{"id":897796,"date":"2026-09-19T13:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897796\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T13:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:50:14","slug":"afl-2026-chris-fagan-press-conference-after-preliminary-final-win-over-hawthorn-hawks-free-kick-brisbane-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897796\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Chris Fagan press conference after preliminary final win over Hawthorn Hawks, free kick, Brisbane Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan summed it up perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stuffed, so don\u2019t ask me too many questions,\u201d Fagan said with a laugh after his side\u2019s stunning preliminary final win over Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Brisbane led by 28 points early in the fourth quarter before Hawthorn kicked five unanswered goals to snatch the lead.<\/p>\n

In a game full of epic moments, Hawthorn defender Jarman Impey was pinned holding the ball with 30 seconds left deep inside 50.<\/p>\n

Lions midfielder Hugh McCluggage was the beneficiary of the free kick and ultimately sent the Lions into a fourth consecutive decider.<\/p>\n

Fagan felt the free kick was warranted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t necessarily have the greatest of views but it didn\u2019t look like Impey was actually trying to get the ball out,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what caused the umpire to pay the free kick and I\u2019ve seen a replay of it now, I actually think that\u2019s an OK decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would expect one of my players to be paid a free kick against if that was what he did and I don\u2019t know what the whole world thinks but that\u2019s the way they interpret it.<\/p>\n

More coverage …<\/p>\n

\u2018NOT GOING TO SLEEP WELL\u2019: Star lashes out as AFL world gives verdict on \u2018biggest ever\u2019 ump call<\/a><\/p>\n

HAWKS PLAYER RATINGS: Perfect score for \u2018twilight robbery\u2019; big man unsighted in horror show<\/a><\/p>\n

LIONS PLAYER RATINGS: \u2018C<\/a><\/p>\n

“It hurts and it burns!” | 11:12<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be making a genuine attempt to get rid of the ball and he didn\u2019t. He held it, held it, held it, held it until the last second he tried to kick it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s an OK decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fagan feared Hawthorn would still kick a goal from the last centre ball up after McCluggage\u2019s goal and snatch the lead again.<\/p>\n

But Will Ashcroft, as he often does in big games, won the crucial ball and pushed Brisbane forward.<\/p>\n

The veteran coach said he still would have appreciated one of the greatest games of all time had Brisbane fallen short.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, has there ever been a more exciting game of AFL football than that one? If I was a spectator, I\u2019d be rapt by that,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously really happy we came out on the right side of the ledger but even if we hadn\u2019t, I still would\u2019ve celebrated that game with our players and the way they went about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHawthorn are unlucky, no team deserved to lose tonight. We were just lucky enough we were in front when the siren went and we get to fight another day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane coach Chris Fagan summed it up perfectly. \u201cI\u2019m stuffed, so don\u2019t ask me too many questions,\u201d Fagan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-897796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}