Twenty-eight players shared in the Brisbane Lions glorious premiership hat-trick of 2001-02-03. Seven Queenslanders, 16 draftees and five imports. Coached by Leigh Matthews and captained by Michael Voss, it was arguably the best AFL team of all-time. An exquisite that will forever provide fond memories for Lions fans young and old.

How do we justify the ‘best all-time tag’? Because in the era of the national competition, when interstate travel and homeground advantage are very real factors, the Lions did what no other side has done … travelled from interstate to the MCG on grand final day and beat a ‘home’ side.

The 2001-02-03 Lions were the fifth side in VFL/AFL history to win three flags in a row after Carlton (1906-07-08), Collingwood (1927-28-29-30), Melbourne (1939-40-41) and Melbourne (1955-56-57), when travel was something you might do on holidays.

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Since the Brisbane golden era Hawthorn have joined the list, going back-to-back in 2013-14-15. But they were a Melbourne-based side, playing at ‘home’ on grand final day against an interstate sides Fremantle, Sydney and West Coast. It’s just not the same.

The ‘Super-26’, the notional edge pieces of the puzzle, were put together one by one in a list build which had begun all the way back in 1989, when a 17-year-old Marcus Ashcroft debuted. In order of their debut, Shaun Hart (1990), Darryl White  (1992) and Voss (1992) followed in the Carrara era.

Justin Leppitsch was the first new piece of the puzzle at Gabba in 1993, followed by Chris Scott, Nigel Lappin and Alastair Lynch (1994), Craig McRae and Jason Akermanis (1995), Clark Keating and Daniel Bradshaw (1996).

The merger with Fitzroy added Chris Johnson to the emerging group in 1997, followed by Simon Black, Brad Scott, Luke Power, Beau McDonald and Tim Notting (1998). And, over the 1998-99 off-season, the biggest piece of all – Matthews.

There were only 10 pieces still to come …. Des Headland (1999), Jonathan Brown and Aaron Shattock (2000), Mal Michael, Martin Pike, Richard Hadley, Jamie Charman, Robert Copeland and Ash McGrath (2001), and the final piece of the puzzle – Blake Caracella (2003).

As much as the ‘Super 26’ are the heroes of the remarkable three-peat, the flags were won by a lot more than just 26 players and one coach. Fifteen others played during the three-year rule and other listed players did their bit in other ways.

With Merrett and 1998 development coach Rod O’Riley having moved on, Matthews also built his own coaching staff, starting with Gary O’Donnell, Michael McLean and Mathew Armstrong (1999) and adding Scott McIvor (2000), Craig Lambert and reserves coach Craig Brittain (2001) and John Blakey (2003).

The player turnover in the early years was heavy and included a lot of household names, remembered fondly by club fans, and others whose impact wasn’t quite as strong. How many can you remember?

As Matthews moved in nine players moved out - Andrew Bews (retired), Scott Bamford, Tristan Lynch (Geelong), Rory Hilton (Richmond), Shane Clayton (North Melbourne), Nick Carter (Melbourne), Derek Wirth and Nick Trask (delisted).

New to the club in 1999 were draftees Headland, Shattock and Craig Bolton, imports Adam Heuskes, David Calthorpe and Martin McKinnon, and rookies Trent Knobel, Jeff Cooper and Shannon Rusca.

Fourteen weeks into the Matthews era the Lions sat fifth on the ladder with an 8-6 record. They won their next eight to finish third on the home-and-away ladder at 16-6 behind Essendon (18-4) and North Melbourne (17-5).

With two home finals, they pumped Carlton by 73 points and the Western Bulldogs by 53 points to make it 10 on the trot before losing the preliminary final to North at the MCG by 45 points. It was a sour finish to the year in which a young Simon Black, in his 31^st game, was sidelined inside five minutes with a fractured eye socket after an incident with North fullback Mick Martyn.

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In a sad aftermath to the big turnaround, Brad Boyd, Fitzroy captain in their final season in 1996 and one of the ‘Chosen Eight’ to head to Brisbane via the merger, was forced into retirement by injury. He’d played only 15 games for the ‘new’ Lions but will forever be remembered for his magnificent three-vote performance in Matthews’ first game at the helm against St.Kilda at the Gabba. He had 29 possessions and kicked four goals, captaining the side to an 83-point win in the absence of co-captains Voss and Lynch.

Matthew Clarke, 1997 Merrett/Murray Medalist, moved to Adelaide in an off-season which also saw the departure of Danny Dickfos, Andy Gowers and Dion Scott (retired), Shane O’Bree (Collingwood), Trent Bartlett (Bulldogs), Calthorpe (North) and rookies Scott Ralph and Tate Day (delisted).

