HUGH McCluggage says there was no chance he was leaving Brisbane in his early years – looking his close mates in the eyes to drop the news would have been just too hard.
In many ways McCluggage is synonymous with the Lions’ revival, taken at No.3 in the 2016 AFL Draft, just a month after the club hired Chris Fagan to be its coach.
With best friend Jarrod Berry heading north from Victoria in the same draft, it would start a turnaround that led Brisbane from the wooden spoon in 2017 to a premiership in 2024.
And on Friday night against the Western Bulldogs, McCluggage will chalk up game No.200, barely believable for someone that recently turned 27.
Reflecting on his early years at the battling Lions, the smooth-moving midfielder said it quickly became a “tight group”.
“I was really keen to help guys like ‘Zorks’ and ‘Frog’ (Ryan Lester) play in some finals. That was the aim at the start,” McCluggage said.
“We were sitting down the bottom of the ladder the first two years, and probably in our wildest dreams couldn’t imagine we’d do what we’ve done in terms of the consistency we’ve been able to play at.
“How close I was with guys like Jarrod Berry, Cam Rayner, Zac Bailey, Zorks, Frog, ‘Diz’ (Darcy Gardiner), Harris (Andrews) … they helped us when we first got here, we became really close and learnt a lot of lessons on the way.
“If you achieve success with people you’ve gone through the ups and downs with, there’s nothing that can compare to that.”
Darcy Gardiner and Hugh McCluggage during Brisbane’s training session at Brighton Homes Arena on June 17, 2025. Picture: Getty Images
After watching a stream of young players leave the club in preceding years, McCluggage was one of the early test cases for life under Fagan and then football manager David Noble when he came out of contract after two seasons.
He extended for three years then and has continued signing on ever since, turning his back on huge free agent offers last year to ink a deal that will keep him at the Gabba until 2031.
McCluggage said he and the other non-Queensland players never spoke about contracts or returning “home”.
“It was just one of those things you knew if you were to leave it would be pretty hard to look them in the eyes and say, ‘I’m going to go home’ because we’d built something so special in terms of how close we were.
“That was enough to keep us here, along with the fact we knew we had great leadership in Danny (Daly) and ‘Fages’ and ‘Nobes’ and ‘Swanny’.”
In the midst of his best season yet, McCluggage has fused his wonderful ball use on the outside of the contest, with an improved tenacity at the coalface to be the perfect complementary piece in one of the competition’s best midfield units.
He has missed just five games since his debut in 2017 and is on-track to break into the All-Australian team for the first time after being a squad member on four occasions.
Part of Brisbane’s leadership group, McCluggage might also break a best and fairest drought that has seen him on the podium five times without taking the top gong.
