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McIvor said:
Anyone who has access to the above two articles able to share them?
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A secret meeting, deadline trade and a crack medical team: How Brisbane transformed from perennial strugglers into AFL premiers - Marc McGowan
There were only 16 minutes until the trade deadline seven years ago when Charlie Cameron’s wish to leave Adelaide and become a Lion was finally granted.
The Brisbane Lions’ rags-to-riches rise – from perennial strugglers and losing the “go-home five” to this year’s AFL premiers – had an earlier origin, but the Cameron deal was a significant turning point.
The cheeky goal sneak, so well known for his Take Me Home, Country Roads goal celebrations that Lions fans sung it as he left the grand final podium, was the first of a conga line of high-profile recruits who transformed them into a destination club under Chris Fagan.
A 33-year-old Luke Hodge, with 305 games and four flags’ experience with Hawthorn, arrived in the same trade period charged with providing leadership, cultural and mentoring gains.
“Me and ‘Hodgey’ came at the same time, and it was pretty tough in 2018 because I didn’t get my first win until round nine,” Cameron told this masthead after the Lions’ grand final win.
“Everyone was like, ‘Why are you going there?’, and I just saw an opportunity to make myself a better player, be closer to family, and be part of something.”
The Recruits
The big names kept rolling in: Lachie Neale (2019) – following a covert mid-season meeting in Darwin after the Fremantle-Melbourne game that year, between the then-Docker, his agent Tim Lawrence and Brisbane list manager Dom Ambrogio – Joe Daniher (2020) and Josh Dunkley (2022).
Ex-Crow Tom Doedee (2023) is yet to play a game for the Lions because of another ACL tear, but looms as an excellent back line addition.
Ambrogio and ex-football boss David Noble – who crossed from Adelaide at the end of 2016 and spent four years in the role at Brisbane – also hit home runs with moves for Callum Ah Chee, Linc McCarthy and Jarryd Lyons.
Only ex-Sun Ah Chee played in Saturday’s grand final, but both McCarthy and Lyons were integral in the climb, while another trade acquisition, Darcy Fort, stepped in admirably for injured ruckman Oscar McInerney.
Former Bomber Conor McKenna also played in the premiership after returning from Ireland to resume his AFL career with the Lions as a pre-season signing in December 2022.
McCarthy played 29 games in seven injury-riddled seasons at Geelong, only to become incredibly durable at Brisbane until his ACL rupture in May this year. He is best mates with Neale, but it was McCarthy whom the Lions approached first, rather than vice versa.
Health and welfare
Brisbane’s much-vaunted medical team helped make Ambrogio’s job easier.
The likes of McCarthy, Daniher, Hodge and Grant Birchall had various physical issues that they largely put behind them in the Sunshine State. Doedee said the medical team’s reputation helped him make his free agency decision, too.
“They have a fantastic track record in that regard,” Daniher said after crossing from Essendon.
“I’ve spoken to guys like ‘Birch’ and other teammates who are fully supportive of the whole structure they’ve got at the Brisbane Lions at the moment. As a footballer, all you want to do is go out and play … I’ve been starved of that in the last few years.”
One AFL player manager, who wished to remain anonymous to speak freely, told this masthead that the Lions also had the competition’s No.1 welfare team, headed by Andrew Crowell, which he said made them appealing for prospective recruits.
Ambrogio, who was appointed as Brisbane’s list boss in February 2017 after recruiting stints at Gold Coast and Western Bulldogs, is also held in high esteem in the industry.
This masthead spoke to three player agents and two rival list managers to gain a greater insight into who Ambrogio is and how he operates.
They all described him as a hard worker who was highly intelligent, calculated and strategic; likeable, and always thinking multiple years ahead. But he is a ruthless negotiator determined to get the best for his club – although not unreasonable.
Ambrogio also drew praise for his targeted recruiting and his style of chasing hard those he really wants rather than casting the net wide.
Another of the back-room heroes is national recruiting manager Steve Conole.
Look to the country
Conole and his team’s shrewd eye for talent, combined with a deliberate retention strategy to target, where possible, Victorian country kids and players with prior relationships worked wonders.
He has nailed his first-round draft selections, including Cam Rayner (No.1), Hugh McCluggage (No.3), Zac Bailey (No.15), Darcy Wilmot (No.16), Jarrod Berry (No.17), Brandon Starcevich (No.18) and Kai Lohmann (No.20).
“We won five games in my first two years, and now we’re here, so it means everything,” McCluggage said.
“Even though we weren’t winning, we were measuring our success in smaller ways, so quarter wins and things like that … then from there, it was the growth of the older guys. The younger guys came in, but they were the guys who showed us how it’s done – Ryan Lester, Dayne Zorko, Harris Andrews.”
The club’s academy program has also been a boon, producing the likes of Eric Hipwood, Andrews, Jaspa Fletcher, Jack Payne and Keidean Coleman.
Two father-son products, Norm Smith medallist Will Ashcroft and Fletcher, played in the grand final, while another Ashcroft, Levi, has also committed and is set to be a top-three pick in November.
Anyone who complains about the Lions’ academy advantages must also concede that Conole, like his Sydney counterparts, has supplemented that with some great selections down the order. They include McInerney (rookie), Noah Answerth (No.55) and Logan Morris (No.31).
Like with any success story, there is no one answer or moment for why it ended up this way. Instead, Brisbane got a lot right, across a long period, that snowballed into a deserved premiership.
Click to expand...

