Lions had to overcome pain of grand final defeat last year and go the long way through this finals series to claim a first premiership under coach Chris Fagan

Sometimes you walk into the rooms of a losing grand finalist and wonder whether that team, or those players, will ever recover. There was devastation in Brisbane’s room’s last year but there was a certain pride and optimism too. They’d made Collingwood go deep down the well. So many non-MCG tenants have turned up their toes on grand final day. But no one left the MCG with anything but admiration for the Lions. A slip there, an incorrect advantage call there, and it was snatched away from them.

Twenty minutes after that game, Chris Fagan was remarkably calm and magnanimous. He rued late goals in the opening and second terms, and the extent to which they were beaten on both wings. But he was already selling a message of optimism to his players. “There’s lots of teams that have lost close grand finals that have gone on to win premierships in the ensuing years,” he said. “That’s plenty of evidence that grand final losses don’t have to define you or destroy you, but that they can be the making of you.”