It started at 40, steamed into 50, now here comes 60: The Road to Glory - title borrowed from a Freo Dockers T-shirt

What a journey. What a story. What an ending.

So where to begin. For those who don’t know, I’m a bit of a Brisbane Lions fan. I went to all of the GFs for the original three-peat in 01-03, and sadly also the 04 loss to Port Adelaide. I missed 23 as I was in Spain on my little camino adventure, but listened in from Leon in the early hours of the morning. I was there in 24 and 25, and eagerly anticipated whether we would be back again in 26.

To secure a grand final ticket, members must first nominate to be in a ballot - the club only receives limited tickets to the GF, and with 80K members this year, tickets were heavily contested. The ballot takes place before the preliminary final, so we don’t even know if we’ve made the final before we are committing to buy tickets. You don’t pick where you sit or the price of the ticket you’re paying for - if your team wins the prelim and you are successful in the ballot, your bank account gets hit with the payment and you get what you get. Tickets are allocated by team though, so most of the time you’ll find yourself surrounded by your fellow team supporters.

Because we have accessible seats, our selection process is a little different - we elect to sit in the first level and tickets are allocated accordingly. We receive an email confirming we have seats, and have a payment link to pay for the tickets. So it’s not such a surprise of how much is coming out. But it can be a shock when you see that you need to pay $1075 to secure the two tickets you competed for in the ballot.

When we received our ticket allocation, we still weren’t sure we were going to go. Kent and Sharon had only recently returned from a trip to Europe, and the cost of airfares and accommodation at the last minute are always exorbitant - the price gouging is eye-watering. Last year, Kent and I paid almost $3000 between us for airfares, hotel and game-day tickets (and we had the cheaper seats last year!)

However with holidays approved at work, I decided to go. Kent opted not to come this year, so I asked a few people if they were keen, and Jordy suggested a road trip as she is on school holidays and had the time off to drive down over two days and back over two days. Quite confident my car would be reliable as it’s only 12 months old, and super-efficient with fuel as a hybrid.

So away we went - and to mix it up, we drove down via the Newell Highway and returned via the Hume and Pacific Highways. First night’s destination was Coonabarabran. In hindsight we probably should have pressed onto Dubbo as it made an extra long day on day two of driving, but there’s a certain Chinese restaurant in town that we have eaten at before that we were looking forward to enjoying. Our hotel, the All Traveller’s Motor Inn, is directly across the road, and after 8 hours on the road we unloaded our bags and went for a walk through town and along the Castlereagh River to stretch our legs and work up an appetite.

After a satisfying dinner of chow mein (crunchy noodles of course) and honey chicken, we hit the hay. Both of us were awake at 4.00am, so we packed the car and had an early start. Was hoping to stop in Parkes at a roadhouse we usually ate at on our way to Melbourne in 01-04, but sadly, because the highway has been re-routed around town the roadhouse has moved, so we continued onto Forbes and had breakfast at Isabel’s Place.

Enjoyed the travel to Melbourne after a late lunch at Shepparton. If you ever want a great kebab, hit me up for the shop we went to - it was delicious. Now while we were staying at Balwyn, about 40 minutes tram ride out of the CBD, Jordy was determined to get badges for her scarf from the Lions pop up shop at Fitzroy, so I had to take on the inner city tram tracks and traffic to satisfy her needs. Not as scary as I thought, although pretty happy to get to the hotel afterward and leave the car in the car park for 24 hours (except of course we had to hit up the supermarket in the next suburb so a short drive then a park).

Saturday morning we enjoyed a French breakfast at Bon Matin, where we met up with Jordy’s father-in-law, Blake, and his partner Sue. A delicious breakfast, lovely company, and a great distraction from my nervous gut, which had decided that Grand Final Day was as good a day as any to make eating anything after breakfast a no-go!

Post breaking tram to Federation Square, where we waited for what felt like forever for the Lions supporters to walk to the G together. Could not believe the number of Freo fans around town and at the game. It was almost like they had bought up every spare GF ticket they could find, and it felt like there were ten of them for every one of us. The town was a sea of purple!

Getting into the ground proved problematic as there were not clear lines to get in, so it was just a bunch of people who were all pushing to get in at once. After 45 minutes of waiting in a line that wasn’t moving as people were constantly pushing in in front, and an electronic machine that wasn’t working so was further slowing movement, we were directed to the next gate, and thankfully got in just in time for the absolutely fabulous Kylie Minogue. What a vibe she created, a spectacle worthy of a Grand Final Day. Sang all the hits, flirted with the crowd, soared above the ground and left us wanting more.

And then the reason we were there. That one day in September. Cracker game, but with 5 minutes to go and Voss kicking to put them clear by 17 points, I will admit I had my doubts. I turned to Jordy and quietly said, this might not be our year. Following his goal song, the inevitable happened. Wharfie Time. The bells chimed, the crowd roared and all hell broke loose on the ground. The Lions breathed in the energy from the crowd and kicked four goals in four minutes to seal the game with 8 seconds remaining.

My throat was stripped raw from screaming. I hugged and high-fived everyone around me - strangers only moments before, we were all new besties celebrating an amazing feat - a come-from-behind win to hand Brisbane it’s second three-peat of the modern era.

When we won the first one, my dad honestly believed he would never see another GF victory. After all, we had seen three in a row while others were yet to taste the glory of premiership victory in years (I’m looking at you, St Kilda). So to win in 24, it felt special. To back it up in 25 it felt surreal. To bag our second three-peat in the modern era in 26 from the position we were in with four minutes to go felt completely miraculous.

We stayed at the ground for a while to just soak up the atmosphere, cheer on the boys and collect posters and merch from the stalls outside. Then a lovely walk along the Yarra, a bite to eat, quick catch up with friends who saw us in the street, and then back to the hotel ready to start the drive home in the morning.

Up early and off to Gosford for the night on the way home. The Pacific Highway drive is a little greener and hillier than the inland way, and two lanes the whole way, so traffic flows beautifully. Dinner at the Gosford RSL and early bed for the final day of driving.

Once again we were up early and on the road by 4.30. Rained the entire drive home, letting up just 10 minutes from Jordy’s house when I dropped her off. Quick trip home, and I’m now settled in watching the replay, reliving the moment and taking the time to soak it all in. Already dropped down to my folks’ house to drop off a copy of the Premier’s Record and the traditional Herald Sun poster.

So now for some numbers:

5 days, 3954km - 8 tanks of Petrol - $546.91 (one tank to fill at the end for the next fortnight). Most expensive fuel was in Brisbane on our return!

3 hotels - $641.98

26 cans/bottles of Pepsi Max

8 bottles of water

2 cans of Redbull/Monster

2 Maccas runs

1 KFC run

1 Chinese Meal

1 RSL meal

1 cafe breakfast

2 roadhouse diner meals