of the '93 season, their new gun recruit had announced he was off to Collingwood so he could play in a premiership. The unfairness of the situation bit me hard and I realised I was now a Bears fan. I had to come out as such to my parents. It was painful, but they understood.

Two years later the Bears had almost completed a fairytale late run to the 1995 finals. My mate and I, now hardcore unabashed Bears, are watching the Sydney-Collingwood game at my place in a separate room to my parents, with a win to the unfashionable Swans resulting in us scraping in for our first final. I'm sure my Mum and Dad heard our delighted shouts as the Bears took the Pies spot in the finals. Again, it was painful but they understood. We bought tickets to the final and flew down with the team to watch us just fall short against the eventual premiers at the MCG.

My mate and I have since been best men at each other's weddings, seen each other through marriages, kids, traumas, premierships, life-changing events... but our friendship and the club have been the two constants (transformation into Lions aside!). We're still going to games together and hopefully continue to do so for many more years to come.
 

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Paul Mac said:
We are in Melbourne and my mum was Fitzroy supporter and my dad is collingwood supporter. I am 53 years of age now and since i was 6 years of age my mum was taking my brother my sister and myself and my cousins to the junction oval watching Fitzroy and been supporting Fitroy/ Brisbane Lions since then. Our kids have always been lions members as well and we all still go to the Footy now with our mum as well. .
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Very similar here - mum = Fitzroy, old man = Collingwood. Two days before I was born in 1975 FFC played CFC, mum and dad decided whoever LOST was who I was going to follow. After trailing by 19pts at QT FFC kicked 7 goals to 1 in the second quarter to take a 16pt lead at half time. Collingwood were in front by 7pts at 3/4 time, holding on to record a 2pt win. And so I became a Lion. Was very close to becoming one of the filth.
 
Dad, being from an old school Italian family, didn’t have a team when he was a kid. He felt left out at school when kids used to where their footy jumpers or talked footy. He asked his father one day who do we support in the footy? He pointed to the team on the bottom of the ladder in the paper. Fitzroy. My great grandfather loved an underdog. He said Fitzroy was the rose between two thorns (Carlton and Collingwood). My earliest memories of footy was my dad volunteering and trying to raise money to save Fitzroy. When we merged with Brisbane we followed passionately from day 1 and he said it was the best thing that could happen because the AFL will never let a Brisbane team die.
 
PerthBoy86 said:
Thanks for the replies, I like hearing personal stories from fans, how they got into the sport/team etc. Especially in a state where it's not the dominant sport. Was in Brisbane recently (after more than 10 years), it's a great town, and always had a soft spot for the Lions too. Hope you go all the way this year!
Click to expand...
I got introduced to the sport by a guy at my high school who had just moved up from Tassie. Being a parochial (FN)Qlder, the Lions were "my" team but I only really got to see the Bulldogs on a consistent basis because they played on Sunday afternoons which is the only game Ch7 showed live so I probably knew more of them (Chris Grant and a couple of others) than Lions.

Moved to Brisbane for uni, got taken along to games by a couple of different AFL-loving mates, never looked back.
 
Dad grew up in Ipswich and used to be a bombers supporter thanks to one of his mates. He jumped to the bears when they came into the comp in '87 and he's been a rusted on supporter ever since. Following the lions was the obvious choice for me since Dad already had the premiership prints on the walls, and a print for Voss' 200th game, which basically meant I grew up surrounded by Lions memorabilia. I only caught onto the footy in 2016 and I've loved the team ever since. I was born in '05 so it took me way longer than it should've to catch onto them, but it's nice to know that Fages came to the club when I was 11 and now I'm an adult and they're going for a flag tilt.
 
Grew up in Melbourne as the son of a generation of Essendon fanatics so barracked for Richmond (along with the rest of the cousins much to the parents' displeasure!) even though I lived in the shadow or Morrabin so could have been a Saints fan (shudder).

