Chapter II · 1999 – 2005
Leigh Matthews built the hardest, most relentless team of its generation. Michael Voss led it. From 2001 to 2003 the Lions did what no club had done since the 1950s — three premierships in a row — then went within a game of an impossible fourth. This is the golden age.
When Matthews arrived in 1999 he lifted a 16th-placed team to a preliminary final in a single year. Within two, they were premiers. What followed was the closest thing the modern game has produced to true invincibility — a side defined by its third-quarter surges, its physical edge and its refusal to be beaten.
Four Septembers
Down at half-time to the reigning-era Bombers, the Lions unleashed a devastating third quarter to seize their first flag at the MCG. Unheralded midfielder Shaun Hart won the Norm Smith Medal in a fairytale that set the tone for everything to come.
A tense, low-scoring arm-wrestle — one of the great tight Grand Finals. Jason Akermanis kicked the sealing goal late; Alastair Lynch booted four. Days earlier, Simon Black had won the Brownlow Medal. (In a rare twist, the Norm Smith went to Collingwood's losing captain Nathan Buckley.)
No arm-wrestle this time — a demolition. Brisbane led at every break to become the first club since Melbourne (1955–57) to win three straight. Simon Black was best afield with 39 disposals (a Grand Final record), and Akermanis kicked five.
A fourth straight Grand Final — a feat unto itself — ended in Port Adelaide's maiden flag and the first decider between two non-Victorian clubs. A first-quarter Lynch–Wakelin brawl set a fiery tone, but Port broke it open late in the third. The great run was over.
Roll the tape
"Best Finals of the 2000s: Brisbane v Collingwood | Grand Final, 2002" · official AFL channel. Opens in a new tab.
The men who did it
The heartbeat and skipper. 1996 Brownlow Medallist; courage and leadership that defined the era.
Elite ball-winner. 2002 Brownlow, 2003 Norm Smith with a record-equalling 39 disposals.
Mercurial genius on both feet. 2001 Brownlow, famous handstands — and five goals in the 2003 GF.
The power spearhead who led the goalkicking through the flags; four majors in the 2002 decider.
Tough as they come — played the 2003 Grand Final with broken ribs and a punctured lung.
The father–son bull at the contest whose prime would carry the club into its next chapter.
The selfless runner crowned best afield in the 2001 breakthrough — the ultimate unlikely hero.
"Lethal." The master builder who turned a young club into an era-defining machine.
Also in all three flags: Marcus Ashcroft, Chris Johnson, Clark Keating, Justin Leppitsch, Craig McRae, Mal Michael, Martin Pike, Luke Power and Darryl White.
The stories we still tell
Before a pivotal 2001 clash with the champion Bombers, Matthews reportedly borrowed the line from Predator to convince his players the mighty Essendon could be beaten. It became the psychological turning point on the road to the first flag.
Carrying two broken ribs and a punctured lung into the 2003 Grand Final, Nigel Lappin passed a brutal fitness test, played the full match, then went to hospital. The toughest act of the toughest team.
An unheralded, selfless midfielder named best afield in the club's very first premiership — one of football's great "who?" Norm Smith stories, and the perfect symbol of the side's team-first soul.
The post-siren handstand-and-kiss-the-turf became a beloved tradition — pure joy from the game's most polarising, flamboyant genius.
Voss (1996), Akermanis (2001) and Black (2002) — the Lions became the first club to line up in a Grand Final with three Brownlow Medallists in the same side.
In his final game, an injured Alastair Lynch traded blows with Port's Darryl Wakelin in the opening quarter — a moment of raw emotion Lynch later called one of his great career regrets.
In their words
"If it bleeds, we can kill it."Leigh Matthews — the 2001 rallying cry (paraphrasing Predator)
Lynch said he "mentally snapped" after the injury — and has called the 2004 brawl one of his greatest regrets.Alastair Lynch, reflecting on 2004
39 disposals — a Grand Final record — to be crowned best afield as the Lions sealed the three-peat.Simon Black's 2003 Norm Smith masterpiece