Premiers Brisbane Lions seek to create AFLW history

Oliver Caffrey |

The Brisbane Lions are chasing back-to-back AFLW premierships.
The Brisbane Lions are chasing back-to-back AFLW premierships.

The Brisbane Lions have the opportunity to create history by becoming the first team in AFLW history to win back-to-back premierships.

After losing to Melbourne in a grand final they hosted in 2022, the Lions used the pain of defeat to secure their second premiership when they downed North Melbourne in last season’s decider.

The triumph franked years of hard work for Brisbane, who have been a perennial powerhouse since the competition started in 2017.

No AFLW team has been able to back up their success, with the Lions losing a preliminary final the season after their first flag in 2021.

Even the great Adelaide teams, spearheaded by the legendary, now-retired, Erin Phillips, could not win back-to-back premierships.

“We’ve definitely spoken about it,” Lions captain Bre Koenen told AAP about the lure of winning consecutive premierships.

“We won in 2021 and the way we went about 2022, we took a lot of learnings from that and hopefully with the majority of our group kept together, we can improve on that again and do it better this time around.

“Having been in this position before, we’ve gone about it very differently.

“The main focus is continual growth and improvement, not being happy with where we are.

“The pre-season has been as hard as ever, and the girls are ready to go again.”

Bre Koenen
Bre Koenen is expecting big things again from the Brisbane Lions in 2024. (Jason O’BRIEN/AAP PHOTOS)

The Lions have been targeted hard by rivals and have often lost a number of stars during the off-season.

League best-and-fairest winner Emily Bates and the dynamic Greta Bodey both left for Hawthorn after the 2022 grand final loss, as did key forward Jesse Wardlaw.

The likes of Phoebe Monahan and Sharni Webb have retired, while depth players such as Zimmorlei Farquharson and Mikayla Pauga have gone to other clubs.

But it has been a quieter off-season with all 18 clubs more settled than during the rapid expansion years.

“It’s definitely a change from previous years to have some consistency in our group, particularly even our leadership group,” Koenen said.

“It’s nice to show up and see a lot of familiar faces. 

“I think the girls we’ve brought in have really complemented our group well.”

The Lions will host the Kangaroos in a grand final rematch at Springfield on Sunday to begin their premiership defence.

AAP