\n The reigning premier will name Chris Fagan’s successor soon with formal presentations ahead\n <\/p>\n
Cameron Bruce (second from right) celebrates Brisbane’s 2025 premiership at the MCG on Grand Final day. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
BRISBANE’S search for the coach to succeed Chris Fagan will hit overdrive this week when four candidates begin formal presentations on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Cameron Bruce, Nathan Buckley, Adam Simpson and Hayden Skipworth will all be interviewed by the Lions selection panel before the end of the week.<\/p>\n
It is then expected a recommendation to the board will be made and a decision on the new coach confirmed in the days after.<\/p>\n
Fagan announced shortly after winning his third premiership as coach that 2026 would be his last year at the helm of the Lions.<\/p>\n
Once football manager Danny Daly withdrew himself from the process, Bruce emerged as the frontrunner to replace Fagan.<\/p>\n
Cameron Bruce during round 19 between West Coast and Brisbane at Optus Stadium, July 18, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old has been a Lions assistant the past five seasons and is seen as ready-made to step into the main job. He has been part of six premierships in a coaching capacity over 14 seasons \u2013 three each at Hawthorn and Brisbane.<\/p>\n
However, the club is hell-bent on running a thorough process to find the best replacement available, sparking weeks of conversations with prospective candidates.<\/p>\n
Buckley last coached Collingwood in 2021 and has spent the past 12 months under Chris Scott at Geelong, while Simpson finished at West Coast late in 2024.<\/p>\n
Nathan Buckley is seen during Geelong’s clash against Collingwood in round nine, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Skipworth has served a long apprenticeship at Collingwood and is seen as Craig McRae’s right-hand man.<\/p>\n
Brisbane\u2019s selection panel is very similar to the one that astutely selected Fagan a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Alongside chairman Andrew Wellington, CEO Sam Graham and Daly, are director Leigh Matthews, club great Simon Black, psychologist Matti Clements and former Australian basketballer and coaching mentor, Phil Smyth.<\/p>\n
It was confirmed on Saturday Fagan would continue his career with Carlton as a coaching director in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reigning premier will name Chris Fagan’s successor soon with formal presentations ahead Cameron Bruce (second from right)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-947551","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\/947551","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=947551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}