The premiership quest that almost wasn’t for Chris Fagan

AFL RECORD EXCLUSIVE

There were plenty of reasons why the Brisbane Lions needed to win the 2024 Grand Final as convincingly as they did, but first and foremost it was for their beloved coach Chris Fagan, who almost called it quits in the middle of the season.

Fagan had a 2024 only he can fully understand. He masterminded one of the great premierships in League history to become the AFL’s oldest premiership coach, the only premiership coach who did not play at the elite level, and just the third coach in the modern era to win the flag from outside the top four on the home and away ladder.

And yet he almost walked away from the job at round eight.

The Brisbane Lions, stunning 10-goal winners over Sydney in the 2024 Grand Final, sat 13th on the ladder with a 2-5 record in April when, after 169 games at the helm, Fagan questioned whether he should go on.

Not because he doubted his capacity to do the job, or because he felt any less for the Lions playing group to which he was a genuine father figure, respected, admired and loved by all. But because of the ongoing Hawthorn racism saga that had dragged on for two years.

It, coupled with a minor health scare, had taken such a toll on the man known to all as ‘Fages’ he’d decided to take a break from the game after the round eight Gabba clash with the Gold Coast.

It’s not something the 63-year-old coach will speak about publicly because to Fagan it’s never about him. It’s about his players, his team and his club. But people close to Fagan were staggered at how he pulled himself out of some very dark times mid-season as the case in which a group of former Hawthorn players have sought damages for alleged racist behaviour by former senior coach Alastair Clarkson, then football chief Fagan, and player development boss Jason Burt dragged on.

Anyone who knows Fagan well feel for what he has been through. As one senior Hawthorn official has said: “(He) is a superb person … no way in the world would he have treated anyone but with the greatest care and respect.”

But the toll of a drama which broke as Fagan conducted end-of-season player interviews in 2022 had been enormous.

For a time, he was so hurt and embarrassed he did his long daily walk around the streets near his Bulimba home in Brisbane at night because didn’t want to see anyone.

The overwhelming support from people across the football world gradually eased the pain, and as time passed allowed him to continue his resurrection of a club which was dysfunctional at best when he took over in late 2016.

After the 54-point Anzac Day loss to GWS in Canberra it was crisis time. The Lions were five wins behind an unbeaten Geelong, four wins behind Sydney and GWS, and ahead of only a winless North Melbourne and a 1-6 Richmond and Hawthorn.

Publicly Fagan was saying all the right things, noting that despite the poor record his team was playing well. All the key statistics said as much, except they were not kicking straight. But privately he was battling.

The turnaround came on a day of wildly contrasting emotions when a 4-3 Suns outfit, showing good signs under new coach Damien Hardwick, trekked up the highway for QClash No. 26. The Suns had beaten the Lions in their previous meeting in round 20, 2023 to end a nine-game losing streak against their chief protagonists, and with five Academy products showing some good early signs, they were ‘up’.

Fagan had included 23-year-old debutant Bruce Reville, born in Papua New Guinea and raised first in Cairns and later at Burrum Heads in the Wide Bay region. He was Brisbane player No. 347 and a wonderful story of persistence.

Ten minutes before the first bounce, Logan Morris became Brisbane player No. 348 in circumstances that will go into football folklore. It’s not a new story but so good is it that a premiership manuscript would not be complete without it. Morris had already played in the VFL with the Lions at their Springfield headquarters, picking up 14 possessions and a goal and covering 13 kilometres in a 75-point loss.

He’d driven to the Gabba, stopping at McDonald’s for a BBQ Angus meal, a frappe and some chicken nuggets, and was hooking into some soup and bread prepared as always by ‘Doc’ McConnell, his ever-popular landlord and a club medico since Matthews’ arrival in 1999.

Pandemonium broke out. Brandon Starcevich had pinged his calf deep into the warm-up and Fagan had preferred Morris to Jarryd Lyons and Darcy Fort as the late inclusion. Harry Sharp, the original sub, went into the side, and Morris became the new sub as Lions welfare chief Andrew Crowell made a quick call upstairs to Chris and Allison Morris, who fortuitously had flown to Brisbane for the weekend. They had a surprise coming, he told them.

Having left his size 13 boots at Springfield for training the following week, Morris borrowed the size 12 boots of Ashcroft, did an impromptu warm-up, and after the first bounce, took his place on the bench.

Barely five minutes into the game he was into the action after Lincoln McCarthy suffered a season-ending knee injury. Another addition to the ACL club alongside the recovering Ashcroft. Now McCarthy joined Coleman and Doedee.

The Lions led by 22 points at quarter-time and by 40 points at half-time, but the scores were secondary. By the long break, Darcy Gardiner had become the fifth player in the ACL club.

Morris played 57 per cent game time for five possessions and a goal, and covered a further eight kilometres as the home side put aside some atrocious kicking for goal to win 10.9 (79) to 6.9 (45). The Lions’ interchange tally was a paltry 47. They didn’t use a third of the available interchanges because they didn’t have players to interchange.

No wonder an emotional Fagan rated the 34-point win the “most amazing and courageous win” he’d seen.

Clearly, he didn’t know then of the heroics that would follow. But what he did know was that, after a day of such chaos and character, and such a uniting win, he could not walk away from his team. It was going to be a tough fight, but he was up for it.

Always looking for something extra to help inspire his players, Fagan adopted a philosophy that originated sometime in the 20th century … if you’re walking on ice, you may as well dance. More succinctly, if you’re in a precarious situation, embrace it, be bold. Or simply, have a crack. Don’t die wondering. And so, they did.

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