The Roar Deal

After another unforgettable season, we sit together in the Roar Deal studios for the very last time in 2025 to review the highs, the lows, and all that is still to come. It's been an emotional rollercoaster of a weekend to close out the Roar Deal's 2025, with the joy of Friday night's event with Chris Fagan quickly being replaced with disappointment after an emphatic AFLW Grand Final l...

Another season, another grand final - it seems to be the formula for the Lions at the moment, as the golden days continue. Following a dominant prelim final win over Carlton, the Lions women are into their fourth straight grand final, looking to make amends for last year’s loss and go 2-1 up in what is now a trilogy of North Melbourne/Brisbane deciders. It’s about as tough an ask as there is in sp...

With seven years of finals, three grand finals, and two premierships, the Lions have been the most exciting and successful team of the 2020’s by far in every possible metric, setting attendance and ratings records across the country along the way too with their exciting and dynamic style of footy. And now, with the release of the 2026 fixture, we get our reward: an 11:30am clash with the Saints, a...

For the sixth season in a row, the Lions women are off to the prelim final after another strong away win over the Demons down in Melbourne. Remarkably, when combined with the men’s team, it means that the Lions have featured on prelim final weekend in the last nine consecutive seasons across both the AFL & AFLW.   The success keeps on flowing, with the ultimate glory now only two more wins awa...

Two months ago, the men began their premiership challenge from third on the ladder. Now, the Lions women prepare to do exactly the same, with a strong - if inaccurate - win over Collingwood setting up a qualifying final clash against the Demons, with hopes of a November that ends with just as much joy as September did. It’s the ninth time in ten seasons that the Lions women have made the finals, h...

One month ago, a 15-minute patch of exhilarating football in the late third and early fourth quarters saw the Lions become the first non-Victorian side to go back-to-back since their own former selves in the early 2000s. And one month from now, the Roar Deal family will come together with Chris Fagan at Brisbane Powerhouse to keep the celebrations going. The countdown to our sold out night with Fa...

Like parents sitting by the resort pool who get told that their toddler’s had a toilet emergency at the kids club, our time of basking has been rudely interrupted by the Adelaide Crows and a trade period saga that we’re all still struggling to get our heads around. Cal Ah Chee now finds himself in limbo, Crows fans are furious, and all we want is to enjoy the glow of back-to-back premierships in p...

October used to be a month of desperately hoping for a big trade that could finally turn things around. That all feels a few lifetimes ago now, though, with October becoming the month of joy and celebration. It’s been two weeks since the Lions went back to back, and the party is continuing here in the Roar Deal studios. Today on the podcast, we’re going to start our player-by-player rundown from t...

Just over a week ago, the final siren sounded on the 2025 AFL Grand Final, cementing the legacy of this current Brisbane Lions group, their coach, and the club as a whole, as the Lions became the first side to 5 premierships in the 21st century. Following that perfect Saturday afternoon, it’s been a week full of replays and joy, as we all come to terms with an achievement that was beyond comprehen...

Welcome back to the promised land. In one of the most remarkable Grand Final performances in recent history, the Lions have taken down perennial heavyweights Geelong in 24-minute blitz to go back to back and stamp their mark as a generational team.  In this special in-depth podcast recorded in Mike’s hotel room the day after the 2025 Premiership was won, we recount our experiences of a Grand Final...

The build-up to the 2025 AFL Grand Final continues in our live episode from Fitzroy's Royal Derby Hotel, joined by special guests Simon Black and Sam Graham!

When we walked out of the MCG on Grand Final Day in 2023 with broken hearts, we all feared that might have been our one chance with this group. Who would’ve thought back then the last week of September was about to become a semi-permanent fixture! There are storylines everywhere out of the prelim. Hugh’s bounce back, Motty’s ascendency to elite status, Harris toying with the Magpies, Will Ashcroft...

Following a QClash domination in which the Lions looked anything but battered and weary, we’re through to our fourth consecutive prelim. There were many bleak days where the thought of seeing the Lions featuring on footy’s penultimate stage were nothing but sheer fantasy - now, remarkably, Saturday’s match will be the fifth prelim we’ve played in over the last six years.  This week on the Roar Dea...

