The last half of the third and fourth quarters of the 2001 Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final, which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Saturday 29th September, 2001, between the Brisbane Football Club (The Lions) and the Essendon Football Club (The Bombers). The 105th VFL/AFL Grand Final saw an official attendance of 91,482 spectators. The commentators for this Grand Final were Sandy Roberts, Bruce McAvaney, Jason Dunstall, Gerard Healy, Robert DiPierdomenico, and Matthew Campbell. Leigh Matthews was Brisbane's coach, and Kevin Sheedy was Essendon's coach.

The final score saw Brisbane defeating Essendon by 26 points, to hand Brisbane its first Premiership, the first of three in a row (2001-2003).

Recorded from the broadcast of the 2015 AFL Grand Final Marathon, October 3, 2015, on the Seven Network (HSV-7).


Vaxfacts: This was Brisbane's first AFL/VFL Premiership as a football club. Brisbane first entered the VFL as the Brisbane Bears in the 1987 season, a koala being their emblem (though not technically a bear!). For the 1997 season, the Brisbane Bears merged with the Fitzroy Lions (who had succumbed to financial and on-field pressures, and had no other option than to merge with another club or fold), to form the Brisbane Lions. The histories and many of the traditions, along with playing lists and other elements, were preserved in the merger, though the Premierships Fitzroy won in the VFL era aren't included in Brisbane's tally- Fitzroy having won 8 early in the history of the VFL.

Coaches Leigh Matthews and Kevin Sheedy faced off against each other in the 1990 AFL Grand Final- Matthews the coach of the victorious Collingwood, Sheedy Essendon. Matthews would again best Sheedy.

This is Essendon's last Grand Final appearance to date, having won the Premiership the previous year (2000).

This was the last time that Channel Seven would have the complete broadcast rights to the AFL, a position they had maintained since the beginning of VFL television broadcasting in the late 1950s/early 1960s (except for 1987, when the ABC had full rights). In 2002, Channels Nine and Ten, along with pay-TV provider Foxtel, would share the rights in a five year deal. From 2007, Seven would return to broadcasting AFL along with Channel Ten and Foxtel, and now shares the rights solely with Foxtel.