The speech that inspired the Lions to a premiership - Peter Ryan
An impromptu speech from Lions’ ruckman Oscar McInerney after their loss to Collingwood in round 23 inspired the Brisbane Lions to a five-game winning streak that secured the club’s first premiership for 21 years.
Lions coach Chris Fagan revealed that McInerney’s words became the theme for the remainder of the season after the 30-year-old told his teammates to “give themselves to the team more” in a speech teammate Jarrod Berry labelled as pivotal to their unbeaten finals run.
McInerney’s speech to the team came in the week after their loss to the Magpies cost them a top-four finish and a double chance.
“He stood up and said: ‘Boys, you have just got to give yourself to the team a bit more than you are doing.’ I had never heard him stand up and speak, and it was just one of those really powerful moments that you occasionally get at a footy club, and there he was, ‘the big O’,” Fagan said.
“We’ve been living on that theme for the past five or six weeks.”
McInerney did not play in the grand final after dislocating his shoulder twice in the club’s preliminary final win over Geelong but was as excited as anyone when the final siren went. The crowd at Brunswick Street Oval on Sunday chanted his name to get him onto the stage with his teammates.
“What he did last week was the ultimate team act because he knew if his shoulder popped out again, there’s no chance of him playing,” Fagan said. “We were able to talk about that during the week and how selfless it was. We wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for him.”
Berry said the room had stopped and took notice when McInerney had delivered the impromptu and unexpected home truth because the ruckman had admitted even he was getting caught up in chasing statistics.
“That was a pivotal moment in our season and our journey,” Berry said. “It was pretty special. Oscar spoke about not worrying about stats, goals, marks, kicks and everything like that, [instead] give yourself to the team.
“He felt like he had gone into that trap and that is just impossible because he is one of the most selfless guys on our list. It was so powerful coming from him. I feel like all the boys just bought into that.”
McInerney was self-effacing when asked about his speech on Sunday. He first wondered “how did that get out?” before saying it was the product of the environment co-captains Harris Andrews and Lachie Neale had created – where any player on the list could express their view.
In the meeting room where the speech was delivered was a picture of club stalwart Nicole Duncan, placed there after she died in January following a short battle with leukemia. Duncan, who had been with the club for 30 years, was on the boundary line during the 2023 grand final as well as a key figure in the club’s three-peat premiership era.
Fagan said she was missed and would have loved to be part of the celebrations after the flag, with Brunswick Street Oval filled with the Fitzroy colours on Sunday morning.
“I wish she could be here now,” he said.
“She would love this and the family as well. [Nicole was] an incredibly hard worker for our footy club for [a] long period of time, someone I really relied on. She was big shoes to fill and a big loss to our club.
“I hope she is looking down on these scenes right at the moment.”
McInerney had focused on the opportunity his injury gave Darcy Fort, called in to take the ruck spot, to be part of the premiership side as his team-first attitude had helped the veteran through the season.
“That’s the thing that gets lost, like what a team man he is,” McInerney said.
“[It’s] heartbreak for him not playing in the Giants game, but he was the first one in the rooms pumping us up, I was so glad given what a selfless teammate he has been this year.
“It’s every kid’s dream to be part of a premiership and if you had told me eight years ago I would be at a footy club that was winning the AFL premiership, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
McInerney’s attitude left Fagan in awe and also with a message for the AFL about whether players other than the 23 who take the field on grand final day should get a premiership medal.
“I wish the AFL would give everyone a medal because that is an example of why they should,” Fagan said.
Click to expand...
 
