The Brisbane Lions are the last team to win three consecutive AFL premierships ("championships" for us Yanks), back in 2001-2003. Curiously, they were never the top-seeded team going into the playoffs (or "finals", as Aussies call them), although they were always second or third in line. Those Lions had stars: Jason Akermanis, Jonathan Brown, and so many more. Why, you could even have called them...SHOWTIME!
Their American counterpart: The Los Angeles Lakers
Those 2000-2002 Lakers were also the last NBA team to three-peat, and talk about star power: Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were it, baby! Unfortunately for both LA and Brisbane, star power fades over time, and so do talents as players age and retire...
For the Lions, the last holdover of the premierships retired during the season last year (2015) - they do that in Aussie Rules: when the body gives out, it simply gives out. You cannot keep playing a sport that's as tough physically as footy if you're not up to it. Jonathan Brown became instant royalty throughout Australia when he retired, and the team could finally start rebuilding instead of "hanging on" to its past. Brisbane fell to the bottom third the last couple of years, and in 2016 finally fell all the way to the bottom, tying the suspension-depleted Essendon Bombers for the worst record in the AFL at 3-19. Essendon will be better next year...Brisbane probably won't be.
As far as the Lakers go, they're maybe about a year behind the Lions' cycle: Kobe Bryant's finally retired, but the Lakers are going to be stuck in their own "hanging on" mode, with no cap room and dawdling in the bottom third of the league. Interestingly, both former champions are discovering that losing conquers all other advantages: neither one can get free agents to move to their sunny city and play for their team any more!
Here's hoping the Lakers are quick in finding the path back up the ladder, as their counterpart Brisbane Lions have so far been unable to do.
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