YOU CAN thank Ted Lasso for Zac Bailey's Grand Final heroics.

After he kicked 0.4 in a wayward first quarter, when Brisbane and Bailey were unable to capitalise on their early opportunities and seize an advantage over Geelong, it would have been easy for the All-Australian to get in his own head.

But, thanks to the popular fictional soccer coach – and thanks to Lions coach Chris Fagan, who stole his motto – Bailey started to 'be a goldfish'. He forgot what had happened, focused on what was next, and changed the course of the game.

Bailey finished with 3.6 to complement a performance that also included 23 disposals, five clearances, five tackles, 10 score involvements and Norm Smith Medal votes from four of the five judges.

But that's not to say Bailey wasn't still feeling incredibly anxious about his profligate goalkicking efforts at quarter-time, having been the main culprit as Brisbane went into the opening interval having kicked just one major from seven shots. 

"I actually was [nervous], to be honest," Bailey told AFL.com.au afterwards.

"I said it to a few of the boys, I thought I was about to have a bit of a day with the goalkicking in terms of kicking a lot of points. Lucky for me, I was able to kick a few goals in the end.

"I missed a fair few goals today. But who cares? That's been a little bit of a trend for me this year. I'm just glad I was able to have a good impact in the Grand Final, on the biggest day of the year."

Bailey tallied a career-high 42 goals this season. And, while it might have been more if not for 33 wayward efforts as well, it also might have been way less if not for the mindset approach instilled in Brisbane's players by Fagan … and Lasso.

"We have a big goldfish mindset," Bailey said.

"We just forget about things really quickly. We moved on quickly. That's the mindset for us. If we make mistakes, or we kick points, we just move on and focus on the next thing. That helped us today."

Bailey's performance, where he finished third behind Will Ashcroft and Harris Andrews in Norm Smith Medal voting, had followed a campaign where he was named All-Australian for the first time.

While he was an important player in last year's premiership success well – Bailey kicked 22 goals for the campaign and enjoyed some big moments on Grand Final day – he said it was the result of a critical review last summer.

"I was really disappointed with my season last year," Bailey said.

"Even though we won it last year, I felt like it wasn't really the season I wanted to have personally. I came out this year wanting to put in a good year and I was glad I was able to do that.

"I worked with [assistant coach] Cam Bruce pretty closely. He gave me a little bit of feedback around my game and where I could improve and worked with me closely over that period to get me to the level I wanted to be at. It's paid dividends this year."

Bailey's three goals came amid a second-half onslaught, with Brisbane kicking 11 of 12 majors on either side of three-quarter time to rip the heart out of Geelong and ultimately cruise to a comfortable 47-point win.

"It's unbelievable," Bailey said.

"I didn't think anything would top how we did it last year, but I think this comes pretty close. With the injuries we've had, the draw we've had, it's taken pretty much a full squad. It's just an unbelievable team."