There were moments last year when Sam Draper wondered if he would ever play again. It made the premiership medal around his neck feel almost surreal.
"I can't believe it. I got overawed with emotion at the end there. The tears started flowing. A lot of work's gone in to get to this point, so mate, I'm just so happy," Draper said in the rooms post-win.
The lively ruck suffered a season-ending Achillies tendon rupture while playing for Essendon in round six last year, before moving to Brisbane via free agency in the trade period.
He joined former West Coast captain Oscar Allen, who moved to the Lions ahead of their three-peat campaign this season.
"It doesn't feel real. I got really emotional at the end when I saw the high-performance team and just thanked them and the list manager Dom Ambrogio and Danny Daly [Lions football manager] just for believing in me and believing that I'll be back to my best," Draper said.
"I had the darkest moments of my life last year, and then to come out of that, and here I am today [winning a premiership]. It's just mental.
"I got so emotional when the siren went … I suppose, like, everything happens for a reason."
Draper was in career-best form when he went down with the injury and worried that if he did come back and play, he wouldn't be the same player.
"Will I have the same explosiveness, and things like that. A lot of work goes into Achilles rehab. It's very boring. So many calf raises, but I built my body back up [and] improved as a player, I reckon."
The improvement came while being surrounded by star players in a very successful side.
Draper left a struggling club in the Bombers, who finished 18th this year, to walk into a program with two back-to-back premierships under its belt.
When asked what made Brisbane so special, showman Kai Lohmann said it came down to connection.
"We're all really close friends and brothers, and even the staff as well. We have such a great connection, and yeah, it means a lot," Lohmann said.
He added that having one premiership was special, but "three's just unbelievable".
Lohmann was on the bench for the final four minutes, in which Brisbane came back from 17 points down to win the game. The Lions kicked the last four goals of the game; the last two off the boot of Logan Morris, who gave the Lions back the lead for the final siren.
"I was nervous as but it was a pretty cool [final] minute," he said, echoing his coach's thoughts in the post-match presser that the team was prepared for "Wharfie Time", which played with four minutes left on the clock.
His teammate, Ryan Lester, said he thought the Lions' victory "looked very unlikely" when Docker Patrick Voss kicked a goal just before the four-minute mark to put them up by three majors.
He had just had an important tackle on Josh Treacy in the goal square, which made an almost-certain Dockers goal into a behind. But the Lions were still trailing by a significant margin with limited time left.
Lester had played in the previous three grand finals; defeating Geelong by 47 points in 2025, Sydney by 60 points in 2024 and falling short to Collingwood by four points in 2023.
So he knew what it was like to win by big margins, and go down by short ones.
"But then Logan kicked that goal to put us seven points up and someone said there was only 10 seconds to go, and it was a bit of party time there," he said.
"It's just unbelievable to think that we're a three-time premiership team. You know, growing up, I looked at the Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn and those teams as just like immortal. It's unbelievable, and for us to join them is pretty cool.
"Particularly for me, like in 2022, I only played three games in the senior team and managed to break in in 2023, and ever since then, obviously we played in grand finals, so I feel very, very lucky the way my career has panned out and to be a part of this special team."
He admitted this year required "a bit of luck" for the team.
"I mean, when you look at the Hawthorn game and the Freo game, they could have gone either way really. And both [went] in our way. So, amazing."
