‘Little things matter’: the black book that holds the secrets to Lions’ AFLW success

Having now made six of the AFLW’s eight grand finals, the Brisbane Lions are well-acquainted with the steps demanded of the big dance. If the results aren’t convincing enough, the notebook – sitting on the desk of the club’s head of women’s football, Breeanna Brock – certainly is.

Pink lettering on the cover reads “Finals”, and inside are scrawled the lessons learned by the AFLW’s best club. “We have a little black book of finals: rinse and repeat,” she says in the lead-up to Saturday’s decider. “I just take notes about what worked, what didn’t work, what you have to do, ‘don’t forget to do this’.”

View image in fullscreen Breeanna Brock’s notebook. Photograph: Jack Snape/The Guardian

The club’s other Bre – captain Breanna Koenen – has been alongside Brock since the competition’s inception in 2017. She has seen her namesake consistently reach for the dog-eared tome around this time of year. “Why wouldn’t you, if it was your sixth one?,” the versatile defender says with a smile.

She hasn’t been inclined to ask to read it herself, but – having shared a life in footy with her fellow Queenslander – has some idea what’s inside. “It’s probably really little, minuscule things that are important. The little things matter come big games and finals in particular, you’ve got to get everything right.”

Brisbane finished over the top of the Kangaroos in a memorable grand final last year to claim their second premiership. The pair meet again this Saturday, but the dynamic has been flipped.

North Melbourne are unbeaten, and handed Brisbane their biggest defeat in round one. The Lions also have history up against them: no AFLW team has won back-to-back flags.

Yet there is strength in the Lions’ collective. Under the AFLW’s tiered salary system, players fall into one of four tiers each with fixed salaries, but across a club’s entire list only two possible combinations will add up to next season’s $1.175m cap number: one with more players at the top and bottom, and the other with more players in the middle tiers. “We say one’s capitalist and one’s communist,” Brock says. “We’re communists, but we’re the only club who’s gone that way.”

Despite such an approach which restricts the club’s top-end earners, Brock is proud to say the Lions will go into next year without the loss of key players. “If you’re playing for money, maybe we’re not the right club for you, but if you want to play for each other and look each other in the eye and be like, ‘yeah, we did that together’, and you’ll have friendships and memories forever,” Brock says.

Koenen says the tiered system needs tweaking as it forces an arbitrary hierarchy on salaries, but her and her team-mates are comfortable being the poster club for a flatter distribution. “100% we’re the communists, but to be honest, our group is so even, I think that’s the best way to describe it,” she says.

View image in fullscreen Breanna Koenen with Lions teammates earlier this month. Photograph: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Although they enter the match as defending premiers, the Lions consider themselves underdogs against the unbeaten Roos. “They’ve been the best team all year, there’s no doubt about it,” Koenen says.

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Their study of North Melbourne has shown how Darren Crocker’s team has adapted in 2024. The traditionally defensive-minded Kangaroos have also become lethal in attack, and have a midfield duo in Jas Garner and Ash Riddell that is considered the best in the competition. “They’ve structured differently looking at some of their vision, so they’re going to be hard, they’re going to be competitive, and they’ve obviously got a point to prove,” Koenen says.

The Lions are evolving as well. Club great Leigh Matthews and coach Craig Starcevich have long espoused a consistent game plan that – even if opponents know it – the players know best. Their consistent AFLW success and minimal turnover has meant Brisbane have developed a reputation as a known quantity.

However, a more experimental approach this season is starting to pay dividends. “Shannon Campbell plays forward sometimes when we need it, or Bre Koenen plays on ball, where probably the seven seasons before that, we were never really doing that kind of stuff,” Brock says. :You’re just not going to know who lines up where, so it’s hopefully making us more difficult to play against, and not as predictable.”

The refined Lions have got on a roll in the last month of the season. They beat second-placed Hawthorn in the first week of the finals, then defeated perennial contenders Adelaide last weekend. “We’ve been close to our best footy, it’s been coming and coming and coming, and certainly, the last half against Adelaide, it was really good,” Brock says.

Although the Kangaroos are a fitting grand final opponent, Koenen says the experience within the club – right down to the scribbles in Brock’s notebook – gives the players confidence.

“We’ve had a pretty good year, and I strongly believe – having experienced the flip side of it – you need to experience adversity in finals, adversity through the year, you need to learn from it. We need to flip things around, be adaptable. I just can’t describe how important that is, I think it’s paramount.”

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