Brisbane’s AFL premiership drought is over and the blue-eyed players spent three days celebrating and sharing the moment with their supporters – but one fan has seen evidence they were going a little too hard.
The Lions won three premierships in 2001, 2002 and 2003, also appearing in the 2004 grand final, but losing to Port Adelaide.
On Saturday, the club avenged its 2023 grand final loss to Collingwood and broke a 21-year premiership drought with a 60-point hammer blow to minor premiers the Sydney Swans.
The celebrations were emotionally charged from the moment the final siren sounded, but footage emerged on Monday appears to show the Lions dented the AFL premiership cup.
A vision that appeared on the Today show is circulating on social media showing the premiership trophy in Brisbane with a huge contraption in front of it.
‘[Eric] Hipwood probably elbowed it,” said one viewer.
“Have you really celebrated if the Premier League cup isn’t slightly damaged?” asked another footy fan.
“Probably when they threw cans in the team song after the game,” another suggested.
“Beer can hit when the boys sing the team song,” another posted.
Brisbane Lions players celebrate their victory with their Melbourne Fitzroy supporters, who have remained loyal since the Bears merged with the Lions in 1996.
Footage on Today appeared to show the AFL premiership cup with a large dent in it
Lions coach Chris Fagan proudly hoists the 2024 premiership cup at Brisbane’s Springfield fan day on Sunday afternoon
The Lions celebration raged across three postcodes for three days as the players looked to share their moment with as many supporters as possible.
First the trophy was taken to The Osborne Rooftop & Bar in South Yarra where the players partied well into the night.
Blue-eyed and bottles of water in hand, the Lions rewarded their fans in Fitzroy with a trophy presentation early on Sunday morning.
The Fitzroy Lions merged with the Brisbane Bears in 1996 to create the Lions.
From there, the team boarded a plane and returned home, meeting 6,000 diehard supporters at their base in Springfield, just south of Brisbane.
At all three celebrations, the Lions were photographed with the 2024 AFL Premiership Cup,
After a heavy night of celebration, Lachie Neale (left) and Josh Dunkley appeared at Brunswick Street Oval on Sunday morning with the 2024 trophy intact
Brisbane Lions young gun Kai Lohmann proudly displayed the trophy at Brisbane Airport as they returned home on Sunday
However, eagle-eyed fans have noticed that Today’s footage shows a trophy engraved with the year 2003, meaning it is a replica or cup given to the last victorious Lions team 21 years ago.
Instead, the real 2024 premiership trophy, presented to current Brisbane Lions players, was with them at Mad Monday celebrations.
That means the Brisbane Lions may have damaged an AFL premiership cup, but it would have been one of the 2003 grand final heroes like Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis or Nigel Lappin.
“21 years old, definitely going to have some dings,” one TikTok viewer posted.
“I’ll go with Akermanis,” another guessed.
Harris Andrews (left) and Cam Rayner (right) celebrate the team’s Mad Monday with the 2024 AFL Premiership Cup
Dayne Zorko (left) and Hugh McCluggage celebrate with the undamaged 2024 trophy in front of supporters at home in Brisbane late on Sunday
However, one former employee appeared to have solved the entire mystery. He said neither the 2003 grand final winners nor the 2024 champions would have received the official AFL Premiership Cup, which would have been safely transported for display until next year’s decider.
But he added that there was every chance the 2003 official cup could have been scrapped, just not by a player.
‘We often had to transport the cups from the club to the Chalk Hotel where they were on display – I’m pretty sure this was the result of being dropped (one of many times).’