The Brisbane Lions spent the whole season chasing… and on the last day won running away

The Brisbane Lions spent the whole season chasing… and on the last day won running away.

Few premiers have had to hunt as tenaciously and persistently over such a long period to succeed.

A 0-3 start and the half-cocked reporting of disunity and disharmony from the Vegas trip that wasn’t in Vegas.

The hammering at the hands of the Giants on Anzac night to fall to 2-5.

The dispiriting toll of the mounting number of ACL injuries.

After losing to Hawthorn the climb from the bye commenced from 13th.

And even when they seemed to have balanced up and gained momentum the Lions twice stumbled to fumble a top four position.

It condemned them to the hard road.

They trailed in a Semi Final by 44 points and fell 25 points behind in the Prelim.

They played all four weeks and travelled on three consecutive occasions to reach the summit.

But when they arrived they were flawless.

12 months after playing the understudy role in one of the great Grand Finals they turned on a tour de force and embarrassed their opponents.

How they did it was a masterpiece of modern coaching.

Had Chris Fagan let the catastrophizing in the door – at any point - it would have swallowed his team whole.

Instead he preached calm, he found the good and he created opportunity.

The modern-day Grandfather of footy at every turn sought to drain the anxiety from the environment.

He used Ted Lasso to combat the yips and dancing on thin ice to embrace the quest.

He didn’t cut his players loose and chastise them like those on the outside demanded.

He didn’t fracture the team by appeasing those who insisted on recriminations.

He stayed true to the group he’d been brought in to restore and made just the right change at just the right time.

Along the way, as you’ll read in the Premiers edition of the AFL Record, Fagan had his moments… the toll of the Hawthorn First Nations saga and a minor health scare had him briefly pondering whether he should depart his position in the first half of the season.

Instead he locked in and launched the attack run.

He blended the next generation with the here and now.

Kai Lohmann, Logan Morris, Jaspa Fletcher, Darcy Wilmot and critically Will Ashcroft’s return in Round 16.

The Lions won 14 of 16 to lift the Cup… the two they lost they had shot to bits but coughed up.

The two middle finals they rescued from the brink of oblivion.

The Brisbane Lions redefined what’s possible through the course of a marathon season and in a gruelling September quest.

And Chris Fagan rewrote the history of coaching.

The first man in his 60s to lead a team to a Premiership… the first to do so without having played the game at the highest level since the early 1900s.

But above all Fagan showed how far faith and loyalty might take you… and how powerful it is to believe.