AFL 1997 – Twenty Years On: Brisbane Lions (8th)

Brisbane’s first year with the Lions banner was a few steps down from where they were expected to finish, after their 1996 third placing. The players picked up from Fitzroy played minor roles apart from Chris Johnson (Brad Boyd, the first player snapped up by Brisbane, was injured and played only once that year).

Virtually all the list was retained at year’s end, but worse was to come for the Lions, plummeting to the foot of the ladder in 1998.

Fifteen of the 1997 list played in the 2001 flag, after Leigh Matthews was brought in to get the most out of them. And he did.

(Note, one of the players here is shown below under false pretences)

What can you tell us about what these blokes got up to before, during and after this season?

 

 

List Management

 

AFL Debuts 1997: Nick Trask, Brett Voss

Players Kept Under Wraps 1997: Trent Bartlett, Andrew Gowling, Simon Hawking, Rory Hilton, Tim Notting, Derek Wirth

Never Heard of Him: Andrew Gowling

Delistings/Retirements end 1997: Scott McIvor (ret), Michael McLean (ret), Andrew Gowling

 

You can review all of the AFL 1997 lists here

About Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt

Saw my first SANFL game in 1967 - Dogs v Peckers. Have only ever seen the Dogs win 1 final in the flesh (1972 1st Semi) Mediocre forward pocket for the AUFC Blacks (1982-89) Life member - Ormond Netball Club -That's me on the right

Comments

  1. Daniel Bradshaw ? I saw him in Corowa back in 2015. He was playing full forward with Wodonga. A long career.

    Glen!

  2. Chris Weaver says

    Poor Brent Green – he drowned while surfing nearly ten years ago.

    Simon Hawking had the misfortune of receiving the dreaded ‘massive wraps’ at Fitzroy. After he left Brisbane, he wrote a very scathing article in ‘The Age’ about the cliques that developed during 1997-98.

    Jason Akermanis recently morphed into Shane Warne.

  3. Dave Brown says

    Hard to believe this squad bottomed out, although the midfield still needs some central planks added. Nathan Chapman runs a gridiron punting training business these days after almost making it in the NFL in the 00s. Danny Dickfos remains one of the best names ever. Simon Hawking has the rare distinction, starting in 1997 (after 60 games with Fitzroy) of being on three teams’ lists and not actually playing a game. And Bamford ended up playing a fair amount of footy for North Adelaide, finishing up in one of Andrew Jarman’s entertaining teams (defence, what’s that?).

  4. Dave Brown- I hear you on Danny Dickfos. There’s a Rooty Hill RSL headliner for you.

  5. Dave, i recall Scott Bamford at Geelong . He hardly set the world on fire. After a season, 1999 he was gone.

    Simon Hawking looked the goods, but sadly only got a limited chance to deliver. The three teams, would have been Geelong, North Melbourne & ?

    Glen!

  6. My wife thought Dickfos was the brother of Michael and Brett Voss.

    In 2013 I sat next to Magic Maclean on the Cairns to Kuranda train. He was on a trip supporting indigenous youth from NT. They all caught the sky rail up the mountain but he was scared of heights so he took the rattler up the mountain. Had a great chat. Top bloke.

  7. Dave Brown says

    Yeah, Bamford was a good solid SANFL player really Glen, ended up on 201 games in the (losing) 2007 grand final. Brisbane Lions was the other team I was counting (as separate from Fitzroy)

  8. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    Thanks for your comments so far.

    Doesn’t C Scott look mildly confident?

    Will J Barker get the AFL seal of coaching approval at Carrara?

    Why didn’t they pick up M Pike immediately?

    D White was very enjoyable to watch.

  9. Simon Hawking – 60 games with Fitzroy.
    0 games with Brisbane Lions.
    0 games with Sydney (though he was part of the trade that led Simon Black to Brisbane).
    0 games with Collingwood.
    Retired four years after his final game in 1996…

  10. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    Thanks to Adam Haase for the “heads up” that Tim Notting was given a guernsey in the head shots, despite not playing a senior game.

  11. Adam Haase says

    Even Simon Hawking’s headshot shouldn’t be there.

    For that era, headshots in Footy Record’s if you didn’t play a game just seemed very out of place.

    In 2001, they were available weekly but that stopped and didn’t return to prevalence until the 2014 set of Records.

    At least they weren’t a shade on the Greg Tivendale/Ben Hollands and Antoni Grover/Andrew Smith cock-ups nor unavailability of Dean Irving’s 1997 one and Daniel Hargraves’ 1999 one.

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