But extraordinary is just the word to describe for the family of Lynne Scott, originally from Brisbane and a mother of five, and her late husband Colin, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1967 after repeat tours of duty as a Vietnam War reconnaissance pilot and died in 1986 due to injuries suffered while defending his country.

And now this extraordinary record is complete following the 2026 induction of Brad Scott to the Brisbane Lions Hall of Fame alongside 2014 inductee and twin brother Chris.

There have been some remarkable football families ... Ablett, Collier, Coventry, Daniher, Hudson, Fletcher, Kennedy, Riewoldt, Rioli, Selwood, Shaw, Watson and now Daicos, among others .. but the Scotts sit comfortably among the elite.

They are as close as brothers can be, so similar in many ways, but are entirely different in other ways. While Chris is the delegator who can sometimes come across as aloof, Brad is the obsessive worker and relationship-maker.

Many years ago Lynne Scott said something like: “If they fell out of a tall building together Chris would land on Brad’s head”. Which could be construed to mean that things had come a little easier to Chris, who was born a couple of minutes earlier.

That may have been true for a time, especially when Chris had a three-year head start on his AFL career. But after they were re-united when Brad joined Chris to Brisbane in 1998 ‘junior’ has forged his own path. First as a much-admired role player and leader at the Lions and later as a highly-regarded coach at North Melbourne and Essendon, split by time in football administration.

Injuries as a teenager delayed Brad’s entry to the AFL via the draft, but after winning the Hawthorn Reserves B&F as a top-up player in 1996 he played every AFL game in 1997 to finish 9^th in the B&F. Soon he was Brisbane-bound.

He arrived armed with a dossier on every opponent he’d faced, and, looking very much like a coach in waiting, added to it diligently. He finished 9^th in a 1998 Lions B&F won in a landslide by his brother, and from that point on has been very much his own man.

From 1998 until 2005 the Scotts played together at the Gabba, and after Brad was first to join the AFL coaching ranks in 2010 – a turn of events often forgotten - they’ve coached against each other from 2011-19 and again since 2023.

Brad played 146 games for Brisbane, including the 2001-02 flags, missed the ’03 flag due to a broken leg, played in the 2004 grand final loss, and retired in 2006.

He was widely acclaimed for his magnificent shut-down job on Essendon captain James Hird in the 2001 premiership - a day that typified his team-first approach and versatility.

But his best year individually was 2002, when he represented Australia in the International Rules series against Ireland after finishing third in the Merrett/Murray Medal, equal with Marcus Ashcroft behind Simon Black and Michael Voss.

All his success came after his loyalty to Brisbane was severely tested following an injury-ruined 1999 campaign in which he played just eight games. When he proved himself to be nothing if not a realist, and something of a physic.

The bullocking Lions #5, which he wore as a sign of respect for ex-Hawthorn captain Peter Crimmins, was offered what was said to be ‘ridiculously inflated money’ by St.Kilda among interest from any number of Melbourne-based clubs.

“I was amazed by the offers … totally amazed,” he told the 2000 Lions Yearbook. “I kept saying to Damien (manager Damien Smith) ‘they’re over-valuing me’ but he kept saying ‘you’re worth what anyone will pay you.”

As was common practice through the golden years, Scott stayed in Brisbane for significantly less money. “The over-riding thing was professionalism. I know this is where I’ll play my best football. And I know that this team is capable of its fair share of success in the next few years. I know my manager thought I was crazy, but at the end of the day it’s those things that matter,” he explained at the time.

The twins were almost as fanatical about their golf as they were their football, and after being given the option by Leigh Matthews famously skipped the 2001 Grand Final Parade to play.

Very much lookalikes in the early days, they played 97 games together with the Lions – the last in Brad’s 150^th AFL game against Port Adelaide in Round 21 2005.

A shared 100 threatened through 2006, when Brad played 18 games, but Chris couldn’t get on the paddock. Brad retired that year after 168 games overall, and after two years on the injured list Chris added two more games at the end of 2007 for a career total of 215.

So highly was Brad’s contribution to the Lions regarded that the Board voted to award him life membership even though he’d fallen short of the 150-game mark that is the normal requisite.

It was a special recognition for a young man who was always going to do special things after hanging up the boots.

Like Chris a graduate of St.Kevin’s College in Melbourne and a member of the school’s Team of the Century, and an AFL Life Member, he boasts an academic resume that would rival any coach.

At the top of his list is a Certificate of Management Excellence from Harvard University, earned through annual visits to the United States throughout his time at North.

It is complex and high-powered stuff which required him to complete study in (a) Authentic Leader Development, (b) Strategy Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage, and (c) Behavioural Economics: Understanding and Shaping Customer and Employee Behaviour.

He also has a Graduate Certificate in Applied Science in the field of Sports Coaching from the University of Queensland.

With Penny, partner of 16 years and wife of 14, Scott shares two sons - Fletcher (11) and Harrison (9). Both are predictably sporty. Fletcher is a swimmer and a keen skier, racing with the Mt.Hotham Race team, and Harrison is like ‘little Brad’. He is football mad. He loves to move magnets around the white board with his dad, will watch opposition footage with him, and studies the stats so he can offer advice on potential match-ups.

Brad was always going places, and even before he’d retired there was a widespread if unofficial consensus among Lions insiders that the golden era of the early 2000’s would deliver two AFL coaches …. Michael Voss because he was Michael Voss, and Brad Scott because he always displayed all the characteristics of a coach in waiting.

The insiders were wrong – the golden era delivered five coaches when Chris Scott, Justin Leppitsch and Craig McRae also graduated with honours from the Leigh Matthews’ coaching development school. At least they got the order right – it was Voss (2009) from Brad Scott (2010), Chris Scott (2011), Leppitsch (2014) and McRae (2022).

Brad Scott had been targeted by the Gold Coast Suns well ahead of their entry to the AFL but he chose a conventional pathway. First as a development coach at Collingwood under Mick Malthouse, and then as an assistant coach.

He coached North from 2010-19, taking them to the finals four times including back-to-back preliminary finals in 2014-15, but resigned at Round 10 in his 10^th season when he decided the club needed ‘fresh air’ to do what it needed to. Selfless to the end.

He declared on 26 May of that year: “I can categorically say that my future involves being the best husband and golfer I can be, and I’ll be cheering North Melbourne on”. But soon he found a new challenge when he took charge of AFL Victoria.

Then, on 16 September 2021 he was appointed to a newly-created role in the AFL’s football operations department under Andrew Dillon, and soon after stepped up to the key role of General Manager – Football.

He was tagged for higher honors, and there are many who believed he could have been a game-changer in football administration. But he was a coach first and foremost, and in September 2022 he left the comforts of AFL House to take over as senior coach at Essendon.

Oddly, on the day of his Hall of Fame induction on 2 May 2026, one day before his 50^th birthday, he coached Essendon against Brisbane at Marvel Stadium before attending the gala function that evening.

Chris, with a late afternoon game in Geelong, couldn’t be there. And as much as it might have been strangely romantic for the older twin to induct the younger twin, it was more appropriate that Leigh Matthews, his long-time mentor and close confidante, did the job.

Because this was not about the twins - it was about Brad Scott and Brad Scott only. A genuine football great in his own right, and proud Brisbane Lions Hall of Famer.