Ursula Fagan has always backed her husband, Brisbane Lions premiership coach Chris, to make the right life choice decisions.

It’s an implicit faith in his judgement and a sense of team that they have always shared in a 40-year marriage that has taken them, their two daughters Jessica and Ellen, and their now four grandchildren on the ride of their lives.

So when a weary Chris told Ursula the night before the round 8 clash with the Suns at the Gabba last year that he needed to take a break from his role as Lions coach, she backed him – as always.

“I genuinely have a lot of faith in Chris’ decision-making in terms of what he can and can’t do,” Ursula said this week as Fagan’s Lions prepared a third successive AFL grand final appearance.

“He works extremely hard. What I find with Chris is when he is under a lot of pressure, he absolutely copes every time, and it is only afterwards that he feels the effects when he has got time to reflect. But when the crisis is on, in any particular aspect of his work, he just goes hard and gets through it.

“Whatever he needs and whatever he wants, I will always support him and I’ve always said that to him.”

At that time Fagan had been through a brief cancer scare.

He had been unwavering and resilient through the Hawthorn racism allegations, given he knew he had done nothing wrong, as the support of those closest to him fuelled his desire to keep on coaching.

But, in May last year, the accumulation of a range of different things had taken a toll as he looked to give his body a rest.

The Lions too were struggling to recapture the form that saw them come agonisingly close to victory in the 2023 grand final, with a welter of injuries working against them.

“There was (one) occasion when he was feeling like he needed a break (last year),” Ursula recalled. “But that (feeling) subsided and we kept going.”

Having told his wife he planned to take a break following that Suns game, Fagan brought in two debutants, Bruce Reville and Logan Morris, the latter as a late injury call-up after having already played a VFL game and consumed a BBQ Angus meal, six nuggets and a frappé from McDonalds.

Morris was the late replacement for Brandon Starcevich, who injured his calf in the warm-up, and the toll mounted when Lincoln McCarthy and Darcy Gardiner both did their ACLs during the game as the injury-ravaged Lions produced one of their bravest wins against the Suns.

Ursula wasn’t surprised after that Gabba game when her husband, inspired by what his team had done out on the field, and with a sense of responsibility driving him, told her that night that he had changed his mind.

He would keep on coaching after all.

Brisbane lost only three more games for the rest of the 2024 season and went from 13th on the ladder as they were before that Suns game to a team that won the premiership four months later.

It was a fitting reward for Fagan’s hard work, determination and belief in his players.

“Chris has enormous respect for all those boys and it is reciprocal and it makes it all the more meaningful,” Ursula said. “That’s why I am so supportive of what Chris does because I can see the impact that he has on people but also the quality of life he creates for himself.”

THE FAGAN PARTNERSHIP

Chris and Ursula met at university in their native Tasmania when both were studying to become teachers.

They shared similar values, even if their interests and personalities were different. Ursula loved the arts, while Chris was following his passion for sport, playing footy at the highest level in Tasmania.

At a University ‘B Party’, where those attending had to dress as someone starting with the letter ‘B’, Chris went as a boxer, while Ursula went as a bride.

They have been almost inseparable ever since.

“I didn’t even follow football … I was more (into the Arts),” she said. “I enjoy it (football) now and I go to every game that I can.

“Our family has embraced the whole experience. I didn’t come from a football background and I have certainly never sought a public life. It has been a little bit amusing (to see Chris become one of the game’s most respected and recognised coaches), but we have met so many wonderful people. It has been pretty enjoyable, mostly.”

Ursula credits Chris’ upbringing as the likely source of his trademark work ethic and fierce determination as well as his loyalty and humility.

His late father, Austin, was an electrician who worked down the mines in Queenstown, but who instilled his kids with a passion for hard work and for footy.

His mum, Beth, 87, was there on AFL grand final day last year, celebrating with Chris and Ursula on the ground after the Lions’ premiership triumph, and she will be back at the MCG on Saturday, along with the rest of the Fagan clan.

“Yeah, I am sure there is a little bit in the genes … It is his upbringing and that determination to be who he is, which is someone who is grounded and authentic,” she said.

“Relationships mean a lot to him. He wants the respect of everyone, but he also has the respect for others.

“He certainly doesn’t see himself as better than anyone else. I think that is the key to making a great contribution to whatever you are doing because you walk with people, not over the top of them.”

MAKING THE MOVE TO MELBOURNE

Fagan was on the ferris wheel with his kids at the Royal Hobart Show when he took the call that changed his life’s direction.

