Already a Legend in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame, Chris Fagan has now added to his incredible legacy after leading Brisbane to the 2024 AFL premiership.
It was a long-awaited reward for Fagan and the Lions, following on from five straight finals appearances and a heartbreaking loss in last year’s Grand Final. That was quickly forgotten as they flew out of the gates in this year’s decider against Sydney and never looked back, running away with a 60-point win and the club’s fourth AFL premiership.
For Fagan, it was the end of a journey that started when he took over as coach of the Lions back in 2016, with the club finishing dead last in his first season in 2017.
“To come from where we’ve come from eight years ago, to be able to do this today is a very special moment,” Fagan said post-game.
“We were in a lot of trouble at the halfway mark of the season, and we found a way to get ourselves back in the contest and we’re here today.”
In reality, though, the ultimate success was an even longer time coming for the 63-year-old who is now the oldest ever V/AFL premiership coach. He spent the early part of his life in Queenstown and around the infamous gravel oval. “When I think about it, Queenstown, the town and the people who lived there, have had such a positive influence on my life,” he said in the foreword to Gravel and Mud, an anthology of football on the west coast. “We were a tough, tight and resilient community that, by and large, cared deeply for each other, even though when it came to sport, the level of competitiveness was fierce.”
From junior footy there he moved to Hobart in the TFL, representing the state at underage level before winning his first senior premiership at just 20 years of age and a club best and fairest one year later. When his teaching work saw him transferred to Sheffield in the state’s north west, he joined Devonport and helped them to a statewide premiership too. A one-year stint with North Hobart ended with his retirement, at the age of just 29 but with more than 250 games under his belt.
From there began one of the great coaching careers, starting with North Hobart and back-to-back premierships as an assistant coach. He won a minor premiership as coach of Sandy Bay, before becoming the inaugural Tassie Mariners U18 coach and producing two TAC Cup final appearances, a Division B national title and 18 AFL draftees.
That, along with a letter sent to every AFL club in the country, put him on the radar of those at the top level, and he landed a job with Melbourne as reserves coach working under Neal Daniher. Over two seasons there he continued to hone his craft while leading his side to back-to-back finals appearances, and when the reserves competition was dissolved, he remained as one of Daniher’s assistant coaches.
Fagan again changed gears in 2005, becoming Melbourne’s GM of Football Operations, and when Daniher was let go by the Demons in mid-2007 he headed to Hawthorn as Director of Coaching. As Hawks premiership star Brad Sewell told Fox Sports a fortnight ago, it was a natural fit. “From that player development role at Melbourne, he became Neale Daniher and ‘Clarko’s’ (Alastair Clarkson) most trusted adviser, their sounding board and confidante,” Sewell said.
“With his extraordinary record and experience in the game at AFL level, there is nothing he hasn’t seen or dealt with. During our unprecedented period of success, Fages was the guiding hand and that soft touch that Clarko relied upon to help keep us on track.”
In the role, Fagan played his part in the appointment and development of several assistant coaches. Three of them – Luke Beveridge, Damien Hardwick, and Adam Simpson – went on to become AFL premiership coaches.
By then established as one of the most universally respected football minds in the game, Fagan went on to oversee the Hawks’ premiership hat trick of 2013-15. Despite this success, Fagan still harboured a desire to coach at senior level himself, and in late-2016 his ambition was realised when he was appointed senior coach of the Brisbane Lions. The rest, as they say, is history, with the Lions rising from the bottom to claim the ultimate prize.
Even with that trophy now in hand, Fagan is confident that they’re not done yet. “It’s pretty intoxicating winning an AFL premiership… I think the group will be pretty motivated to have that feeling again,” he said. “We will get back to work and hopefully next year we can turn up an even better version of ourselves from all the experiences we’ve had.”