Good to see Andrew Crowell finally get a mention. Man is a star.
 
Mr Ripper said:
Good to see Andrew Crowell finally get a mention. Man is a star.
Click to expand...
Yep... I don't think you can underestimate the pay off for the work he and his team have done. Literally the glue.

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Gadzorks said:
So just listened to the quarter by quarter analysis with king. Don't hate me for it. I was sacrificing myself in big o style.

Firstly he did say he gave fagan a hard time this year. Not an apology though.

Said he has struggled all year to identify a fagan game plan/style. But now after the gf he sees it as a half back probe. So we stay the ball at half back and use the short kicks as way to test which opposition players are committed to defending. Once we identify which one is not working hard we exploit that pathway forward.

In going to remwatch the game and look for that pattern.
Click to expand...
so professional football analyst couldn't understand what was going on. then goes on radio with some very strong opinions about the game style.

did something similar to freo. talked a lot about how freo should be playing a much more offensive game style. (freo have a bottom 4 record for scores against in a number of categories and the control game was an attempt to mitigate this). and kinda alluded that we were idiots for not going offensive . freo become offensive, get angry at us for our "defensive method".
 

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Gadzorks said:
So just listened to the quarter by quarter analysis with king. Don't hate me for it. I was sacrificing myself in big o style.

Firstly he did say he gave fagan a hard time this year. Not an apology though.

Said he has struggled all year to identify a fagan game plan/style. But now after the gf he sees it as a half back probe. So we stay the ball at half back and use the short kicks as way to test which opposition players are committed to defending. Once we identify which one is not working hard we exploit that pathway forward.

In going to remwatch the game and look for that pattern.
Click to expand...
Yes. He and everyone else in the meeja, having basically ignored us for most of the season, are finally having to do a bit of scrambling now to figure out "what actually is their game plan?"

"WHAT IS THEIR POINT OF DIFFERENCE?"

"WHAT IS THEIR BRAND?"

Of course, if they'd been paying attention they could have figured it easily enough as early as preseason. Altho at one stage I referred to it as "poking", rather than "probing". Whatever 🤷

We shouldn't be complaining too much tho. The fact we've been ignored and written off so much throughout the season, our flaws exposed relentlessly without nearly as much focus going on our strengths, has almost certainly been to our ultimate advantage. The cat is out of the bag finally tho I think.

Here is Kingy's segment with Gerard from Monday:



Kingy also touched on Sydney's unwillingness to defend. This was also not new news...
 

Good article about our high performance team and how they have gone about trying to keep the players fit.​

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/...ws-story/463b8069c26a70b44f34bcea800a5b86?amp

How time, belief, self-belief and courage shaped Brisbane’s glorious 2024 premiership​

Brisbane’s road to the 2024 premiership was the result of a decade’s worth of work, combining strategy and meticulous planning. Callum Dick lifts the lid on the Lions’ unsung heroes.

Brisbane’s drought-breaking premiership is the result of almost a decade’s worth of meticulous planning that combined considered list management with an emphasis on accelerating the development of youth.
The approach sounds simple and even obvious in some respects. But in practice, it took considerable time, effort, self-belief and courage to bear fruit.
In fact, the strategy was already partly in place by the time Chris Fagan took over as head coach at the end of 2016.
Twelve months before Fagan walked through the door, Sydney’s strength and conditioning coach, Damien Austin, had been lured north by the Lions to take over as the club’s high performance manager.
In the nine years since, Brisbane’s high performance program has become one of the competition leaders.

Now, as the club basks in the glory of its first flag in 21 years, the time has come to lift the lid on the unsung heroes behind the Lions’ incredible rise to premiership success.
When Austin arrived at the end of 2015, the Lions had just come off a 4-18 season. In the three seasons that followed they won just 11 games.
The first two seasons under Fagan the Lions finished 18th and 15th. The club was at its lowest ebb. But, there was a plan.
“There was a high priority early on, when we weren’t going too well, that because we had a young group, we had to get as many games as we could into them so that by the time they were 20 they had 50 games or more of experience,” Austin told this masthead. “Then when they get to 100 games they’ve got a lot of experience and they’re still quite young.”

