“I’m guaranteeing that”: Why King doesn’t think Fagan is maximising Brisbane’s list

David King doesn’t think that Brisbane coach Chris Fagan is maximising the talent on his list as well as other elite coaches in the AFL.

King’s call came after the Lions effectively threw away a top-four spot in their 79-78 loss to Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, going down despite leading by 18 points with just a handful of minutes left on the clock.

Given Brisbane’s obvious talent and their ability to contend for the last six years, King thinks that the only thing missing between them from being a dominant side to a premiership winner could be in the coaches’ box.

He is certain that if Geelong coach Chris Scott was in charge of the Lions instead of Fagan Brisbane would be in a better position in 2024 compared to their fifth-placed spot with one round to go.

“This is really critical and we’re talking about people’s jobs so we’re going to give them a bit of respect,” King said on SEN Whateley.

“But I said this weeks ago and you wear your whacks and people come at you, but if Chris Scott was coaching the talent levels of the Brisbane Lions, they wouldn't be fifth. I’m signing off on that, I’m guaranteeing that.

“As I said at the time, I'm not being disrespectful to Chris Fagan, I'm talking about his job.

“I'm trying to say that strategically in moments that matter and setting the game up to maximize what you've got and deny the opposition, Scott does a better job.”

King doesn’t believe that Fagan is willing to adapt as much as other coaches and he can’t understand why he hasn’t been able to coach around Collingwood’s plans to nullify Harris Andrews’ influence in their recent matches including the Grand Final.

“In those moments that matter, there's no way under a Chris Scott plan that Harris Andrews would be able to be taken out of the game as regularly as what Collingwood are able to do with him,” King said.

“In the Grand Final, they put Billy Frampton on him, but these are the last five meetings between Andrews and Collingwood – he’s been able to intercept the ball only five, six, eight, seven and four times. That is not him.

“Against every other team, those numbers will be two or three times that number. They've been able to do it with Frampton, Reef McInnes and Will Hoskin-Elliott – they haven’t even used a premium piece.

“Craig McRae just says, ‘There's one component I don’t have to worry about’.

“Then the game needs to be won and you see the strategic sort of side of how Collingwood orchestrates the game in motion, the game at speed, the opportunity to score and Brisbane are not quite set (defensively) as they should be  - it’s Darragh Joyce lose when it should be Andrews, Dayne Zorko or Brandon Starcevich.”

King thinks that Brisbane’s flaws in coaching come both on game day and in overall teaching as he doesn’t think that the Lions can drop into win-now or save-the-game mode as well as other teams.

As a result, he thinks that there’s every chance they run aground again in September if they find themselves in a tight battle against a fellow contender.

“There are components of it for me that come back to the coach’s box and that’s not just game day, that's in the instruction and the education over a four-six-or-eight-week block or a pre-season,” King said.

“Stuff like, ‘How should it look when we're five points up? How should it look when we're five points down?’, they don’t just drop into that mode for me that they should.

“Until they get that right, they'll run aground in a small margin game at the pointy end of the year.

“They've got elite talent, they can win any game, they could win by 10 goals in a finals series and we’d say well done. But if it comes down to a close structural head-to-head matchup with three minutes to go in a final, I’m backing the other team.

“I've just seen this fail too often and that's harsh, but that's a reality.”

The Lions can still finish fourth in the unlikely event that Geelong loses to West Coast at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday, provided they take care of Essendon at the Gabba that night.