Jonathan Brown was the big addition to the playing ranks over the 1999-2000 summer. He qualified as a Brisbane father/son pick because Brian Brown played 51 games for Fitzroy. Two games less and the young man who went on to be a superstar would have been in the open draft.

The Lions also drafted Damien Cupido, Shane Morrison and rookies Nathan Clarke, Ben Doherty, Jason Anthonisz, Steve Kenna and Hayden Kluver, and added imports Stefan Carey (Sydney) and Mick Martin (Bulldogs).

In year two under Matthews the Lions sat ninth on the ladder at Round 18 with an 8-10 record but won their last four home-and-away games against non-finals opposition to jump to sixth at 12-10. They beat the Bulldogs by 34 points at the Gabba in the first final but were bundled out by Carlton by 73 points at the MCG. It was a day that started badly, when Daniel Bradshaw was a late withdrawal to attend the birth of his first child and didn’t get any better.

There were some big and sad list changes coming. Richard Champion and Craig Lambert, who had been pivotal in the club’s rise up the ladder, retired, as Queenslanders Steven Lawrence and Brett Voss moved to St.Kilda. For Lawrence it was a chance to wear the colors of his famous St.Kilda father Barry Lawrence, and for Voss a chance to escape the shadow of his big brother.

Jarrod Molloy was traded to Collingwood while Adam Heuskes, who walked out on the club three weeks before the 2000 finals, retired with Carey and Martin McKinnon.

Heading into his third year at the helm, Matthews was beyond rebuilding … it was time for area-specific recruiting. And to that end the club made two prized signings – Queensland key defender Mal Michael headed north in a trade with Collingwood for Molloy, and Martin Pike, Fitzroy’s last club champion in 1996 and a 1999 North Melbourne premiership player, was drafted after having been delisted by North.

There was controversy in the lead-up to the draft over Southport teenager Nick Riewoldt, who was set to be a zone selection under rules which gave the Lions first access to any player within 150km of the Brisbane GPO. Suddenly the zone was cut to 75km which ruled Riewoldt out.

Still, the club picked up fellow Queenslander Jamie Charman under the revised guidelines and drafted Richard Hadley, Ash McGrath, Luke Hammond, pre-season pick-up Dylan McLaren and rookies Luke Weller, David Mapleston, Clint Alleway, Tarrant and Robert Copeland.

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The 2001 season is one Lions fans will remember vividly. In Round 8 they were hammered by Carlton by 74 points at Princes Park in Melbourne. They were still seventh on the ladder at 4-4 but it was a dismal showing and coach Matthews went to work even before the players had left the locker room. He put everything on the line and launched his famous ‘know your role, accept your role, play your role’ line as he looked to reignite a sinking campaign.

In Round 9 they lost by five points to Adelaide at the Gabba ahead of a Round 10 Gabba clash with defending premiers and ladder leaders Essendon. It was the famous ‘if it bleeds we can kill it’ game as Matthews borrowed a line from Arnold Schwarzenegger and the movie ‘Predator’.

The Lions led at every change and won by 28 points in front of sellout Gabba crowd of 36,149. It was a game of the highest calibre as Chris Johnson, Simon Black and Nigel Lappin took the Brownlow Medal votes and Alastair Lynch kicked three goals.

They were away. They won 13 in a row to finish second on the home-and-away ladder at 17-5, behind Essendon by just 6.9%. They beat Port Adelaide by 32 points at the Gabba, had a week off, and thumped Richmond by 68 points to earn a spot in the grand final.

It was Brisbane v Essendon again. And after trailing at halftime on a hot day at the MCG the Lions won by 26 points. They’d done what was supposedly impossible… they’d brought down the premiers of 2000. Shaun Hart, within a whisker of being cut during the days at Carrara, won the Norm Smith Medal.

Thereafter it was all about tinkering with the playing list. Continuing to grow what was still a relatively young playing group and draft well. With salary cap pressures mounting, the club chose to go two players short on the standard list of 38 and cut their rookies from six to four.

Matthew Kennedy, such a big part of the club’s early years, retired. He’d deputized for the suspended Alastair Lynch in the 2001 preliminary final in what turned out to be his 188^th and last game.

Trent Knobel was traded to St.Kilda, Marcus Picken and Shannon Rusca were traded to the Bulldogs, and Ben Robbins was delisted before being picked up by North Melbourne. Rookies Clint Alleway, Hayden Kluver and Tom Tarrant were not retained. New to the club were draftees Jason Gram, Jarrad Wright and rookies Darren Bradshaw, younger brother of Daniel, and Nick Raines, son of the great Geoff Raines.

