Dear Member,

As Brisbane Lions fans we have a lot to be grateful for in 2025. 

The club has enjoyed another successful year on and off the field and for this I want to call out all our people.

From the players and coaches through to all our football and administration staff, our achievements are the culmination of hard work, dedication and connection of the entire group to get the club into the position we now find ourselves in. I would like to thank all the staff at the Lions who support the players, members and fans of this great club.

On field, our AFL team shone winning back-to-back Premierships, our AFLW team reached their fourth consecutive Grand Final and such is the depth of our programs, the VFL team made it to the second week of Finals.

This combined success resulted in the club winning the AFL’s McClelland Trophy for the first time in our combined club history, including Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears

Throughout the season, several players were recognised for individual awards including:

Will Ashcroft, named Norm Smith Medallist for his Best on Ground performance in the 2025 AFL Grand Final, his second consecutive Norm. 
Harris Andrews, Zac Bailey and Hugh McCluggage named in the 2025 All Australian Team
Josh Dunkley and Dayne Zorko were named in the 2025 All Australian squad
Josh Dunkley crowned 2025 Club Champion ahead of Hugh McCluggage
Harris Andrews was awarded the 2025 Jim Stynes Community Achievement Award for his work with Beyond DV
Belle Dawes crowned 2025 AFLW Club Champion ahead of Ally Anderson
Jen Dunne and Courtney Hodder were named in the 2025 All Australian W Team
Belle Dawes and Jade Ellenger were named in the 2025 All Australian W Squad
Chris Fagan awarded the AFL Coaches Association Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year

At season’s end we saw several list changes with Deven Robertson (WCE), Brandon Starcevich (WCE) and Cal Ah Chee (Adelaide) all seeking new clubs while Darcy Craven and Brandon Ryan weren’t offered new contracts. Our Forwards Coach, Stuart Dew departed for a new role at Port Adelaide and Sam Day and Oscar McInerney announced their retirements. I thank all of them for their contributions.

I would particularly like to call out Oscar’s contribution to the club over 165 games across nine seasons finishing with a 2025 Premiership. Big O was the heart and soul of our squad, respected across the competition, humble and a great team man. Chris Fagan’s letter to Big O sums it up best.

Through the AFL draft the club secured Youi Brisbane Lions Academy product Dan Annable (#6) along with Koby Evans (#38), Cody Curtin (#43), Tai Hayes (#44) and Irish recruit Ben Murphy. We’re looking forward to seeing their development over the years to come.

In the AFLW, Poppy Boltz (GWS), Taylor Smith (Sydney) and Ellie Hampson (Port) also requested trades with Dee Heslop, Indiana Williams and Jacinta Baldwick not offered contracts for next season. AFLW Midfield Coach, Ryan Davis departed for the Senior Coaching role at Adelaide. I thank them all for their services over recent years.

On Monday night, the club welcomed four new AFLW draftees including our first father / daughter pick, Meg Lappin (54), daughter of triple Premiership player Nigel, along with Asher Fearn-Wannan (#19), Marlo Graham (#33) and Olivia Lacy (#51) joining another Irish recruit Caitlin Kennedy and Lily-Rose Williamson, who joined the program during the trade period from Collingwood.

Brisbane Lions foundation head of Women’s Football, Breeanna Brock has informed the club she will step down from her role with the Lions.

Brock, a pioneer of women’s football in Queensland, who has held her role since inception of the AFLW competition in 2017, will move to Adelaide to join her family, where husband, Murray Davis is currently the Director of Coaching at the Adelaide Crows. 

Bree has been instrumental in setting up the Lions AFLW program, initially helping to grow female football through her role at AFL Queensland as the female participation co-ordinator, before moving to the Club in 2016 when the Lions were granted one of the first eight AFLW licences.

We’ll miss Bree’s friendship, passion and strong advocacy for the AFLW program and women in sport and wish Bree, Murray and Zach all the best for the future.

