{"id":912063,"date":"2026-10-01T09:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912063\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T09:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:14:13","slug":"chris-fagan-leaves-brisbane-with-nothing-more-to-prove-after-building-one-of-the-great-afl-teams-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912063\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Fagan leaves Brisbane with nothing more to prove after building one of the great AFL teams | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coaching can take grown men to dark places. Justin Longmuir was in that place late on Saturday afternoon after the AFL grand final<\/a>. During the presentation, he began to topple over, like someone suffering abdominal pain or warming up for a pilates class. In reality, it was probably a body going into shock. We shouldn\u2019t use words like \u201cgrief\u201d when we talk about losing a game of football. What happened to Fremantle and Longmuir was akin to someone running over the family pet. Longmuir, a farmer, would scoff at such a comparison. But the hardest thing for anyone associated with Fremantle is finding the right measure of hurt \u2013 do you hide under the doona for a week, do you skip the country, do you employ a bit of gallows humour, or do you take pride in how well they played? There is no precedent or playbook for how to respond to a loss like that.<\/p>\n

Chris Fagan was in a very different place. At first, he was utterly wrung out. Those around him seemed conscious of giving him space. It took him several minutes to gather himself, to actually enjoy himself. Within half an hour he had reverted to type \u2013 deflecting all praise, commending the opposition, reminding his players to be humble.<\/p>\n

And he was leaving breadcrumbs. This was a man who had almost certainly made up his mind to call it a day as senior coach. For any of the 100,000 people present at the MCG, the half hour after the grand final was not a time to be making rash life decisions. But Fagan had made his decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit inside of me who\u2019d rather walk away when the team\u2019s on top,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of the dream way to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The temptation to stick around for another year was obvious. If the Lions win again in 2027, they\u2019ll join the Collingwood side of the Depression era as the only VFL\/AFL club to win four premierships in a row. When Leigh Matthews\u2019 team set after that honour in 2004, they were limping to the line. They were old and banged up. Their opponents Port Adelaide were still smarting after several poor Septembers.<\/p>\n

Jarrod Berry and Dayne Zorko celebrate with 2024, 2025 and 2026 premiership cups. Photograph: Josh Chadwick\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This Brisbane side is perfectly placed to contend for years to come. They\u2019re blessed with talented young footballers that we\u2019ve barely seen yet. And they\u2019re a team that needs a challenge, a hook to get through the winter grind. With the greatest respect to the great Collingwood team of a century ago, it\u2019s slightly harder to win four in a row these days. There\u2019s six more clubs for a start and the competition is ostensibly designed to bring down the best.<\/p>\n

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But Fagan was cooked. He hinted at stepping aside after the 2024 premiership, and again the following year. The closest he came was probably halfway through the 2024 season, when the team was out of the eight, when his health was in decline, and when the Hawthorn racism allegations<\/a> still hung heavily. \u201cThe Hawthorn thing,\u201d he called it.<\/p>\n

Fagan is in many ways the most unlikely multiple-premiership-winning coach we\u2019ve seen. He hadn\u2019t played VFL or AFL football, though he\u2019d been a very good player in Tasmania. At Hawthorn, he\u2019d been the yin to Alastair Clarkson\u2019s yang. He was the one who pulled him into line, who tapped him on the shoulder when he was out of control in the box. But the task before him at Brisbane seemed beyond his capabilities. For years, it had been a place to get out of as quickly as possible. They didn\u2019t just need an injection of talent. They needed pastoral care.<\/p>\n

The 2024 Lions celebrate after demolishing Sydney in the grand final. Photograph: Cameron Spencer\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was patient, forgiving of mistakes, and always realistic about where they sat. Even when they spiked, they were an infuriating team at times, and he could be a cranky coach. They were loaded with talent but prone to self-immolation. They lost several close finals because of tardy goalkicking. For years, they struggled to work the locks at the MCG.<\/p>\n

But they were always on an upward trajectory. Indeed, the chart of their progress since he arrived is almost unprecedented. From wooden spoon, to quick spike, to close cutthroat finals losses, to grand final heartbreak, to the three-peat. All through that, Fagan didn\u2019t look and sound like other coaches. He wasn\u2019t like Chris Scott or Luke Beveridge, trying to manipulate a game by shifting magnets. He wasn\u2019t like Ross Lyon, with full control of the club. He didn\u2019t change how the game was played like Clarkson or Damien Hardwick. But his ability to connect with, believe in, push back on and get the best out of players 45 years his junior was remarkable. Don\u2019t be fooled by the \u201cbewildered uncle\u201d routine either. There was a hard side to Fagan, an obsessive side, a brutal side when it was warranted. This was a group that needed a kick up the backside every now and then. There was a little of bit of Clarkson in him right to the end.<\/p>\n

Fagan always said he suffered from impostor syndrome, even after he won his first premiership. He isn\u2019t talking like that any more. He\u2019s talking like a man who has done it all<\/a>, who has built from scratch one of the greatest football teams we\u2019ve ever seen, and who steps aside with nothing more to prove. The one-word question on everyone\u2019s lips following the grand final was \u201cHOW?\u201d Five days on, and 10 years since he was appointed, there\u2019s another question \u2013 how the hell can anyone top that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coaching can take grown men to dark places. Justin Longmuir was in that place late on Saturday afternoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-912063","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\/912063","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=912063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}