Moved up to the gold coast (not Nerang) and iirc there was like one VFL game on late at night and I was surrounded by rugby league and ended up supporting the Broncos (shame) and even got to to the point of refering to Aussie Rules as 'aerial ping pong'.

Was hardly aware of the existance of the Bears even though they played in my city.

A friend of mine won four tickets to a game at the Gabba during the regular season in 2001 and I remember the material saying that it was 'still mathematically possible to make the finals'. It was an afternoon game and I was looking into the sun and could hardly see and half the rules seemed to have changed from my hazy memories of youth but from that day forward barracked for the Lions.

League gradually faded away - the last to die was State of Origen and now I only know the game is on because of all the blue and maroon that spring forth in Brisbane at the time.

My two siblings still consider me a traitor for leaving the Tigers.

It took me five years of reading BigFooty before I created an account to speak on the Aker saga and discovered to my delight that when you had a username and logged on the system remembered what you had read and where you were up to (I had been using a notebook where I kept track of which page/post I was up to on each thread so I knew where to start reading back from)

Seventeen years later I am still on BigFooty and following the Lions and, while I will never get a browndog badge like to think my minor contributions to the discussions are part of the fabric of our online world here.

As someone mentioned earlier the years in wilderness definetly make the taste of our current success and professionalism and competative respect that much sweeter.

GO LIONS!
 
Dad's uncle used to live across the road from Brunswick Street Oval, next door to Haydn Bunton (or something like that). Mum's side of the family was Carlton, but I spent my childhood sitting in the stands with dad at Princess Park, MCG, VFL Park, and the occasional scary visit to Victoria Park. I've got a box full of old footy records that I don't have the heart to dispose of, and my childhood Fitzroy flag recently surfaced which was awesome. I have vivid memories of seeing the Lions in the finals out at VFL park in the 80's.

I went to every Melbourne based Fitzroy game in 1996, standing in the steps at Western Oval. Fitzroy's final win and heading back to the Fitzroy Club Hotel was an amazing day, knowing what was coming. There was terrible sadness at what was lost, but having watched Fitzroy slowly fall to pieces and our star players move away in the 90's, I saw the merger as the best of the bad options available. We got to keep our colours, our mascot, most of our song, Chris Johnson, plus we got Lynchy back. I've always been glass half-full.

My dad and 3 brothers all drifted from the Lions after the merger, going to Hawthorn, or losing interest in AFL entirely. I stuck with the Lions with some mates, I couldn't see myself supporting another melbourne based team. I moved overseas in 2001, but managed to be back for the 2002 grand final, queued with dad from 4am to get into the MCC members, sat in the front row of the old pavillion (in the rain). The family all still have a soft spot for the Lions, but none are committed like I am.

I'm an MCC member, and through the dark days (after Vossy got sacked), I always thought that if I moved back to Australia I would change allegiance to an MCC tenant club - but while I was overseas it didn't matter because I was watching football on TV only. It turns out I still couldn't find the passion to support another club anyway (and I tried!).

Finally moved back to Melbourne last year, and have taken my kids and my dad to every Lions game in Melbourne this year. I love the full circle of sitting with my 78-year old dad and my teenage son and daughter, building the passion. My kids hardly watch footy on TV, but they love being at the games live. if I hadn't moved back to Melbourne to be able to go to games live, I feel without footy there would have been something missing in my relationship with my kids. Some of my happiest memories are sitting in the pouring rain at Princess Park watching Paul Roos. I hope my kids have similar football memories in 30 years time.
 
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Grew up in Brisbane so was almost automatically a Broncos supporter when they entered the competition in 1988, went to a few Lions games 1999/2000 out of curiosity, the monster kick from Vossy game was one of them I was hooked and have been a Lions member since the 3peat era, I haven't been back to an NRL game since.

 
Ron Alexander and his wife Marilyn used to babysit us as kids, this was when he was captain of Fitzroy. He said if we didn't barrack for Fitzroy he wouldn't babysit us anymore and that was the end of that. Wasn't going to say no to him, he was huge and I was just a little 3-year-old kid.
 
My story is a little different.

