Two love stories 45 years in the making, writ large on Brisbane Lions grand final banner

2 hours ago 1

There’s a love story that Janelle and Ian Lynch tell, and it’s not just about their lifelong devotion to the Brisbane Lions football team.

Back in 1980, they met as teenage members of the then-Fitzroy Football Club cheer squad.

Ian and Janelle Lynch met as teenagers, 45 years ago, in Fitzroy Football Club’s cheer squad.

The couple fell for each other, but they also felt part of a close community of Lions fans – and still feel that way.

The squad would meet on Friday nights at the gym at Junction Oval in St Kilda – 30 kilometres from Janelle’s house in Upfield – to make the Fitzroy banner.

They were excited to play a part in their beloved club, and still are.

Fast forward 45 years, their loyalty to the Lions – now the Brisbane Lions – has been rewarded, with four premierships in the past 24 years.

Ian and Janelle Lynch take break from work on the Lions’ Grand Final banner.

And the couple are still in the cheer squad, whose members are this week in a town north of Melbourne helping make the banner for Saturday’s grand final against Geelong at the MCG.

They are not paid. It’s a labour of love.

In this corporate age of AFL, the process is endearingly old-school. The 15-metre-by-8-metre banner is still made of sticky tape, crepe paper and foil, and is assembled on a basketball court.

Cheer squad members, including the couple’s son, Naythan,Janelle’s sister, Alison Trafford, and great-nephew Liam are working up to 10 hours a day for four days.

(Back) Ian and Janelle Lynch, Janelle’s sister Alison Trafford, and front, Janelle’s son Naythan, left, and Alison’s grandson, Liam working on the banner.

While the club’s marketing team write the wording, cheer squad members make the banner’s background, and cut out the paper illustrations, logos and letters and stick them on both sides.

“It’s not really difficult, it’s just time-consuming,” Janelle says.

Sometimes they work until 11pm, ordering take-away food. “There’s no strict production line,” Janelle says. “We just sort of all do what has to be done. Some people might be cutting out words while others are sticking squares of crepe paper down. It just works.”

Some things, like the weather, are out of their control.

Collingwood’s 2018 grand final banner was blown apart by the wind before the players ran through. West Coast won that flag.

Famously, before the 2018 AFL grand final, a wind gust destroyed Collingwood’s banner at the MCG. “That’s your worst nightmare on any day, let alone on grand final day,” Janelle says.

Once, in the 1980s, the crepe paper on a Lions banner disintegrated in the rain, leaving two poles holding up sticky tape.

Janelle says these days squad members are vigilant about good spelling on their banners.

On Saturday, not for the first time, Janelle will hold one of the ropes holding up the banner on the hallowed MCG.

It’s exciting,” says Janelle, “but it’s nerve-racking, too”.

Ian says making the banner was, and is, a time for “catching up with friends. The little group that you have here is close-knit. You all have a laugh.”

Lions Victorian manager Sam Lord said the cheer squad has “put in countless unpaid hours to make sure our players, and fans, have something to be proud of on game day.

“It is truly a labour of love for them, and we are so grateful for them.”

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