Brisbane Lions chair Andrew Wellington looks back at bittersweet season and footy days in Geraldton

As chair of the Brisbane Lions, Andrew Wellington is leading a club that came within a whisker of grand final glory last Saturday. But not everyone knows that this Lion king’s footy “circle of life” started in Geraldton, where he played in the GNFL junior competition for St Pat’s. Mr Wellington looks back fondly on his formative years spent in Geraldton. Born to local parents, Wellington spent time all over WA before returning to the Mid West. “My mother’s from Walkaway and my father’s from Geraldton, and I travelled through the Wheatbelt,” he told the Geraldton Guardian this week. “So I was in Geraldton from grades 10 to 12 at school, and I played my football for St Pat’s.” While in Geraldton, Wellington played under the Great Northern Junior Football League for the now defunct St Pat’s Football Club, which folded after the 2018 season. During his time with St Pat’s, the Brisbane boss said the competition was an uphill battle for the younger players, but they managed to see success. “I played, and we won I think an under-15s premiership with St Pat’s,” he said. “It was always a bit of a battle because the colts was under-19s I think, and everyone finished school at 17, so we were all under aged, but we managed to make the finals and had a pretty solid team there.” In 1984, Wellington was awarded the colts best-and-fairest award, joining a group of elite footballers who would go on to win the medal. “That’s about my only claim to fame is I won the President’s Medal, the best and fairest for the colts competition, because Josh Kennedy and Jack Martin I think won it as well,” he said. Wellington would go on to play WAFL at Subiaco with the likes of Karl Langdon and Stephen Hooper, but his success at the AFL level came in the management side. Appointed chair of the Brisbane Lions in late 2017, Wellington took over during a grim time for the club which had just been handed the wooden spoon and had failed to reach finals in eight years. Since he’s been head of the board, Brisbane have grown from strength to strength. “Bit by bit just trying to get better, (coach) Chris Fagan has done a fantastic job just identifying where we need to improve each year,” Wellington said. “I think this is the fifth consecutive year we’ve made finals now, first time we’ve made a grand final and even though that’s a long period of time, it does feel like we’ve been steadily improving over that period. “So there’s no single thing, it’s just constantly looking at all the little things and trying to get better, get your list better and develop the players that you get.” Brisbane reached their first grand final this year since 2004, where they would go on to face Collingwood and lose in a close 12.18 (90) to 13.8 (86) contest. While his pride in the Lions is at an all-time high, Wellington admits season 2023 was bittersweet, to fall at the final hurdle. “It was a roller coaster in the last six or seven minutes to sort of hit the front and then quickly have Collingwood hit the front again,” Wellington said. “Even in the last 90 seconds, obviously we still had a chance to win it. So the heart was racing and it was a rollercoaster of emotions.” Wellington said it was hard to deal with getting that close and losing by just four points. “You have mixed feelings about a season like that . . . it’s extremely difficult to get to a grand final, so you’d have to be proud of that,” he said. “But of course, to get so close to winning, then not quite getting there is disappointing as well.” With the team’s success in recent years, Wellington praised their improvement of players from other clubs and development of young stars. “Most of the players that were brought in from other clubs have improved when they’ve got to our club — Lachie Neale, Joe Daniher, Charlie Cameron,” he said. “Then the young players that have come through our academy like Harris Andrews, Eric Hipwood, Jaspa Fletcher, we’ve all seen them continue to improve since they’ve come on our list.” Brisbane had team success with a second-place finish, but co-captain Neale had individual success when he was awarded his second Brownlow Medal last week. “We won a lot of games and Lachie was very often amongst our best players in those wins,” he said. “It wasn’t a big shock to us, I think even though he wasn’t the favourite, most people probably felt he was in the four or five players in the competition that had a genuine chance to win.” Losing a grand final can derail teams, but the Lions boss believes they are set up in a position to win it all next year. “The reality is, I think we’ve got most of the pieces there — on the weekend we were a much younger team then Collingwood,” he said. “This has been our fifth year in the final, so we’ve got some pretty good talent coming through, and we might look to bolster a couple of positions for a bit of depth, but by in large I think the talent that could win a flag is on our list.”