I ended up following the Lions because the AFL is the only Australian sport with a draft.

Grew up in a family that didn’t follow or “believe in” sports.

If it wasn’t the Commonwealth or Olympic Games, it wasn’t allowed on TV.

Problem was, all I ever wanted to do was play sports. I can remember grade 2, playing soccer at lunch with the other kids, but not being allowed to play weekend sports.

This continued into high school. I was allowed to go to training before or after school, but wasn’t allowed to play in weekend sports.

This resulted in many arguments with my father.

Eventually I was allowed to play school sports, but I had to fund anything I wanted to play myself, and organise my own transport.

My favourite sport in high school was basketball. The easiest sport to fund myself was cross country.

Left home after finishing year 12. Went to uni and discovered the internet. Man the hours I wasted following the EPL and NBA in the uni computer rooms.

Used to go to a lot of NBL games during the 90’s and early 00’s, until the Bullets folded.

Anyway, 20 years later and I was tired of following overseas teams I was never likely to go see live, and as I was used to following the NBA and the NBA draft, so I started following AFL in 2013, and picked my hometown team.

Started going to a lot of Lions games in 2017-2018, and became a full season member in 2019.
 
I grew up in a rugby league town. There wasn't an Aussie rules team, although we played it at school.. My team was the Illawarra Steelers, but when they folded in 1998, I got the poos with the NRL.
I followed the Lions from them on. There have been many happy memories following them, firstly with mates, then my wife, and now my kids. No matter where they are on the ladder, I look forward to watching them play.
 

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Born in Geelong into three generations of Cats supporters so I had no choice......until the Bears came into my life. Loved watching them slowly but surely get better and better. One day I declared to my family I was now a Bear.....I was in my forties by then so figured I will make up my own mind.......oh boy, it did not go down well.

...but I stuck to my guns...then the merger, that threw me a bit as it did everyone from both clubs but I decided to get over it and continue cheering on our boys...

...I have never ever regretted it. I saw 3 flags before Cats finally won their 1st in decades.

Let the good times roll on and on :grinv1:
 
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briztoon said:
My story is a little different.

I ended up following the Lions because the AFL is the only Australian sport with a draft.

Grew up in a family that didn’t follow or “believe in” sports.

If it wasn’t the Commonwealth or Olympic Games, it wasn’t allowed on TV.

Problem was, all I ever wanted to do was play sports. I can remember grade 2, playing soccer at lunch with the other kids, but not being allowed to play weekend sports.

This continued into high school. I was allowed to go to training before or after school, but wasn’t allowed to play in weekend sports.

This resulted in many arguments with my father.

Eventually I was allowed to play school sports, but I had to fund anything I wanted to play myself, and organise my own transport.

My favourite sport in high school was basketball. The easiest sport to fund myself was cross country.

Left home after finishing year 12. Went to uni and discovered the internet. Man the hours I wasted following the EPL and NBA in the uni computer rooms.

Used to go to a lot of NBL games during the 90’s and early 00’s, until the Bullets folded.

Anyway, 20 years later and I was tired of following overseas teams I was never likely to go see live, and as I was used to following the NBA and the NBA draft, so I started following AFL in 2013, and picked my hometown team.

Started going to a lot of Lions games in 2017-2018, and became a full season member in 2019.
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one of the massive advantages the AFL has over the NRL Is the draft system, gives supporters hope and also something to follow if your team is down the bottom plus all the additional content it creates
 
I'm an Essendon supporter for life (sadly)

Been working in Brisbane for 10 years now - been a member and player sponsor for the last 5 years with a mate from work as I was missing footy and like sitting in good seats

We've sponsored Tommy Berry, Zac Bailey, Brandon Starcevich and Jarrod Berry and this year sponsor Cam Rayner.

Love the SUITCASE!
 
BrainOfMorbius said:
My family moved to Brisbane from Melbourne as Collingwood supporters in 1979 when I was 9. Mum and Dad were/are diehards, they still had their 1958 membership cards. I'd only been to my first games that year -- 2 games at VFL Park -- and loved it.

