Keidean Coleman is a perfect example of how much and how quickly things can change in Australian rules football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thirty months ago Coleman was 11 minutes away from winning the Norm Smith Medal in the 2023 AFL Grand Final. He was the best player in a Brisbane side that led the premiership decider against Collingwood by two points as time ran down.<\/p>\n
Then, when a long goal from Steele Sidebottom saw the Pies win by four points the voting turned, Collingwood\u2019s five-goal hero Bobby Hill was a runaway winner of the medal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hill polled 15 votes \u2013 maximum votes from each member of the voting panel \u2013 to beat Coleman (5) and Collingwood teammates Nick Daicos (4), Tom Mitchell (3), Jack Crisp (2) and Scott Pendlebury (1) for the medal.<\/p>\n
If things had turned out differently 23-year-old Coleman, playing his 64th game, could have acclaimed the best player on the biggest stage in the most important game of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, like every member of a Brisbane team, Colman had come so agonisingly close to the ultimate prize.<\/p>\n
The former Morningside junior could be excused for thinking that better times were just around the corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After all, he was younger and less experienced than all but three members of the Brisbane grand final side \u2013 19-year-olds Jaspa Fletcher (14 games) and Darcy Wilmot (29 games), and 22-year-old 41-gamer Deven Robertson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, with a radar-like left foot among the best in the league, he was a cornerstone of coach Chris Fagan\u2019s plans for 2024 and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the 2023-24 summer Coleman saw brother Blake delisted by the Lions without playing a game. Daniel Rich and Marcus Adams retired, Jack Gunston (Hawthorn) and Tom Fullarton (Melbourne) were traded, and Rhys Mathieson, Nakia Cockatoo and Darryl McDowell-White were delisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were seven new faces \u2013 free agent Tom Doedee from Adelaide, and draftees Logan Morris, Luke Lloyd, Bruce Reville, Brandon Ryan, Reece Torrent and Zane Zakostelsky. Plus mid-season rookie pick-ups Will McLachlan, Luke Beecken and Darcy Craven.<\/p>\n
So, 2024 was going to be the year for Coleman.<\/p>\n
But less than an hour into the Gabba season opener against Carlton his year was done. He\u2019d blown out his ACL in an innocuous clash just before half time, sentencing him to a year of rehabilitation as the Lions went one better than the afternoon of the Coleman heroics in 2023 and won the 2024 flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grand Final hero Joe Daniher and Jarryd Lyons retired, Jaxon Prior (Essendon) and Harry Sharp (Melbourne) found new clubs, James Madden returned to Ireland, and Carter Michael and Kailen Lane were delisted. And Levi Ashcroft, Ty Gallop, Sam Marshall and Suns cast-off Sam Day joined the club.<\/p>\n
So 2025 was going to be the year for Coleman. And after complications with his rehabilitation he returned to the AFL in Round 10 against Melbourne at the Gabba.<\/p>\n
Again he didn\u2019t get to the final siren. His knee blew up. Again. And despite three late season games in the VFL he was in spectator mode as the Lions won the flag again.<\/p>\n
It was an altogether different playing list. After having just one premiership player in 2003 \u2013 Josh Dunkley \u2013 they now had 29 premiership players. And Coleman wasn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n
Over the recent summer free agents Oscar Allen and Sam Draper joined the club with draftees Dan Annable, Koby Evans, Cody Curtin and Tai Hayes as Brandon Starcevich, Callum AhChee and Deven Robertson moved to opposition clubs, Oscar McInerney and Day retired, and Craven and Ryan were delisted.<\/p>\n
During Coleman\u2019s extended absence no less than 19 teammates from 2023 had left the club, and three more – Day, Craven and Ryan – had come and gone in the same period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, surely, 2026 was going to be the year for Coleman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three games into comeback #2 there isn\u2019t a Lions fan hoping that finally it is.<\/p>\n
The signs are all good. He was serviceable in the Lions first two games against the Western Bulldogs and Sydney, but against St.Kilda at Marvel Stadium last Saturday, in his first game interstate since the 2023 Toyota AFL Grand Final, he was more like the Coleman of three years ago.<\/p>\n
Used at both ends of the ground by coach Fagan, he had 21 possessions and kicked his first goal in 952 days as the Lions won by 33 points.<\/p>\n
Winning possession behind centre, he worked a slick give-and-go through the middle and slotted it beautifully on the run from the arc in a reminder of what the Lions fans had missed.<\/p>\n
The Lions first win of the season also saw two \u2018firsts\u2019 for Ty Gallop. The premiership forward played his first game under the roof at Marvel \u2013 and played in defence for the first time. And he did well enough to give coach Fagan reason to use him there again if needed.<\/p>\n
On a weekend when only 11 Queenslanders played due to the split round, Will Ashcroft was the Lions match-winner in the final quarter against St Kilda. After a quieter than normal beginning he finished with 31 possessions – 16 in the last quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coach Fagan admitted post-game he\u2019d given Ashcroft \u201ca little prod\u201d at three quarter-time when he said to him \u201cit\u2019s about time we got going\u201d. He had a beaming smile when the dual Norm Smith Medallist came back to him after the final siren with \u201cdid we get going?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was enough for Ashcroft to share top billing in the Coach\u2019s Player of the Year voting with teammate Jarrod Berry. Each polled nine votes, while Dayne Zorko (28 possessions) polled one vote.<\/p>\n
Levi Ashcroft had 25 possessions and a goal \u2013 not his best haul statistically but possibly the best game of his career. And Bruce Reville, becoming a real weapon with his powerful kick, continued his impressive start to the year with 20 possessions.<\/p>\n
Fremantle\u2019s Corey Wagner was the only other Queensland winner, picking up 22 possessions and nine score involvements off half back in a 10-goal win over Richmond in Perth.
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