Play the kids early and often. It is a strategy many rebuilding teams use, be it by design or necessity. But at Brisbane that was just part of the rebuild strategy.
“Your greatest ability is availability” has become a favourite football adage in recent years.
We need only look at teams like Richmond and Carlton this year, whose seasons were crippled by extensive injury lists, to know it to be true. Not only did the club successfully blood its talented core group of players early, they were also kept fit and healthy. If you can get 100 games into a player by the time they are 23, instead of 26, then you will get their best years for longer.

The perfect example is midfielder Hugh McCluggage, who at 26 has already played 182 AFL games and missed only a handful of starts in his career since debuting early in 2017.
McCluggage was the fastest player to reach 150 games from his draft class and is on track to surpass 200 games next season not long after turning 27.
Zac Bailey will notch 150 games next year before turning 26 and Cam Rayner the same.
Rayner missed the entirety of the 2021 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury and still has more AFL games to his name than many players his age.
It is with that same strategy in mind that the likes of Darcy Wilmot and Jaspa Fletcher have become constants in the AFL side over the past two years.
Wilmot, 20, debuted in the 2022 elimination final against Richmond and has not missed a game since. Ten of his 56 career games have come in finals.
Fletcher, 20, debuted in round 14 last year and has also not missed a single start. Seven of his 41 games have been finals.
Fagan has at times been criticised for sticking with players through form slumps but the result is a young team with considerable experience under its belt – and now, a premiership.
Even when the likes of Dayne Zorko and Lachie Neale retire, the Lions will have ready-made replacements waiting in the wings. It is why talk of a potential AFL dynasty has already begun.

The move to Springfield at the end of 2022 also invigorated the club’s high performance program, with access to state of the art facilities now at players’ fingertips.
“When we were at the Gabba we never did a pre-season training session there,” Austin said.
“We trained at Yeronga, Coorparoo, Wilston, Burpengary … probably a dozen fields. We were always on the road somewhere.
“Having a one-stop shop where we can train on the oval, walk off and the players have access to a gym, recovery facilities, ice bathes and the Total Fusion facilities there with the pool has made life easier. It’s made our work-life balance better. “Players aren’t just driving from location to location based on what we need.”
This year was Brisbane’s most difficult run with injury during Austin’s time at the club. The spate of ACLs tested the Lions’ list depth like never before.

But ACLs are truly an “unlucky” injury. Steps can be taken to minimise the risk but ultimately, the mechanisms involved come down to time, place and for some a predisposition.
“With the ACLs this year it’s been the most missed games we’ve had, but apart from the ACLs we’ve had very few missed games due to injury,” Austin said.
“In previous years we generally sat around 100 or less messed games. I believe the AFL average is anywhere from 130-160-odd. So our availability for a long period of time from a performance and medical side has been great.
“We’ve had availability of players which means they’ve got more games under their belt.”
This year, 11 players played all 27 AFL games for the Lions and two-thirds of the list was fit to play in at least 20 matches throughout the season, according to Austin.
Brisbane has repeatedly come well under the AFL average for games missed due to injury over the past six seasons, which marries up with the rise from cellar dwellers to perennial premiership contenders.

But it’s not just the long term list management that has helped the Lions achieve the ultimate success.
Understanding the implications of travel on player recovery has been of vital importance over the past six years and particularly this season, when the Lions had to play three consecutive away games during the finals after finishing fifth at the end of the home and away campaign.
Decisions that might seem minor by themselves can actually have a significant impact on performance, as Austin and the Lions discovered after the grand final defeat to Collingwood last year.
“Last year we trained in Brisbane and flew down (on the Thursday night) but the plane was delayed, so when we woke up players were straight into the grand final parade and everything felt quite rushed,” he said.

And so the decision was made to fly down on the Wednesday this year, “so they could enjoy it without the mental fatigue and physical stress”.
Austin said the mental fatigue was actually the biggest concern from the club’s point of view entering September.
“We were conscious of all the travel we needed to do and giving players a mental refresh,” he said.
“We shortened the days some weeks so they had more time to themselves. We shortened training sessions and gave them a lot more recovery time.
“The mental fatigue was one of the most important aspects, we felt. We wanted to give them a chance to feel like they had some time off to reset and come into training fresh.”