I was much happier when we moved to Brisbane but my footy fix was limited to the one Saturday afternoon match of the day on TV. I met a kid at primary school who was a Bombers fan who became my best mate, and he'd come over to watch games with us. It was annoying when the Bombers started getting good and winning flags though!

It was very exciting when the Bears started because they felt like they'd be a great second team and there'd be a good chance I'd get to see the Pies play. My mate got his license and we were able to go to games down the Gold Coast regularly from 1988. We started to get pretty invested in the team. It felt very unfair that the club had been hijacked by shonks and left to rot on the coast in a town that didn't love them and didn't even carry their name.

The Pies won the 1990 premiership and it was wonderful for us, but next year Brisbane played a Fosters Cup pre-season game against the Pies at the Gabba. My whole family went to support the Pies but by the end of the game the Bears had their first win of any kind against them, and to my surprise I didn't actually mind very much and was actually quite excited. Later that season the Bears announced their intention to move permanently to Brisbane by 1993. I didn't go to any games in 1992 as a personal effort to make sure they didn't change their mind but in 1993 I signed up as a member for the first full Gabba season.

At the end of the '93 season, their new gun recruit had announced he was off to Collingwood so he could play in a premiership. The unfairness of the situation bit me hard and I realised I was now a Bears fan. I had to come out as such to my parents. It was painful, but they understood.

Two years later the Bears had almost completed a fairytale late run to the 1995 finals. My mate and I, now hardcore unabashed Bears, are watching the Sydney-Collingwood game at my place in a separate room to my parents, with a win to the unfashionable Swans resulting in us scraping in for our first final. I'm sure my Mum and Dad heard our delighted shouts as the Bears took the Pies spot in the finals. Again, it was painful but they understood. We bought tickets to the final and flew down with the team to watch us just fall short against the eventual premiers at the MCG.

My mate and I have since been best men at each other's weddings, seen each other through marriages, kids, traumas, premierships, life-changing events... but our friendship and the club have been the two constants (transformation into Lions aside!). We're still going to games together and hopefully continue to do so for many more years to come.
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How was it in 02 and 03 with your family when the Lions beat the Pies in back to back GF’s?
 
SRH17 said:
Used to follow North. Member since day one when we used to play at that cesspit called Carrara.
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People think that Carrara is a pain in the arse now. It was an absolute nightmare to get to & from back in the 80's.

I don't remember any dedicated bus lines. There was no rail line back then. Heck, I don't even think the Ross st bridge had been built. It was only Nerang Broadbeach road, not sure if it even had two lanes back then. Cars would park for miles down the length of the road.

I remember one game it took an hour to drive home to Nerang. Thats 5 or 6km away.

Made Punt road look like the Autobahn.
 
My first Lions game was 1959 at the Brunswick Street oval 1959. 5 years old.

From that point on that was it.

The only thing I can add is that my fondest memories and most ecstatic moments were during the hard times . When we plucked a win out of the blue , when the team gave its absolute best against the odds. Bizarrely better than the flags. I wish I felt differently, but the players I loved were always the battlers. You learn more losing than winning.

The 3 peat was unimaginable to me growing up but the hurt I feel from what they did to us 2004 is a stronger feeling than the joy of the flags. Inexplicable but there you go.

What I take from that is that there's always enjoyment to be found in the game and the attachments you form . Winning is not everything, but a transient joy to be savoured at the time , and I think Lethal said something similar in that all he felt after flags was relief and the next day was thinking about the next year.

So what counts is the journey. And to enjoy the good moments . Of which we've had many over the last few years.
 