After a strong end to the home & away season, the whiplash that has defined 2025 has returned - and this one hurts more than all the others combined. Following the most disappointing finals effort the Lions have turned in since 2022’s Prelim, our hopes of another September to remember have suddenly nosedived. The news of Lachie Neale & Eric Hipwood’s season ending injuries only sours thing...

A year ago, we lived the September of our dreams. Jaspa on the run, Joe’s goal from the boundary, Motty’s mark in the middle, Cal’s goal to put us ahead, Cam Rayner sealing it on the left, and Hippy’s Aker tribute in the big dance - they are all the stuff of legend, and memories each of us will treasure for the rest of our lives. Now, twelve months on, it’s time to write some more folklore. This F...

It’s been a rollercoaster of a home & away season, with an awful run of injuries, bizarrely bad Gabba form, and our biggest home & away loss since 2018, and yet somehow, despite all that, we’ve ended the season third with another finals match-up against the Cats booked in for next Friday night. The back to back campaign is about to get a lot more serious, and it seems we’re as much a chanc...

The whiplash strikes again! This week though, it’s the good kind of shock, as the Lions dominate Freo over in the West to erase the pain of the Swans loss and make another statement to the competition. The formula seems straightforward enough: When our hopes are high, we’re disappointed. When our hopes are low, we’re elated. It’s hard to know just what that means for the next six weeks, but at any...

From a disappointing loss to the Gold Coast, to an extraordinary win against Collingwood, back to a disappointing loss against Sydney - it’s hard to know what to make of where things sit now. Last week, we seemed set for top-two. Now, it’s going to be a battle just to make the top eight The mood is flat once again on the Roar Deal, with the highs of last week a distant memory now as season 2025 re...

Cancel the funeral - this season still well & truly has a pulse! 2025’s most shocking loss has been followed by 2025’s most extraordinary win, with the Collingwood MCG hoodoo broken in emphatic style as the Lions make a statement to the competition with September on the horizon. Our best seems once again to be the best, and the equation seems simple now: if we can play like that six more times...

It’s been quite a while since we’ve sat down for an episode of the Roar Deal in full doom & gloom mode, but Saturday's crisis in Carrara has us not too far from that ballpark. It was our heaviest defeat since the 2022 Prelim Final loss to a red-hot Geelong side, and also our heaviest home & away defeat we’ve had since 2018. It's also put Dom in a real mood this week on the podcast,...

The Gabba crowd is back! During a tense finish against the Dogs on Friday night, the Lions faithful found our voice again to bring the boys home, and we couldn't be happier about it.  Now, attention turns to the highest-stakes QClash yet, with the Lions needing a win to stay up the top of the ladder (and maybe even move within sight of top spot), while the Suns suddenly need to win to keep the...

And now things get interesting! With the Carlton win behind us, the fixture ahead is starting to look a lot like an early dose of finals footy. The coming weeks hold matches against teams currently sitting in 9th, 5th, 1st, 10th, 8th, and 6th, with not one easy win among them. It’s rare to be in mid-July with the prospect of the minor premiership and the possibility of missing finals altogether bo...

We’re back from the bye with another win, and finals are suddenly coming into focus. We’ve just got to get there first, though, with three more wins needed to guarantee another September run. And with the Bulldogs, Suns, Collingwood, Swans, Dockers and Hawks still to come, it’s far from guaranteed - but a win over the struggling Blues this Thursday would go a long way to shoring up a spot. After t...

Just when things were starting to look a little bit bleak, the Lions have pulled out their best performance for 2025 to demolish the 22-year Kardinia Park hoodoo and send us into the bye safely in second place. This week on the podcast, we pause for a mid-season review, looking through all that has worked this year and what we'll need to do to make another run at September from here. Also this...

We've suffered two losses in a row for the first time in 2025, and this week on the podcast, our concern levels are starting to grow. The general sentiment has been that accuracy was the culprit once again, but Mike has found a few other stats that have us a little alarmed. And we look ahead to our last stop before the mid-season bye - a trip to the one venue we haven’t conquered since 2003. W...