- Lions broke a 21-year premiership drought in AFL grand final
- Celebrated hard over three days and three different postcodes
- Vision of the AFL Premiership Cup has raised questions
Brisbane’s AFL premiership drought is over and the bleary-eyed players have celebrated hard across three days, sharing the moment with their supporters – but one fan has spotted evidence that they went a bit too hard.
The Lions won three premierships in 2001, 2002 and 2003, also contesting the 2004 grand final but losing to Port Adelaide.
On Saturday, the club avenged its 2023 grand final loss to Collingwood and snapped a 21-year premiership drought with a 60-point hammering of minor premiers the Sydney Swans.
The celebrations were emotion-charged from the moment the final siren sounded, but footage emerging on Monday appears to show the Lions have dented the AFL premiership cup.
Vision that appeared on the Today show has been circulating on social media showing the premiership trophy back in Brisbane with a huge ding in the front of it.
‘[Eric] Hipwood probably elbowed it,’ one viewer posted.
‘Have you really celebrated if the premiership cup is not somewhat damaged?’ asked another footy fan.
‘Probably when they where throwing cans in the team song after the game,’ suggested another.
‘Beer can hit it when the boys sung the team song,’ posted another.
The Lions’ party raged for three days across three postcodes as the players looked to share their moment with as many supporters as possible.
First, the trophy was taken to the The Osborne Rooftop & Bar in South Yarra where the players partied long into the night.
Bleary-eyed and carrying bottles of water, the Lions then rewarded their fans in Fitzroy with a trophy presentation early Sunday morning.
The Fitzroy Lions merged with the Brisbane Bears in 1996 to create the Lions.
From there, the team bundled into a plane and returned home, where they met with 6000 diehard supporters at their Springfield base just south of Brisbane.
At all three celebrations, the Lions were photographed with the 2024 AFL Premiership Cup,
However eagle-eyed fans have picked up that Today’s footage shows a trophy that has 2003 etched into it, meaning it is either a replica or the cup that was given to the last victorious Lions team 21 years ago.
Instead, the real 2024 premiership trophy issued to the current Brisbane Lions players was with them on Mad Monday celebrations.
That means the Brisbane Lions may well have damaged an AFL premiership cup, but it would have been one of the grand final heroes from 2003 like Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis or Nigel Lappin.
’21 years old, bound to have some dings,’ a TikTok viewer posted.
‘I’m going with Akermanis,’ guessed another.
One former employee appeared to have solved the whole riddle though. He said neither the 2003 grand final winners or the 2024 champions would have received the official AFL Premiership Cup, which would have been safely transported for display until next year’s decider.
But he added there was every chance the 2003 official cup could have been dropped, just not by a player.
‘We had to often transport the cups from the club to the Chalk Hotel where they were on display – pretty sure this was the result of it being dropped (one of many times).’
