HUGH McCluggage was the first player drafted by the Brisbane Lions under Chris Fagan's watch and has since earned status as one of the coach's all-time favourite players and people.
Josh Dunkley joined the Lions in the 2022 Trade Period, and just months later had already impressed Fagan enough for him to publicly say: "(Josh) is the player most like Luke Hodge I have come across, in terms of his personality."
They are in a brilliant space, the Lions, as they set out to make a fourth consecutive Grand Final and third consecutive premiership, for one of McCluggage or Dunkley will be the replacement for Lachie Neale and elevated to co-captaincy status alongside Harris Andrews.
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Circumstances surrounding Neale's exit from the position may have been out of the club's control, but as with pretty much everything else that has happened since the history-shaping, line-in-the-sand decisions made on and off-field by Fagan and then-CEO Greg Swann in 2016, the Lions plan to simply absorb the setback and immediately move on to a stronger position.
Fagan told AFL.com.au this week that the club's captaincy positions will be relayed to the public in "mid to late February", after the playing group formally analyses the landscape, followed by other input from Fagan, football department boss Danny Daly and other members of the executive and board.
There will be a push from some to have both McCluggage and Dunkley elevated to the shared captaincy position, but the main voices in the Lions' football department – mainly Fagan and Daly – are understood to prefer only one of them to join Andrews, and for the other to be sole vice-captain.
"All this will take care of itself, and whatever happens, the board will be the one that ratifies it all," Fagan said. "It is all open, we're yet to get to see how that will look for us, but from a leadership perspective, we are in a very, very, very good space."
It is likely the Lions would've been choosing a captaincy replacement for Neale for 2026 and beyond anyway, for the two-time Brownlow Medallist, who was elevated to the shared leadership position with Andrews in 2023 after Dayne Zorko had held the post for five seasons, had held discussions about potentially relinquishing the role as far back as this time last year.
Neale officially stood down in early January. It was a decision he and the club knew was necessary, for the public manner of his marriage breakdown and the subsequent Kardashian-like social and tabloid media circus meant there was no choice.
The impact of the Neale situation on all at the Lions has been profound. Hundreds and hundreds of hours have already been consumed with shock, anger and sadness by teammates and their partners. Many officials lost proper access to their own much-needed holidays and downtime to deal with the many internal ramifications.
Relationships between Neale and Brisbane people will forever be different, but from the outset a strong and unspoken commitment to support Neale was in play. It is what the best clubs do in crisis. Neale may not be receiving as many invitations to player and partner get-togethers as previously, but care is still apparent as everyone attached to him wades through the reactionary phases of a broken relationship.
Given his children are now in Perth, Neale will be permitted to travel there whenever he wants, within reason, but 4000km flights further complicate an already complex life-football situation for player and club. Neale was in Perth in the past week and missed group training and meeting sessions. Should his current family situation stay unchanged, Neale, out of contract at the end of 2026, will almost certainly be playing for one of West Coast or Fremantle in 2027.
How this arrangement plays out from a match preparation and performance perspective for the Lions in 2026 is yet to be known, but in 294 matches for two clubs which have produced two Brownlow medals as well as two Brownlow placings, two best-and-fairests at Fremantle and four at Brisbane, and four All-Australians, Neale has long established himself as one of the all-time best and most meticulously prepared.
The last game of football he played, the 2025 Grand Final, was testament to that. Having publicly ruled himself out for the season after an injury in a qualifying final against Geelong, Neale gained a place in the Grand Final as the sub, and when unleashed into the contest for the start of the third quarter, produced one of the greatest performances in his extraordinary career.
Neale was instantly tellingly dominant, accumulating 17 disposals and effectively ending the contest with a long-bomb goal just before three quarter-time. It was a performance which also assisted Will Ashcroft to secure a second consecutive Norm Smith Medal.
September was a transition period for the Lions as much as it was a time when it secured a second consecutive premiership. Without Neale, the club managed to win semi and preliminary finals to make the Grand Final, largely on the back of a bunch of kids, a lot of them with aspirations for high midfield minutes.
Will and Levi Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher, Logan Morris, Sam Marshall, Darcy Wilmot, Kai Lohmann and Ty Gallop already have premierships to their names, and are yet to get near their expected impact ceilings.
And then there is Daniel Annable, the most recent big-name draftee and a player already likened to the Ashcrofts and Fletcher in terms of potential to make immediate impact.
And then there is Keidean Coleman, who due to a knee reconstruction has barely been seen since a Norm Smith Medal vote-earning performance in the 2023 Grand Final. He appears to be over complications and injury spin-offs with that surgery.
And then there are Eric Hipwood, Jack Payne and Linc McCarthy, who are all recovering well from their latest injuries and will be ready for selection at various early stages of the home-and-away season.
And then there are the two key-position additions, former West Coast captain Oscar Allen and ex-Bomber ruck Sam Draper. While both joined the club with injuries, both will be ready to play in Opening Round.
There are simply not enough places in the Lions team for every selection-worthy player.
The already-established greatness of the Brisbane Lions may have crept up on some in the wider football industry, but they are beautifully positioned to stay at the top of the ladder for a long time to come.
Adversity in sport is relative, and Brisbane has proven it can deal with plenty of it and still make Grand Finals. In 2023, Fagan was minutes away from announcing he would be standing down for a period due to stresses to which he should never have been subjected in the Hawthorn racism claims debacle. In both 2024 and 2025, serious injuries to key players threatened to derail flag hopes. Gun forward Joe Daniher retired after the 2024 Grand Final.
The 2026 Neale issues, while highly and emotionally complex, won't be a problem.
Weirdly, from a pure football perspective – with a new co-captain and a significant shift in a youth-led midfield strategy – this could be the best thing for this club as it strives to equal the feats of its former great line-up which made four consecutive Grand Finals in 2001-04.
