Neutrals of Victoria, Let a Lions Fan Help You Pick a Side

Victoria, I know this hurts. Two years running now you’ve had to watch the big dance from the couch instead of the stands, and this time it’s not even a Victorian team playing spoiler. It’s Brisbane and it’s Fremantle, and half the state doesn’t know who to scream at.

So as a proud, unapologetic Lions member who has genuinely lost sleep over preliminary finals, let me help the undecideds work out who deserves their couch-energy this Saturday. I’ll try to be fair. Try.

The case for annoyingly likeable Brisbane

Look, I get it. Three flags in four years (touch wood) does start to feel like the footy gods playing favourites, and nobody loves an empire. But hear me out: this Lions group is legit one of the most fun teams to watch in the comp. Cam Rayner floating forward like he’s got somewhere better to be. Zac Bailey putting blokes on posters. Lachie Neale still accumulating like it’s 2019. It’s not boring premiership footy, its expansive, ball-hungry, running footy that Joe the Barefoot Prophet built from scratch in a state that used to think the game was called ‘that Victorian sport’.

And honestly, growing footy in Queensland matters more than people down south give it credit for. Every flag, every big Gabba crowd, every kid in a Lions jumper at Auskick in Cairns is a win for the code nationally, not just for us. That’s not me being biased, thats just the vibe shift you can feel if you’ve been to a Lions home final in the last three years.

The case for Fremantle’s fairytale

Now the honest bit. If I wasn’t a one-eyed Lions supporter, I reckon I’d be barracking for the Dockers too. Fremantle have never won a flag. Not one. Nearly three decades of purple-clad heartbreak, a grand final loss in 2013 that still makes Freo fans go quiet at parties, and a fanbase that has watched other expansion-era clubs (yes, us) leapfrog them into premiership contention while they kept rebuilding.

There’s something genuinely lovely about a fairytale run. Justin Longmuir has built something patient and defensively brutal, and if the Dockers get over the line it’s the kind of story that makes casual fans fall in love with finals footy all over again. No notes on that front, it would be a ripper story for the game.

So how do you actually choose

Here’s my honest framework for the neutrals, the undecideds and the Victorians without a dog in the fight:

• If you like an underdog story: Fremantle, easy. First flag energy is unmatched, and there’s a decent chance you’ll cry at the final siren regardless of who you actually support.
• If you like watching genuinely great footy: Brisbane’s ball movement this year has been some of the best in the comp, full stop. Not saying that as a fan, saying that as someone who watches a lot of vision for work.
• If you hate dynasties on principle: Freo, obviously, though I’d gently push back that this isn’t some faceless dynasty, it’s a group of players who genuinely seem to love playing with each other, which counts for something.
• If you just want the best telecast: Either way you’re getting a cross-continental decider at the MCG with zero home ground advantage for anyone, which is its own kind of chaos-neutral fun.

What this grand final says about the competition

Can we also just sit with the bigger picture for a sec. Two non-Victorian clubs in the granny, again, while the NRL keeps trying to plant flags in Perth and Papua New Guinea like its some sort of code-war expansion pack. This is the AFL’s answer, quietly: we’ve got a genuine western powerhouse and a genuine northern powerhouse both good enough to play in the last game of the year, at the same time, in the same decade.

That’s not nothing. Ten years ago people were still asking whether Queensland or WA could sustain a genuinely competitive club long-term. Well, here’s your answer, twice over, on the biggest stage there is.

A word for the AFLW-only crowd

If you’re one of those footy fans who’s only really locked into the AFLW season and treats the men’s grand final as background noise until your team’s actually involved, I’d argue this year’s an easy one to lean into properly. Both clubs have genuinely strong AFLW programs and cultures that feed into the whole club vibe, and a Lions or Dockers flag on the men’s side only helps lift the profile of the footballers on the other side of the same jumper. It’s all one ecosystem, whether the traditionalists like it or not.

My actual, slightly biased verdict

I’m not going to pretend I’m neutral, I’m a Lions member with a scarf older than some of our draftees. But if you genuinely can’t decide, go with your gut on story over stats. Do you want to watch history repeat, brilliantly, or history finally get written for the first time? Both are good reasons to care on Saturday.

Just don’t be the person who picks a team purely because you hate the other one more. That’s not footy, that’s just spite with a jumper on. Pick a side because something about it genuinely grabs you, whether that’s Fremantle’s three decades of waiting or Brisbane’s ridiculously fun brand of football, and then yell at the telly like your life depends on it. That’s the deal Victoria signed up for the moment they lost their own team from the race.

See you on the other side, premiership or heartbreak, it’s still the best day of the footy calendar.