The Flying Belgian said:
Mine's a bit like BangyBangy... Was brainwashed into following Carlton as a 4yo by my uncle as Dad was more of a rugby man. But my grandmother lived out the back of Tweed Heads and we'd be down visiting her every other weekend. Some of those weekends, we'd call through Carrara on the way home on the Sunday afternoon to watch a Bears game and when they moved up the highway in '93 I started going to a few more games. I flew down to Melbourne to catch the first week of finals in '95 which was the season the Bears caught on fire on the back end of the season. Watched them take it up to Carlton at the G - when I started wanting the Bears to beat the Blues, I knew my allegiances has shifted.
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I am an old Fitzroy supporter and used to have a soft spot for the Bears. I was working at the MCG that day, my shift finished at half time and watched the second half high up in the old Olympic stand. Bears were awesome and pushed Carlton right to the end, 5 more minutes and they would have gotten over the top of them.

Was in the days when 1st played 8th in the first week of the finals. Carlton went on to win their next 2 finals by over 10 goals having only lost 2 games for the whole year. Left the ground with massive respect for the Bears and was in awe of Voss.
 
BangyBangy said:
People think that Carrara is a pain in the arse now. It was an absolute nightmare to get to & from back in the 80's.

I don't remember any dedicated bus lines. There was no rail line back then. Heck, I don't even think the Ross st bridge had been built. It was only Nerang Broadbeach road, not sure if it even had two lanes back then. Cars would park for miles down the length of the road.

I remember one game it took an hour to drive home to Nerang. Thats 5 or 6km away.

Made Punt road look like the Autobahn.
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I remember one night we kicked the first three goals against Footscray and no more for the rest of the game. Luckily by this time crowds were so tiny it didn't take anywhere near as long to get out of the Carrara car park, but it still took ages to get home via the two-lane highway. The car broke down on the way home outside of QEII Stadium about midnight. I probably got to bed at about 2 in the morning. Basically a miserable night from start to finish.
 
Kernel Kurtz said:
Yeah well I was also hood winked to follow Carlton.
The reason I was lured to the dark navy blue side was different though , it was those navy bluebird cheerleaders, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I was about 13 ok, so please forgive me.

But although playing assie rules for Tingalpa state primary , kind of gravitated to playing league in my late teens. Followed wynnum manly. So started following the rabbitohs, same colours, lol.
Followed the rabbitohs until their coach ( Jason Taylor) got the arse in 2009 got sick of rugby league and after that started only following the Lions hook, line and sinker .
I think it was a Vossy thing , felt like a fresh start as it kind of got a bit stale , having not been that interested when we actually won 3 grammys, go figure.
Been truly a great experience getting on board when we were somewhat laughable , when the crowds were low, right up to now where we are so close to the Cup.
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The low crowd years are underrated. Lots of ways to have fun, just ignore the result and more of so much sweeter.

As we started winning, and crowds were listed as 10k (very obvious lie) our kids and their friends ended up getting at least 8 balls that they hand after a win.

There was always kick to kick - had to do something to keep us coming back.

Wins were always as exciting as the weekend.

No rush to head back there, but will cope when it eventually happens.
 
well I arrived in Australia from UK as a youngish man way back in 1995, what sport was on TV, NRL and not much else. No English football and as I played Union and Football as a kid and could never really get into League. One day in 96 I started watching this funny game on the TV and realised there was a Brissy team and they were underdogs.

Fell in love with the game and the Lions from then on. Happy coincidence that I caught the build up and got on board pre the x3 premiership years.
 
technically doesn't count cause i'm first and foremost a doggies fan but have always have had a soft spot for lions since i was a little kid

being born, raised and living up here in brisbane and no foxtel meant most FTA games were lions games.

dad's work used to print the member guides from 2000-2010 so he'd always bring one of the extra ones back home for me and my sister to read through haha. his work also had a corporate box and sponsorship signage at the gabba back then so i've been to a few matches over the years.

First game i ever saw was in 02/03 against essendon (i was 3 or 4) and i remember being terrified of the lions mascot lmaoooo :sweatsmile:

learnt the names and numbers of all the players and still associate them with their playing numbers

every time i see someone wearing headgear i always think of shaun hart (probably cause he was the first player i remember seeing wear headgear)

recently realised that thanks to that 1 match against essendon i've seen both Marcus Ashcroft and Will Ashcroft play :eek:
 

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