Mr Malcolm Holmes, Mr Angus Johnson and the board of the Brisbane Bears Fitzroy Football Club,

My name is Liam Auliciems and I have been a supporter of the Brisbane Lions all of my life. I have supported the Lions through the good and the bad, through the golden era and the rebuilding years. I love Australian Rules football and I love the Brisbane Lions, but at the moment I’m completely embarrassed by our teams theme and jersey. 

The “”paddle pop”” Lion is a complete discrace to this mighty franchise. The vast majority of members and supporters all agree that this “”modern look”” was a change that no one welcomed and that our opinions were not taken into account when it was being discussed. 

I understand that The Brisbane Lions are looking towards the future and that they were trying to make a change, but every change that is being made unfortunately is missing the mark.   

It all started when the traditional mascot was dumped for “”Bernie “”Gabba”” Veges””, arguably one of the most embarrassing and weak mascots in all of sports. Then the traditional Fitzroy logo was dumped, and eventually the jersey. Today, I struggle to see anything from the Fitzroy Football Club reflected in our image. 

I respect and understand that we can’t have the same image forever, but the old strip was by far one of the strongest in the entire league. With one of the best colour combinations of all the clubs, the Lions aren’t taking advantage of it in 2013. The old logo looked tough, intimidating and strong, whereas this new modern, “”kiddy”” mascot and jersey make us look weak.

Every time the players wear these old fashioned jerseys as well, we play like champions. With our recent celebration of the three peat premiership commemorative jersey, we beat one of the best teams in the competition in Essendon. When we wore our old Fitzroy strip last year, we won as well. The players can find strength if they can find some pride in what they wear. How can the team dominate the competition if our heritage is completely ignored?

Please listen to the fans, 

Liam Auliciems