Brisbane fans had waited 10 years and 220 games for their first AFL final at the Gabba … and in the end it all came down to 14 seconds and a timely lunge from defender Danny Dickfos.

The Bears, hosting Essendon in the 1996 qualifying final in front of a sell-out and then record Friday night crowd of 22,003, were 27 points up midway through the final term but had to survive a barnstorming finish from the Bombers to post a one-point win.

With 17 seconds to play and Brisbane two points up the crowd chanted ‘Bris-bane, Bris-bane’ as an 18-year-old Matthew Lloyd in just his 14^th AFL game kicked long to the Essendon goal square.  The Bombers were coming.

Home team ruckman Matthew Clarke, running back with the flight of the ball, made a brave and brilliant spoil in a one-on-one marking contest between Brisbane’s Andy Gowers and Essendon’s Justin Blumfield to quell the initial threat.

But the ball spilled over the back, and first to it was Essendon’s Gavin Wanganeen, who had already kicked three goals. The 1993 Brownlow Medallist gathered and steadied, and just as he was about to snap across his body for what would have been the winning goal Dickfos lunged at him desperately.

The one-time Fitzroy draftee and reluctant Bear, playing his 20^th AFL game in his first season at 25 after rejecting repeated AFL offers from as early as his 1987 Teal Cup (Under 17) year, did just enough. Wanganeen’s snap slewed right and crashed into the goal post. Brisbane by a point.

But there were still 14 seconds om the clock as Gowers took the kick-in. It sailed dangerously towards the boundary line for what could have been an Essendon free kick before Clarke was equal to the task again, diving full-length to knock it out of bounds.

From the boundary throw-in the home side bottled it up to get home 15-11 (101) to 15-10 (100).

It was the Centenary Year of the AFL and the Bears, in their first season under coach John Northey, went into the last home-and-away round on top of the ladder, equal with Sydney on points but 7.7% ahead. But a shock 49-point loss to 11^th-placed Collingwood at Victoria Park cost them the minor premiership

Sydney finished top, half a game clear of North Melbourne, with Brisbane third, West Coast fourth ahead of Carlton on percentage, with Essendon, Geelong and Hawthorn completing the eight after Richmond dropped to ninth in Round 22.

Under the old McIntyre Finals System, it was 3 v 6 so Brisbane, who had a taste of finals football in Robert Walls’ last year as coach in 1995, hosted Kevin Sheedy’s Essendon. The former Richmond teammates were opposed in the coaching box.

It was a big milestone night, with Marcus Ashcroft and Alastair Lynch playing their 150^th game and Shaun Hart his 100^th and at quarter time the Bears led by 17 points at quarter time. It should have been more – it was 4-6 to 1-2.

Predictably, the Bombers responded and led by six points at halftime. Yet by three-quarter time, on a night where there was no wind advantage, the home side was 10 points. The lead had changed hands seven times.

Sheedy threw a 21-year-old Dustin Fletcher, playing his 73^rd game and still 327 from the end of his career, from fullback to forward in the last quarter, and two goals sparked the visitors’ revival.

But it was another Fletcher who was the hometown hero as the Bears dodged a Wanganeen bullet.

Adrian Fletcher, whose son Jaspa is poised to join the Lions as a father/son draftee later this year, was best afield with 31 possessions. That Michael Voss was next best in the possession count with 22 was an indication of how good the well-travelled centreman was, and why he topped the B&F voting with 12 from Richard Champion (10), Voss (9), Clarke (8) and Dion Scott (6).

The Bears went from one extreme to the next the following week when they crunched Carlton by 97 points at the Gabba before losing to eventual premiers North Melbourne by 38 points in an MCG preliminary final.

Still, the historic first Gabba final and the club’s first finals win remain an unforgettable part of club history, and an easily justified headline story for this week’s football flashback, which zeroes in one week one of the finals.

Brisbane have been involved in week one of the AFL finals 13 times for an 8-5 win/loss record – 8-1 at the Gabba, 0-1 on enemy turf, and 0-3 at neutral venues. Only twice has the club been eliminated in week one – in the first finals appearance in 1995 and the first year post-merger in 1997.

Other Brisbane highlights of Finals Week 1 include:-

2001 – A Courageous Comeback

The Lions had won 13 games in a row to end the 2001 H&A season and finish second on the ladder behind defending premiers Essendon.  Only percentage separated the teams at 17-5 after the Lions had started their winning run with a 28-point Round 10 Gabba win over the Bombers in the famous ‘if it bleeds we can kill it’ game.

Brisbane (2^nd) were drawn to play at the Gabba on the Saturday night in the first week of finals against Port Adelaide (3^rd) after the Power had closed the H&A season with a six-win streak that culminated in a 112-point home win over West Coast.

It was payback time after the Power had humiliated the Lions by 84 points in the Ansett Cup Pre-Season Grand Final in Adelaide 26 weeks earlier, but it took time.

