Not at raising his century - simply at getting off the mark in the first place.

“I am still flabbergasted they made the decision to give a bloke like me who hasn’t played AFL footy the chance to coach a team which was on its knees almost … pretty brave decision,’’ Fagan said.

“It would have been easy to go for a bigger name who would have inspired more members to sign on.’’

The Lions shopped exceptionally well by landing a man who is an amalgam of old world wisdom and modern sensitivity, a new-age-old-age sort of guy if there is such a thing.

It’s true Fagan, a former school teacher who occasionally had to turn up to work with a black eye from the weekend’s football, is something of a rarity and the only current AFL coach not to have played in the competition.

When I ask him if there were any special challenges in not playing at the highest level I suspect I’ve given him a free hit - if the mood took him - to tell me he played more than a decade of top level football in Tasmania before helping Neale Daniher at Melbourne then Alastair Clarkson in Hawthorn’s premiership-studded era.

The impressive alternate pedigree is all there if he wanted to mention it. But, in a moment of impressive candour, he dropped his guard and went entirely the other way.

“There are still days when I feel I don’t belong. People find that strange.

“I haven’t played footy at the highest level and it sort of feels like you are more entitled to be an AFL coach if you have done that.

“I still have days when I think I am very lucky those fellas are listening to me because I was nowhere near as a good a footballer as they are.’’

In a sporting world full of strut, swagger and self-justification it is this sort of humility which had helped Fagan gain a deep, Wayne Bennett style connection to his players as they eye a third consecutive top four finish following a decade of despair and mediocrity.

Fagan will turn 60 in a fortnight and the six men who have coached beyond that age have one thing in common – they are all in the AFL Hall of Fame. His story is different from all of them because he only started four years ago.

Fagan is a fascinating study as a coach. He’s big into players being their own coach and some, like defender Harris Andrews, even turn up to meetings with a pen and pad.

Fagan was raised in the copper mining town of Queenstown on Tasmania’s west coast where the traditional route for young men was to finish year 10, do an apprenticeship in the mine and live relatively happily ever after. But he liked his teachers so much he wanted to be one and that meant leaving.

Queenstown footy was as tough as the town itself, played on a famous gravel-surfaced oval designed for quick drainage.

“It was not good on boots. They wore down. They played cricket on it as well. The new ball didn’t last long. The bark would come off the legs and elbows if you were tackled. Puddles would freeze over so sometimes it would be ice and gravel.’’

Given he was raised in the rough and tumble 1980s when men were men and elbows were dangerous, Fagan could easily have been the last of the tub-thumping “take a cement pill and harden up’’ footy coaches.

But he is the polar opposite, a bit like that favourite uncle who all at once is wise, thoughtful, caring, and fun to occasionally wind-up because he look so intense that sometimes you just have to poke the bear to unlock the man behind the mask.

Captain Dayne Zorko claims the only time Fagan has given the team a giant spray was halftime against North Melbourne last year but, to the players mild amusement, he apologised for it after the game which the Lions won.

Fagan’s mantra is to build players up not cut them down so he tries not to embarrass them in front of their peers.

When he came to the Lions he resisted advice to “clean the joint out’’ and did not sack an assistant coach. He fights hard not to prematurely drop players for the teacher in him knows they so learn much from their mistakes (“I like that line we are trying to fail our way to a premiership’’).

He put this theory to the test mid-match a few weeks ago when defender Marcus Adams had early goals kicked on him by Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt and television commentators were calling for Adams to be taken off the champion.

But Fagan and fellow coach Murray Davis gave Adams a “you can do this’’ chat during the break about changing his body position and Riewoldt did not kick another goal.

“Showing the faith in him was the reason why he turned it around. That is how you learn. Hugh McCluggage, Jarrod Berry and Cam Raynor and some of young lads we have built up did not play great footy when they first started but they needed to get some experience from somewhere.’’

