The Brisbane Lions were coy all week about revealing the nature of the injury Nigel Lappin suffered in the preliminary final victory over Sydney.

While those who witnessed the accidental clash with teammate Shaun Hart knew he had suffered rib damage, the Lions tried to pass it off as a corked hip.

Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews was not keen to discuss the injury in the week leading up to the Grand Final, but did state that no player would be capable of taking to the field with a broken rib. Bruised ribs, maybe.

But once the Grand Final was all over and Brisbane had its third straight premiership cup safely in its keeping, a delighted – but sore - Lappin revealed that he had in fact carried a broken rib into the match.

“One of them was broken, but it wasn’t as bad as what some people were talking,” Lappin said in the rooms.

“I’ll be a bit sore tomorrow, but for the moment I’m not doing too bad.

“I was a little bit doubtful, but after the X-rays last Saturday night I saw the damage and thought it wasn’t too bad, so after that I thought I’d be able to play.”

The All-Australian wore a protective garment underneath his guernsey and received pain-killing injections prior to the match, but decided against having any more at half-time.

“At half-time, I thought rather than get any more I’d just play through it and I was alright.”

Playing at half-back, Lappin was tremendous early in the piece, providing the Lions with excellent drive.

He finished the match with 19 touches and seven marks, but admitted that he found the going tough after half-time.

But fortunately, with the Lions enjoying a seven-goal break at the main change, he was almost able to sit back and savour the moment.

“In the first half I was running on emotion a bit and in the second half I really started to struggle, but thankfully the ball didn’t come down to the backline too much and I didn’t have to do too much.”

Brisbane won its third premiership in a row against the odds.

With a young and quick side, led by brilliant captain Nathan Buckley, Collingwood entered the grand final as favourite.

The Lions, on the other hand, entered the game after a somewhat tougher finals campaign and with fitness queries on several stars.

It was known that Michael Voss had a dodgy knee and that veterans Alastair Lynch and Martin Pike were carrying muscle strains, but the full extent of the Lions’ injury woes were deeper than the football world realised.

Star defenders Justin Leppitsch and Chris Johnson both required pain-killing injections on shoulder injuries to enable them to play every final, while centre half-forward Jonathan Brown revealed that he had been carrying a broken hand for three weeks.

Leigh Matthews noted on Saturday night the Lions used 18 vials of anaesthetic on Grand Final day. Normally only ‘a couple’ are used for a regular game.

Lappin said this year’s premiership was the sweetest of the three.

“The first one is always hard (to win) but given the way we played this year, we haven’t been at our best and thankfully we pulled out our best in the finals,” he said.

“We were just amazing. There I was sitting back in the backline just watching the guys, they were unbelievable.”

And after the match, the star midfielder continued the club line that winning three in a row was not the focus this year.

“You don’t need any extra motivation when it’s grand final week, but to do it this year is something pretty special,” Lappin said.

“We didn’t really speak about it (three in a row) a lot. We might have mentioned mid-way through the year how great it would be if we could do it, but from then on we just got on with the job. It’s just amazing.”

But now is there talk of four?

“No, we’ll just enjoy this one.”