For both the preliminary and grand finals, the Lions stayed at the Pullman Hotel which sits just across the road from the MCG.
Not only did it limit time in transit, but the hotel was also equipped with gym and recovery facilities – including the ice bath which Logan Morris famously found himself in at 6am the day after the grand final, while sipping a beer.
“All of those things are something we are conscious about,” Austin said.
At the end of each season a majority of players are at least carrying niggles. Neale (heel) and Eric Hipwood (groin) were two players whose battles with significant injury were well-documented throughout the finals series.

Austin revealed McCluggage had also been dealing with Achilles, calf and ankle issues “over a period of time” which he and the club had successfully managed.
Individual management plans have formed a key part of the Lions’ injury success under Fagan.
Famously, the club was able to get Joe Daniher back to full fitness after years of struggling to get his body right at Essendon.
Austin said the key was to let players take ownership of their bodies and open a consistent dialogue with them from early on.

“I generally tell players when they first turn up, ‘you’re going to get sick of me asking how you are’,” he said.
“But it’s about building a relationship as quickly as we can so they feel comfortable and we can form a mutual respect where we are trying to get the best out of them.
“Joe Daniher, Lincoln McCarthy, Grant Birchall, Luke Hodge, Nakia Cockatoo … we’ve had a number of players come to the club who hadn’t played many games elsewhere but had good availability at the Lions.
“The learning is to treat individuals as individuals. Particularly in Joe’s case … he knew what worked for his body. He’s quite in tune with his body and what he believes does and doesn’t work.
“We have our philosophies and the players have theirs, so we have a discussion and try to tie those in together about what they need to do to get themselves up throughout a pre-season and in-season.
“We have a lot of open communication particularly with Joe and our older players to see where they’re at during the week, month, pre-season and in-season. The door is always open to let us know how they feel.”
 
Grasshopper17 said:
Yes. He and everyone else in the meeja, having basically ignored us for most of the season, are finally having to do a bit of scrambling now to figure out "what actually is their game plan?"

"WHAT IS THEIR POINT OF DIFFERENCE?"

"WHAT IS THEIR BRAND?"

Of course, if they'd been paying attention they could have figured it easily enough as early as preseason. Altho at one stage I referred to it as "poking", rather than "probing". Whatever 🤷

We shouldn't be complaining too much tho. The fact we've been ignored and written off so much throughout the season, our flaws exposed relentlessly without nearly as much focus going on our strengths, has almost certainly been to our ultimate advantage. The cat is out of the bag finally tho I think.

Here is Kingy's segment with Gerard from Monday:



Kingy also touched on Sydney's unwillingness to defend. This was also not new news...
Click to expand...

One thing I have noticed looking across these threads having a squizz at all the podcasts and articles is that for a long time everything we did was questionable . Now because of one game everything we did was genius.

Sentiment is more powerful than reality isn't it.
 
My three favorite quotes about the Lions for 2024.

Damion Barret: "They're not winning the flag this year, no they are done. There's just no spark now, there's problems everywhere, they don't have the same drive and endeavor, well I'm happy to say that right now the turmoil from getting so close for basically five years in a row and ending up short it's got them, and they are not equipped to deal with it."

Kane Cornes: "I said last year really, maybe around round 3 that they won't win the premiership with Daniher and Hipwood and I nearly was made to look foolish, I mean it could happen but I don't know that it will I mean Hipwwod got his big seven year deal and I haven't seen him since. Where's Hipwood? Why don't we talk about Eric Hipwood? Where is he and like Joe's Joe so like and maybe, and I said after the game in the week this is why he will neve be a super star of the game.

David King: "If Chris Scott was coaching the talent levels of the Brisbane Lions they wouldn't be 5th.I'm signing off on that I'm guaranteeing that. Now that's not, as I said at the time, I'm not being disrespectful to Chris Fagan whilst I'm talking about his job, I'm trying to say that strategically in moments that matter and in setting the game up to maximize what you've got and deny the opposition Scott does a better job.

Please feel free to add yours as a roast the Vic media mafia!
 
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