Just as Fagan did many years ago when he sent his coaching CV to every AFL club on a “fishing expedition’’ not expecting a reply.

The lone positive response came from Daniher who interviewed him and later rang when Fagan was on a ferris wheel at the Hobart show with his daughter to hint he had the job.

“I asked him two years later why I got the job and he said we had to do something on players personal development mine was the only one written from the heart and mind and not from text book. We had 10 great years together. He has been a great mentor and friend.’’

THE START

Don’t worry about a premiership. When he first started at the Lions Fagan took pride in winning quarters and duly motivated his team by producing evidence of tiny steps forward and even spoke to club receptionists to pass on messages to angry fans.

“I was a big fan of Dave Brailsford who turned British cycling into a powerhouse by using one per cent gains.’’

Brailsford was so attune to detail he once made sure the cycling workshop floor was painted white to spot dust which could hinder bike maintenance.

“People were hoping I would sprinkle a bit of a Hawthorn fairy dust and we would improve quickly but it was obvious straight away that wasn’t the case. We identified stats and showed them graphs about things like winning quarters and contested possession which had been poor in Brisbane for 10 years. The reward was seeing players eyes light up in the room when they saw graphs improving.

“The job was bigger than I thought. You come in with rose coloured glasses and then you see the reality and see how far they were behind the group at Hawthorn I was working with.’’

THE ARM WRESTLE

Good teams know how to laugh. Amid the grinding intensity there must be lightness.

Just as Benji Marshall lightens up Wayne Bennett, Zorko can play a similar role with Fagan who is such a deep thinker people mistake the stony, contemplative look he carries for a scowl (“I’ve had that feedback for 25 years … they think they can’t approach me because of the stare’’).

Zorko said the Lions players enjoyed it last year when Fagan gave an animated talk about winning “the arm wrestle’’ and moved his arm back and forth with a quivering force that would have made Chris Hemsworth feel like Mr Puniverse.

“It was all the boys were talking about after the meeting so I had to tell him if you use that one again everyone will start doing it. But it came out again just before the GWS game recently. He said “we must win the arm wrestle!’’ and started doing it. Well, everyone just erupted. It was hilarious.

“But that’s the thing. He doesn’t take himself too seriously but you know he has such passion that you just want to play for him.’’

THE SPURS

The San Antonio Spurs basketball club are Fagan’s sort of team. He knew that from the time he drove past their training base and almost missed it.

“It was like a warehouse – you wouldn’t know it was there and that’s the way they like it,’’ said Fagan of his trip there in 2012.

“I was lucky enough to spend two or three days at the Spurs and we got a chance to observe a fairly humble organisation in terms of the NBA which is glitz and glamour.

“The Spurs are the opposite. I have read as much as I can about them and their culture. That has really helped us. We’re not a fancy club. We don’t have a lot of money. Things are getting better and we have a new facility on the way but what you learn from the Spurs is that it’s more about people than facilities and expensive programs. I have told the players a lot of stories about the Spurs.’’

THE CHALLENGE

Fagan put a list of the clubs the Lions had not beaten for many years on a board when he arrived and the team steadily crossed them all off with Richmond the last to fall.

The climb to the top four was exhilarating. The challenge to stay there less so but just as demanding.

Fagan loves his walking and has been known to ring his half his team on a long one.

The joke goes that his assistant coaches are reluctant to join him after they accepted his invitation to join him one night in Melbourne thinking they were going to the shop for an ice cream. They returned a full two hours later with faces so red they resembled a group of tandoori chickens.

This week Fagan faces his former right hand man David Noble who coaches North Melbourne but he is familiar with the experience after taking on so many former coaches who came through the system at Hawthorn.

“It can feel strange but you get used to it – the weird one was playing Hawthorn for the first time because I had been there for so long.’’

Fagan is in the middle of a four-day break but the last thing he said to his players was that he wanted to ring all of them during the break to see how they were coping.

That’s 48 phone calls … and a very long walk.