Off Field, on 25 March the Queensland Government announced its plan to deliver a new 63,000 seat oval stadium at Victoria Park in Brisbane’s inner north, to replace the ageing Gabba. The stadium will be built to support the delivery of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games with the Lions and cricket to be legacy users. This stadium is a game changer for our club, our code and the city more broadly.  We would like to publicly acknowledge the State Government’s vision and the support of the Federal Government towards the project. We continue to engage with the Government and relevant authorities around the planning, design and development and look forward to keeping members updated over the years to come.

The club’s fan base continued to expand this season with a record 75,115 joining the Lions as members. This is the club’s eighth consecutive year of growth and an 18% surge on the 2024 record. We sold out the Gabba on six occasions with our average crowd of 31,100 just slightly under the 31,200 averages from season 2024.

The support from fans and members at home and around the country is unwavering. The belief you bring to each match inspires our players and it is wonderful to see the pride get bigger and stronger each year.

When our financial result is released, you will see we have achieved another healthy operating profit.  The club is now debt free for the first time since 2010, and we are proceeding with plans to invest further in the Brighton Homes Arena precinct to deliver greater community impact and enhance training programs for our Academy and other community football users.

As we continue to bed down our presence across the western corridor, the success of our training and administration base at Springfield continues remains a key part of our evolution. We’ve now been at Springfield for just over three years, there’s been around one million visitations to the precinct, and in that time the club has competed in seven consecutive Grand Finals across the AFL and AFLW.

The precinct continues to host a variety of events from Auskick to AFLW, school formals, business functions and everything in between. This year the club delivered the Indian cultural festival of Diwali as a game day activation, delivering a spectacular event and a crowd of 5,022, one of our best for a home and away AFLW fixture. At the end of the season, our crowds averaged just over 4,000 making the support of the Lions one of the highest for the competition.

The club has progressed development of a new $50 million the Community Hub adjacent to Brighton Homes Arena, with a Development Application submitted to Ipswich Council in September. The Hub will deliver more sporting facilities and community spaces to benefit the local region and deliver additional green space for the club to enhance our Academy programs.

In June, after nearly 11 years as Chief Executive, Greg Swann announced he would be finishing with the Lions to take on a newly created role at the AFL. I’d like to thank Greg along with his wife Leonie for their tireless commitment to the Lions. At this time, the Board approved the appointment of Sam Graham from Chief Operating Officer to Chief Executive allowing for a seamless transition in the months since.

At the Board level, we also welcomed Australian entrepreneur and business leader, Maxine Horne. Maxine adds significant experience in successfully building consumer and technology focussed businesses and has been a great addition.

We also have many sponsors, corporate supporters, community partners and stakeholders who continue to support the club. We greatly value everyone’s support, in particular, I’d like to thank our principal partner Youi, who late last year signed on for a further five years and will support our AFL, AFLW and Academy programs. I would also like to acknowledge our major partners XXXX and Hyundai. In our AFLW program, thanks to our co-major partners BMD and Bond University.

As we look forward to season 2026, we will unfurl the Premiership flag at the Gabba during Opening Round, we welcome Collingwood back for the Easter Thursday blockbuster and have home games against the Crows and Carlton before the Grand Final rematch against Geelong in Rd 10. Memberships are back in market and sales have been stronger than the same time last year, so we know the best way to secure a ticket for the Gabba is via a Lions membership.  

In 2026 it will be the 30th anniversary of the establishment Brisbane Lions and we plan to acknowledge that milestone during the year, as well as the contribution of the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy to our shared history.  It will also be 40 years since the Brisbane Bears were established.

But as far as the football is concerned, next year we all start again at zero and I know there are 17 clubs as hungry as we are to be competing on the Final day of the season. It is up to all of us to remain true to our values and keep working for each other to be the best we can be.

Here’s to a happy and safe Christmas and holiday period.  I look forward to seeing you at the footy again in 2026.

Andrew Wellington

Chair