{"id":944504,"date":"2026-10-28T23:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T23:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944504\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T23:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T23:34:24","slug":"afl-news-2026-chris-fagan-future-melbourne-demons-captain-max-gawns-pitch-carlton-and-collingwood-also-in-the-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944504\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Chris Fagan future, Melbourne Demons captain Max Gawn\u2019s pitch; Carlton and Collingwood also in the mix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne<\/a> is one of three clubs reportedly in the mix to land three-time Brisbane<\/a> premiership coach Chris Fagan<\/a>, and captain Max Gawn<\/a> would be excited to have him.<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old stepped<\/a> down following the 2026 grand final win over Fremantle<\/a>, but has made it clear he wants to remain in a full-time footy role and relocate to Victoria.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Melbourne captain Max Gawn.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Fagan reportedly has meetings with Melbourne, Collingwood<\/a> and Carlton<\/a> about roles in their respective football departments, and will likely make a decision before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

He has stated he would like to slot into a role similar to the one he played at Hawthorn<\/a> before becoming Brisbane coach, which was head of coaching and development.<\/p>\n

Both Melbourne and Carlton have inexperienced senior coaches, while the Dees lost general manager of football Alan Richardson, who announced his departure during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Gawn, who has captained the Demons since 2020, would love to see Fagan at the club in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see an opening to try and get (Fagan). He was at Melbourne long before I got to the club, and now there\u2019s a chance to go get Chris,\u201d Gawn told Nine\u2019s Today.<\/p>\n

Fagan got his AFL<\/a> start at Melbourne, working as an assistant coach between 1999 and 2007 under coach Neale Daniher.<\/p>\n

The Demons would likely see Fagan as the best possible mentor for coach Steven King, who will enter his second year in the role in 2027.<\/p>\n

Melbourne shooting up the ladder and finishing seventh was one of the big surprises of the season, after parting ways with coach Simon Goodwin<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

With Richardson’s departure, they no longer have someone with AFL coaching experience in their coaching staff to assist King in his development.<\/p>\n

He also has a strong tie to Carlton CEO Graham Wright, who was a key part of the Hawthorn premiership era across the 2010s, alongside Fagan and Alastair Clarkson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blues make sense for similar reasons to the Demons, given Josh Fraser enters his first real season as coach in 2027.<\/p>\n

Carlton is looking to beef out its coaching staff and football department this off-season, given the departures of coach Michael Voss<\/a>, midfield coach Tim Clarke, list manger Nick Austin and head of recruiting Mick Agresta.<\/p>\n

They also likely see Fagan as the type of figure that can steady things culturally, following the suspensions of Lachie Cowan for an incident involving use of an illicit substance<\/a> and Wade Derksen for being charged with drink-driving in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan is going out on a high with the club facing an unprecedented decision to replace him.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

As for Collingwood, they have the resources to have a swing at the former Lions coach and feel he could beef up their football department.<\/p>\n

The Magpies are all-in on winning a premiership with this ageing group, adding Lachie Neale<\/a> and Jesse Hogan<\/a> in the trade period, and will now attempt to add similar firepower to their football department.<\/p>\n

They announced Bulldogs great Matthew Boyd as their new head of development and welcomed Adelaide champion Ben Hart as an assistant coach recently. <\/p>\n

SEN journalist Sam Edmund reported last week that Collingwood was emerging as the frontrunner for Fagan’s services, ahead of Melbourne and Carlton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne is one of three clubs reportedly in the mix to land three-time Brisbane premiership coach Chris Fagan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-944504","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\/944504","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=944504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}