Brisbane Lions

Australia

Founded

1996

Arena

The Gabba · 42,000 cap

The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the reigning AFL premiers, having won the 2024 Grand Final by sixty points. The Lions came into existence in 1996 when the AFL expansion club the Brisbane Bears, established in 1987, absorbed the AFL operations of one of the league's foundation clubs, Fitzroy, established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1883. Its colours of maroon, blue, and gold were drawn from both Fitzroy and the Bears. The club plays its home matches at the Gabba in Brisbane, and its headquarters and training facilities are located at Springfield Central Stadium. The Lions are one of the most successful AFL clubs of the 2000s, appearing in four consecutive grand finals from 2001 to 2004, a period in which they won three premierships (2001, 2002, 2003). They also finished runners-up in 2023, and won their fourth premiership in 2024.

Western Bulldogs

Australia

Founded

1877

Arena

Marvel Stadium · 56,347 cap

The Footscray Football Club, trading as the Western Bulldogs, is an Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1877, the club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before moving to the Victorian Football League (now renamed the AFL) in 1925. The club has won two senior premiership since joining the VFL/AFL, in 1954 and 2016. The Western Bulldogs home guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background. The club's traditional rivals include St Kilda and geographical rivals Essendon. The club has its headquarters and practices at the Whitten Oval in Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The club draws its supporter base from this traditionally working class area and plays its home matches at Docklands Stadium (currently known as Etihad Stadium) in the Melbourne Docklands area, also in the city's inner-west. In October 1996, the club began to play under its current name of the "Western Bulldogs", changing from its original name of the "Footscray Football Club". The Whitten Oval underwent a A$20 million redevelopment starting in 2005 to improve the club's headquarters and training facilities.