There were still five minutes to play but the job was done. Even under the famous Leigh Matthews’ philosophy which says a game is not over until there’s a positive difference between your lead in goals and minutes to play.

So for five minutes Lions coach Chris Fagan and his troops lived football utopia in front of 100,002 fans at the MCG and millions watching on TV, knowing they’d achieved something very special. They were back-to-back AFL premiers.

It was a rare double-up after the Lions had the same luxury 12 months earlier when they beat Sydney by 10 goals to claim the 2024 flag, ending a 21-year drought after the club’s 2001-02-03 hat-trick.

But the glorious last few minutes didn’t reflect what had been a tough finals campaign. The Lions finished third on the home-and-away ladder with a 16-1-6 record, behind Adelaide (18-5) and Geelong (17-6), and ahead of Collingwood, GWS and Fremantle (16-7) and Gold Coast and Hawthorn (15-8).

They were badly beaten by 38 points by Geelong in the qualifying final at the MCG and had lost co-captain Lachie Neale to what was thought to be a season-ending calf injury. They were going to have to do it the hard way. It wasn’t impossible - Matthews’ super team had done it in 2003 – but the bookies wrote them off.

Coach Fagan loves nothing more than an underdog. He went to work. They beat Gold Coast by 53 points in a Gabba semi-final and came from 13 points down at halftime to overcome Collingwood in an MCG preliminary final.

They’d earned another crack at the Cats, who had posted a five-goal preliminary final win over Hawthorn. The Cats started $1.50 favorites, with the Lions at $2.65.

Again, ‘Fages’ was happy. More so when Neale was passed fit after spending hours each day in a hyperbaric chamber, overcoming a 40-day injury in 20 days.

Fagan made the biggest selection call of his career. Without heart-and-soul utility Jarrod Berry, who had selflessly ruled himself out with a shoulder problem, the coach took a punt on Neale as the starting substitute in an otherwise unchanged side.

It was a tight grand final early on a beautiful day at the MCG. The Cats led by three points at quarter time before scores were level at halftime. As had always been his plan, Fagan injected a fresh Neale into the game, and was rewarded with a blistering second half from the dual Brownlow Medallist.

Sixty seconds from three-quarter time Neale received a clever handpass from Dayne Zorko after a crucial intercept. He ran to the 50m arc, city end, northern side of the ground. Or right of the television screen. He let fly and watched the ball sail over the goal umpire’s hat.

“We thought he was out. We thought it was season over,” said the commentary. “He stands up on the biggest stage. That’s a huge goal for Brisbane just before three-quarter time. It was a risk. It was a gamble. But it might just come up trumps for the Lions.”

And it did. The Neale goal gave the Lions a 19-point buffer at the last change and the momentum to over-run the Cats. Charlie Cameron kicked his fourth goal 45 seconds in the final stanza, and after Mark Blicavs replied for Geelong it was a Brisbane rampage.

Cam Rayner, Will Ashcroft, McCluggage, Zac Bailey, Kai Lohmann, Bailey again, and then McCluggage twice. The Cats kicked the last three goals late in time-on but it didn’t matter. The job was done. Magnificently. It was 18-14 (122) to 11-9 (75).

Will Ashcroft, in his 58^th game at 21 after he missed the 2023 grand final with a knee reconstruction, had 32 possessions, eight tackles, 10 clearances and a goal to win his second consecutive Norm Smith Medal. The third player in 49 years of the coveted award to go back-to-back.

It was all Brisbane in the ‘Norm’ voting … Ashcroft (13) from Harris Andrews (6), Bailey (5), Jaspa Fletcher (3), Zorko (2) and McCluggage (1).

McCluggage and Cameron kicked four goals apiece. Bailey kicked three and could have had a bag. He kicked 3-6 to go with 23 possessions and join Fletcher (29), Zorko (28) and McCluggage (26) at 20-plus.

In the Merrett/Murray Medal vote-count, when Josh Dunkley claimed football’s most coveted prize of a club championship in a premiership, Ashcroft, Andrews and McCluggage topped the vote with four apiece. Twelve players polled three votes to underline a supreme team performance. The highest team vote of the year.

Oscar McInerney and Darcy Gardiner, who had missed the 2024 grand final through injury, led the team off the ground carrying the cup. Close behind were four other first-timer premiership players - Levi Ashcroft, Sam Marshall, Ty Gallop and Bruce Reville.

Levi Ashcroft was the first player in AFL history to play 27 games and win a flag in his first season. Brisbane’s youngest premiership player. Fellow teenagers Marshall and Gallop savored the ultimate success in their 11^th and sixth game respectively, while Reville did likewise in his 25^th game after starting his career as a Category B rookie.

It was the perfect end for the retiring McInerney, who when injured 12 months earlier had been the heart and soul of the ’24 flag. Likewise Brandon Starcevich and Callum AhChee, who moved on.

Fagan, in his 216^th game at 64, became the oldest AFL premiership coach. A mighty effort but nothing new. Twelve months earlier he’d been exactly that at 63. In nine years he’d taken the Lions from football oblivion to be the best of the best. Football’s favourite grandfather.

A team which had won just five games in each of Fagan’s first two years at the helm to finish 18^th and 15^th in 2017-18 had gone 5^th-4^th-5^th-4^th-2^nd-1st-1^st in the next seven. They’d won more games than any club in that time and were the only club to play finals each year.

The were back-to-back AFL premiers, and sat at the top of the AFL Premiership List for the 21^st Century …. Brisbane (5), Geelong (4), Hawthorn (4), Richmond (3), Collingwood (2), Sydney (2), West Coast (2), Essendon (1), Melbourne (1), Port Adelaide (1) and Western Bulldogs (1).  

The almighty Brisbane Lions!