On a wet and slippery night in front of a crowd of 32,380 the home side kicked 9-7 to 1-7 in the second half to win 12-16 (88) to 8-8 (56) after wayward kicking had seen them trail by 16 points at halftime – 3-9 to 7-1.

Simon Black was best afield when he topped both the possession count and the goal-kickers. He had 32 touches and kicked two majors, the equal of Alastair Lynch, Jason Akermanis and Brad Scott, and all but seal the win with a majestic goal right on three-quarter time.

It capped a big week for the 22-year-old midfielder, who five days earlier had been named with Michael Voss, Nigel Lappin and Akermanis in the 2001 All-Australian side.

But there was a down side for coach Leigh Matthews – Lynch was reported by a goal umpire for striking Port’s Darryl Wakelin and was subsequently suspended for one match. Unless the Lions could beat Richmond in the preliminary final at the Gabba a fortnight later the champion full forward’s season was done.

2002 – A Record Finals Haul

One year less one day later Alastair Lynch was making headlines again as the Lions faced Adelaide at the Gabba in the 2002 qualifying final, except this time it was all positive.

The Lions had finished second on the home-and-away ladder at 17-5, a game behind Port Adelaide and two games ahead of third-placed Adelaide after a six-point loss to Port at Football Park in Round 22 had cost them top spot.

Much was made at the time of the Round 22 loss, when Port emerged from the locker rooms breathing fire to confront a Lions side that was more ‘business as usual’.

But coach Leigh Matthews was typically pragmatic, noting that regardless of what happened in the last H&A game the next time the teams met was always going to be more important. And before they got to Port again they had to beat their cross-town rivals.

They did that in blistering fashion, with Lynch kicking a club finals record seven goals as they thumped the Crows 17-13 (115) to 5-14 (44) in the qualifying final at the Gabba.

In what Matthews described as ‘the closest thing you’ll see to football perfection’, Adelaide kicked the first goal and Brisbane 15 of the next 16 to lead 13-11 to 2-9 at three-quarter time.

Lynch took 11 marks inside forward 50, a career-best for the 306-game superveteran and kicked 7-5 to out-score the Crows by three points on his own. His first goal of the night was his 500^th, and his seven-goal bag was then and still is the most by a Brisbane player in a final.

Shaun Hart, the only other multiple goal-kicker with two, only had eight possessions but shared top votes with Lynch in the Merrett/Murray Medal for a magnificent shut-down job on Crows ace Andrew McLeod. The 2001 Norm Smith Medallist held the 1997-98 Norm Smith Medallist to four possessions in the first half and none in the second quarter. It was game over.

The big win over Adelaide set the Lions for a home preliminary final against Port Adelaide on route to a grand final meeting with Collingwood and back-to-back premierships.

2020 – Fagan’s First Finals Win

It is fitting ahead of Thursday night’s Brisbane v Richmond elimination final at the Gabba that we look back two years to the first week of finals in the Covid-shortened 2020 season.

It was four weeks later, on 2 October, due to the Covid disruptions, but it was the same two teams. Not an elimination final but a qualifying final after Brisbane (14-3) had finished second and Richmond (12-1-4) third.

It was a replay of the 2019 qualifying final and an absolute beauty as the Lions scored their first win over Richmond since Round 7 2009 after 15 losses in a row.

Channel Seven’s Bruce McAvaney called it the 'game of the year' as Harris Andrews and Jarrod Berry returned from injury and Keidean Coleman held his place in the side to play his final in his fifth game - equal second-quickest in club history behind Richard Hadley. Ryan Lester, playing his 140^th game, also made his finals debut with Brandon Starcevch and Callum AhChee.

Daniel Rich gave the Lions the perfect start when, lurking nearby, he took a handpass from Hugh McCluggage and goaled from 60m inside the first minute.

It fluctuated thereafter until the Lions got thee goals in a row late in the second quarter when Cam Rayner’s brilliant 60m bomb bounced through, Charlie Cameron snapped brilliantly from a tough angle after a clever tap from Oscar McInerney, and Lachie Neale converted a brilliant 55m set shot after back-to-back 50m penalties against Shai Bolton and Marlion Pickett right on half time. They led by 13 points.

The Brisbane lead was 21 points at the last change and fluctuated through the final term. Jack Riewoldt cut it to eight points for the Tigers but a long Eric Hipwood behind was followed by a brilliant McCluggage snap goal inside last 5min to clinch it.

Jarryd Lyons was the leading possession-winner with 24 and a strong contributor throughout, Cameron kicked three goals and was always dangerous, and Neale was superb after a tough start.

It was the Lions’ first finals win since 2009 and put them into their first preliminary final since 2004.

Only two members of the Brisbane side that night are no longer at the club – the retired Grant Birchall, now the runner, and Stefan Martin, now playing with the Western Bulldogs in what will be his last season.