The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Leigh Raymond Matthews is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He later coached Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions.
Peter Knights is a former Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Widely regarded as one of Australian football's finest centre half-backs, despite suffering numerous injuries, Knights was recognized for his contribution to the game when he was among the inaugural inductees into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and later in the Hawthorn Team of the Century.
Jason Hadfield Dunstall is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Ken Judge was an Australian rules footballer and coach.
Ronald James Alexander is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the East Perth Football Club and East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). He served as captain-coach of East Fremantle and was also the inaugural coach of the West Coast Eagles.
Rivalries in the Australian Football League exist between many teams, most of which typically draw large crowds and interest regardless of both teams' positions on the ladder. The AFL encourages the building of such rivalries, as a method of increasing publicity for the league, to the point of designating one round each year as Rivalry Round where many of these match-ups are held on the one weekend. Whilst some rivalries, such as between teams from adjacent areas, are still strong, the designation of an entire round of fixtures as Rivalry Round is often criticised due to some arbitrary match-ups, or ignoring stronger, more recent rivalries.
The 1996 Australian Football League season was the 100th season of the elite Australian rules football competition and the 7th under the name 'Australian Football League', having switched from 'Victorian Football League' after 1989. This was the last season in which the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Lions competed, before their merger at the end of the year to for the Brisbane Lions.
John Neville Northey is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He played from 1963 to 1970 with the Richmond Football Club. Northey was a dual premiership player with Richmond, winning flags in 1967 and 1969. He is better known, however, as a coach.
Ross Lyon is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He was the senior coach of the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2012 to 2019, having previously coached the St Kilda Football Club from 2007 to 2011. He played for Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears between 1985 and 1995.
The 1995 Australian Football League season was the 99th season of the elite Australian rules football competition and the 6th under the name 'Australian Football League', having switched from 'Victorian Football League' after 1989.
David Hale is a former professional Australian rules footballer who had played for the North Melbourne Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Andrew Collins is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian and Australian Football Leagues.
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawthorn, making it the youngest Victorian-based team in the AFL.
The Shepparton United Football Netball Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football and netball based in the city of Shepparton in northern Victoria. The club teams currently compete in the Goulburn Valley League.
The 1985 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Essendon Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 28 September 1985. It was the 89th annual grand final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1985 VFL season. The match, attended by 100,042 spectators, was won by Essendon by a margin of 78 points, marking that club's 14th premiership victory.
Andrew Alan Lockyer is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the VFL/AFL during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also had a long career with East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League.
Clinton Browning is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).
The AFL Australian Football League is the top professional Australian rules football league in the world. The league consists of eighteen teams: nine based in the city of Melbourne, one from regional Victoria, and eight based in other Australian states. The reason for this unbalanced geographic distribution lies in the history of the league, which was based solely within Victoria from the time it was established in 1897, until the time the league expanded through the addition of clubs from interstate to the existing teams starting in the 1980s; until this expansion, the league was known as the VFL (Victorian Football League).
The 2015 season was the Hawthorn Football Club's 91st season in the Australian Football League and 114th overall. Hawthorn entered the season as the two-time defending AFL premiers, having won back-to-back AFL premierships. Hawthorn won their third consecutive AFL premiership, fifth AFL premiership, and thirteenth premiership overall, defeating West Coast 107–61 in the Grand Final. Hawthorn became the first team to win five premierships in the AFL era. Hawthorn became just the second team in the AFL era to win three-consecutive premierships; joining the Brisbane Lions (2001–2003); and the sixth team in VFL/AFL history to win three consecutive premierships; joining Carlton (1906–1908), Collingwood (1927–1930), and Melbourne. Alastair Clarkson won his fourth premiership as coach, tying with Leigh Matthews for most premierships won in the AFL era. Clarkson also surpassed John Kennedy Sr. and Allan Jeans (3) for most premierships won as coach of Hawthorn. Luke Hodge joined Michael Voss as the only players to captain three premierships in the AFL era. Grant Birchall, Shaun Burgoyne, Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell, Cyril Rioli, and Jarryd Roughead all won their fourth premierships, tying with Martin Pike for the most in the AFL era. Shaun Burgoyne played in his sixth AFL Grand Final, tying with Martin Pike for the most appearances in the AFL era. As of 2020, this was the last time Hawthorn won a final.
