And the AFL had handed the club a horrendous 2016 fixture, both in commercial and football terms, another setback which could explain why the club received extra financial assistance from the head-office coffers. Mike Fitzpatrick and his directors assured Matthews and his fellow Brisbane bosses that the Lions were crucial to the competition and the ongoing expansion of the game in Queensland. And yet the club remains the current poster boy for just how big the challenge remains to close or at least narrow the gap between the rich and poor clubs. Not only did the AFL refuse to fund the six-figure salary cap money the Lions had "banked" over 2015, but it pushed Brisbane to offer Justin Leppitsch a heavily conditional one-year contract extension, a move the club rightly rejected, pondering it would weaken its relationship with the coach, not to mention his confidence and authority. And Brisbane's predicament provides a stark reminder of how much tougher it remains as a struggling club in a tough market where the attention all appears focused upon the neighbouring expansion side. The AFL allowed the Lions to fester for far too long before forcing an overhaul of the club's administration and placing the experienced football administrator Greg Swann into the CEO's role in the second half of 2014.

Having significantly renovated its football operation Brisbane's spending in that area remains $1.5 million below the competition's benchmark and the club still looks to be one experienced football administrator down. This at a time it still has a relatively young coach, has lost the experienced daily presence of Peter Schwab, who is now based in Melbourne, and is desperately looking to expand its academy and find a new home. The club and head office are locked in a negotiation for funding for a new training and administration centre, with the AFL currently refusing the Lions' bid for a Greater Western Sydney-style $10 million boost from the league. The league will not budge beyond a $5 million investment. The bid for $10 million under the game's new financial model – in the current absence of any government money – would kickstart fundraising for and the building of a new home at either Coorparoo or near the Brisbane Airport and offer its players a vision albeit some years away of a better workplace. That McLachlan and his team continue to target the Lions' decision to last refuse a $15 million funding offer for a new facility in the Moreton Bay municipality, outside Brisbane on the wrong side of town for the club and 30 minutes from the Gabba, seems churlish given the lessons learnt by St Kilda's ill-fated move to Seaford. At a time when player retention remains paramount to the club and its reserves side remains the whipping boy of the NEAFL; Brisbane's facilities beneath the Gabba remain the worst in the competition with no natural light and soon to lose its adjoining car park.

Just where the club will house its women's team remains an issue. And yet beneath the Gabba Brisbane at this early stage of the season is a significantly more harmonious place than it was last year and most of the key players have been re-signed. When this columnist visited last week the Lions players were presenting miniature club jumpers to every registered under-nine player in Brisbane. Club bosses were appreciative the round-four Gold Coast clash had attracted an attendance of 20,000, which harked back to the days more than a decade ago when 30,000 crowds seemed regular. It is ironic that Swann, previously the Collingwood and Carlton CEO, was one of a Melbourne bloc of club chiefs who fought and ultimately overturned a move by the AFL in the early years of the millennium to grant the Lions further salary cap concessions. Once targeted as too successful for their own good Brisbane are now the only AFL club existing in a non-traditional football city without a retention allowance or some list management relaxation. That they take on their one-time finals rival Sydney, who are thriving, at the Gabba on Sunday serves as another reminder of just how far the club has fallen. The Lions' fall is largely due to poor management and bad decisions but not completely. Geographic obstacles and the fact the AFL was asleep at the wheel for too long as Brisbane strayed off course also conspired to leave the club's three-time premiership coach wondering whether the commission truly wanted the Lions, in their latest incarnation, to survive.