After today becoming only the second Irishman in history to do the double of winning an All-Ireland title and an AFL Premiership, Conor McKenna will one-day retire a happy man with his list of sporting accomplishments ticked off.
Having been named as Brisbane’s ‘Super Sub’ in their four play-off matches, the Eglish man never once let his head drop despite the frustration of losing his starting place to a combination of form and injury.
McKenna was only given a post-match rating of two out of ten by leading AFL journalists given he played less than 10 minutes of the Lions Grand Final mauling of the Sydney Swans, but statistics are meaningless when you have a premiership medal around your neck.
On the day that US pop star Katy Perry roared pre-game, and the Brisbane Lions roared loudest on the field where it mattered most, the Sydney Swans were effectively beaten in the second quarter.
The minor premiers were two goals up in the first quarter, but the Lions dominated the second quarter when they booted seven goals to one to put themselves in an unassailable position.
Brisbane’s miracle premiership is all the more remarkable given they were in disarray in thirteenth spot on the season ladder with only two wins from their first seven matches and no fewer than five key players out for the season requiring knee reconstructions.
Lions coach Chris Fagan, at 63 the oldest coach in history to win a premiership, called for his team to “dance on thin ice” and they kept dancing without ever falling in. Fagan’s charges now have their fourth AFL Premiership in their trophy cabinet, and their first since they won three in a row from 2002-2003.
“I’m so proud of the group, the resilience that they’ve shown this year,” Fagan said.
“We were looking down the barrel at the halfway mark [of the season] and somehow or other, it’s turned out like this.
“We certainly know how to do it the hard way, but it makes it all that better when you achieve it.”
Fagan, who has led the Lions since 2017, believes the key to their premiership triumph after finishing outside of the top four spots at the end of the regular season was turning their weakness into one of their biggest strengths.
Starting as underdogs they laid 19 more tackles than the Swans despite having 80 more disposals.
“Coming into the finals, our pressure hadn’t been all that good, it was probably our weakness,” Fagan explained.
“We talked about the idea that we could turn pressure into a secret weapon for us, because we hadn’t been doing it all that well, and across the course of the finals, our pressure has been enormous, and our better quarters, we’ve scored heavily.”
Fagan suggested his players will return next year determined to go back-to-back. McKenna has one-year remaining on his Brisbane deal, and if he was to win another premiership in 2025, he would standalone as the only Irishman to win two AFL premierships.