The 16-game winning streak to the 2001 flag stretched to 20 before a loss to West Coast in Perth, and after sitting on top of the ladder from Rounds 2-11 and Rounds 17-21 they finished the home-and-away season second at 17-5, a game behind Port Adelaide.

They beat Adelaide by 71 points and Port by 56 points to qualify for the grand final, when they went in with a side that had seen two changes from 2001 – Des Headland and Aaron Shattock had replaced Daniel Bradshaw and Robert Copeland. On a wet day at the MCG a late goal from Jason Akermanis saw the Lions home by nine points against Collingwood.

In the aftermath, Craig Bolton, twice a grand final emergency and a fixture in any other side, was de-listed in a deal that allowed him to get to Sydney, Des Headland was traded to Fremantle and Damien Cupido was traded to Essendon. Mick Martin returned and Luke Hammond, Nathan Clarke, Darren Bradshaw and David Mapleston were delisted.

The big off-season signing was Blake Caracella, a 126-game Essendon star. Having played in the Bombers’ 2000 premiership side and the 2001 grand final loss to Brisbane, he was a readymade replacement for Headland, who had been bitten by the ‘go home’ bug.

New to the club were draftees Jared Brennan, Troy Selwood, Daniel Merrett and Anthony Corrie, and Queensland rookies Joel Macdonald, Daniel Pratt, Paul Shelton and Kevin Tandogac.

After starting with five wins and a draw the Lions headed the AFL table from Rounds 4-11 and finished third on the home-and-away ladder at 14-1-7, behind Port (18-4) and Collingwood (15-7).

For the first time in three years things didn’t go according to plan in September when they lost the qualifying final to Collingwood by 15 points. Worse still, Michael Voss suffered what was initially feared to be a season-ending knee injury. Only a supreme effort from the club’s five-star medical team got the captain up as they beat Adelaide by 42 points at the Gabba and Sydney by 44 points in Sydney to qualify for a third consecutive grand final.

The Nigel Lappin saga dominated the headlines as the champion midfielder took two broken ribs and what was later found to be a punctured lung into the grand final. There were six changes to the 2002 grand final side, with Caracalla, Bradshaw, Jamie Charman, Copeland, Richard Hadley and Ash McGrath in for the injured Scott brothers, Headland, Notting, Shattock and Beau McDonald.

Medical staff worked overtime to get a battered and bruised team onto the park, but thereafter everything fell into place. They beat Collingwood by 50 points after leading by 69 going into time-on.

It was a glorious time. Sixteen players have been a part of all three flags – captain Voss, Akermanis, Ashcroft, Black, Brown, Hart, Johnson, Keating, Lappin, Leppitsch, Lynch, McRae, Michael, Pike, Power and White.

The Scott brothers, Bradshaw, Copeland, McDonald and Notting had played in two flags, and Charman, Caracella, Hadley, Headland McGrath and Shattock in one flag.

Three could have been four but it wasn’t to be. Still, an extraordinary group of quality players and quality people, brought together by the master coach, had done something very, very special.

A total of 41 players were part of the 76-game journey to the premiership hat-trick.

Simon Black played every game, Marcus Ashcroft missed one, Voss, Mal Michael and Martin Pike missed two and Jason Akermanis missed one.

Black (1838) was the leading possession-winner from Nigel Lappin (1619), Voss (1605) and Akermanis (1364), and Alastair Lynch (210) topped the goal-kicking from Bradshaw (112), Akermanis (105), Brown (79), Voss (77) and McRae (76).

Voss (77) polled most Brownlow Medal votes from Black (49), Akermanis (36) and Lappin (28).

Overall, the Lions enjoyed a 57-1-18 record, going 36-5 at the Gabba and 15-1-7 in Victoria - 6-2 at the MCG, 5-1-4 at Docklands, 3-0 at Geelong’s Kardinia Park and 1-1 at Carlton’s Princes Park. They were 2-1 at the SCG and 1-0 at Stadium Australia in Sydney, 2-2 at Subiaco in Perth and 1-3 at Adelaide’s Football Park.

They went unbeaten against Geelong (6-0), Hawthorn (4-0) and North Melbourne (4-1-0), lost once to Essendon (5-1), Bulldogs (5-1), Richmond (4-1), Fremantle (3-1), Carlton (2-1), Melbourne (2-1) and St.Kilda (2-1), twice to Collingwood (5-2), Sydney (5-2), Adelaide (3-2) and West Coast (2-2) and three times to Port Adelaide (5-3).

They had an percentage over the three years of 131.6%, averaged 110.8 points for and 84.2 points against, and enjoyed a 52-17 domination in 100-point scores.

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