Brisbane Lions
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The Brisbane Lions Australian Football Club , or Brisbane Lions for short , is an Australian football team from Brisbane that has played in the Australian Football League since 1996 . The Lions were formed from the merger of the Fitzroy Lions and the Brisbane Bears and are currently playing at the Brisbane Cricket Ground . The Lions are among the most successful clubs of the 21st century. The team colors are maroon ( maroon ), blue and gold.
history
The Lions' predecessor clubs faced financial ruin at the end of the 1996 season. The Brisbane Bears still celebrated a success by reaching the semifinals, while the Fitzroy Lions were at the bottom of the table. A merger of the Lions with North Melbourne was rejected by the associations of the AFL, so that the Brisbane Bears came as the only merger partner in question. On November 1, 1996, the Brisbane Lions were finally founded and took part in the league for the first time in 1997.
After a successful first season with the eighth place in the table and the move into the play-offs, where it was already over in round one against the St Kilda Saints , a weak season followed with the Wooden Spoon as bottom of the table. The next few years were marked by a steady increase in performance and reached their preliminary climax in reaching the first Grand Finals in 2001. Here the Essendon Bombers were defeated and the first Lions title was won. In 2002 the title was successfully defended when the Lions defeated the Collingwood Magpies . A year later followed the third title in a row, again by a final victory over the Collingwood Magpies. This made the Lions only the fourth team to have been AFL champions for three years in a row. Another Grand Final followed in 2004, but it was lost to Port Adelaide Power .
In the following years the successes could not be repeated, instead the Lions slipped into the lower third of the table. It was not until 2009 that they were able to return to the play-offs, where they were eliminated in the semifinals against the Western Bulldogs . This was followed by more years in the lower third of the table, in 2011 the Lions only achieved 15th place and thus their worst season result since the Wooden spoon in 1998. In 2015 and 2016, 17th place in the table again narrowly missed the "wooden spoon", which they finally "won" in 2017 .
successes
- Championships (3): 2001, 2002, 2003
- Vice championships (1): 2004