Having been a star Tasmanian footballer across more than 250 games, Fagan had embarked on a coaching career in his home state but sent letters off to AFL clubs seeking an opportunity during the 1997 season.

Neale Daniher saw something special in him, and when the Demons’ then CEO Cameron Schwab offered him the reserves coaching job for 1998, he jumped at the opportunity.

The Fagans didn’t sell their house initially in Hobart – just in case it didn’t work – but it did, spectacularly!

“I took leave (from her teaching job in Tasmania),” Ursula said. “But we loved living in Melbourne, it was a great phase of our life. It was 20 years of great Melbourne life before we came up here (to Brisbane).”

Fagan worked in various key roles with the Demons before taking on a head of development/coaching role and later general manager of football role with Hawthorn in four premierships, including three in a row from 2013-2015.

“He has got enormous respect for Neale (Daniher) and so much gratitude that Neale gave him his start (in the AFL system),” Ursula recounted.

BECOMING A LION

Lowly Brisbane needed exactly what Fagan had to offer when it went searching for a new coach in late 2016 – a composed, relationship-building leader capable of uniting a group.

He has done all that and more across the past nine seasons.

“When we first arrived I realised how vulnerable you are as the senior coach and how you have to keep your nerve,” Ursula said this week in reflecting on their time in Brisbane.

“That’s something Chris has been able to do. He is naturally an honest, open person with a really strong work ethic. And the two have combined beautifully. It has worked really well, because whenever things get a little bit uncertain or wobbly, you call on your core beliefs and your code of ethics and just keep going forward.”

After two initially tough seasons, Fagan has led the Lions to the past seven finals series, with many of those young players he invested in during those early years now the key leaders of Saturday’s grand final team.

Ursula says it has been so rewarding to watch some of those young players play such a pivotal role in the club’s ongoing success, including now co-captain Harris Andrews, who won the Jim Stynes Community award on Brownlow Medal night.

“I often reflect on the people who were there from the start,” she said. “I was only thinking about that when Harris Andrews made his speech (this week).

“We’ve had incredible support and encouragement from the board too and that has been the constant throughout. It really has helped to ensure we’ve had a really unified, happy club.”

She says her husband’s ability to keep evolving as a coach has played a role in keeping the Lions always striving to get better.

“I just know that he is very good at finding the next way forward, and I do think that is why they (the Lions) have been able to stay in the eight,” she said.

“He is extremely good at his messaging. It is what a lot of teachers have got and what a lot of good coaches have got. They just have that ability to keep everyone on board and keep everyone headed in the right direction.

“The season always takes different turns and has highs and lows. A good coach will always keep his team heading in the right direction.”

CHALLENGING TIMES

Ursula says Chris has always had the capacity to cope with challenges, but nothing prepared him – or her – for the Hawthorn racism allegations when they surfaced in grand final week 2022.

She has no desire to revisit that time in their lives, other than to say that the support they received from those close to them – and the footy community as a whole – was powerful and sustained them through the hard times.

“We did not see that coming,” she said. “It was a very, very unique and very, very delicate issue for everyone. It was horrendous to be caught up in.

“But the positive that came out of it was all the people who went out of their way to make Chris realise that he was heavily supported – and believed – and that was something that carried us through.

“It really did highlight how strong Chris can be. He was able to continue working and to sort of compartmentalise aspects of his life through that.

“The calls that we got in the first 24 hours and then any first public statements of support in the first week … they were absolutely golden and critical and we will remember those people forever. It is something that gives you courage to battle on and keep moving forward.”

FLAG AND THE FUTURE

Ursula was as proud of her husband for the way in which he – and the Lions – handled the heartbreaking four-point loss to Collingwood in the 2023 grand final as she was for the accolades of winning the flag 12 months later.

“It is very important if you are going to have success in the future that you have to take the positives out of things,” she said. “If you dwell on the negatives, you will go down a negative pathway and it is not useful.

That positive mindset played a massive part in how Brisbane was able to turn a slow start in 2024 into a premiership winning season.

“I was extremely pleased for Chris,” she said of the 2024 grand final victory over Sydney. “I know it meant a lot to him.”

“He has a great support team around him too, he loves his right hand men … (footy boss) Danny (Daly) and his assistant coaches.

“When he commits to something it is always 100 per cent. But I must say there are a whole lot of people around him who are making the same investment. It is never one person.

“And he has had some wonderful mentors – Phil Smyth, Leigh Matthews and Neale Daniher … they have been golden for him.”

She says regardless of what happens in Saturday’s grand final against Geelong, he has loved what this season has brought for the Lions.

“He has been extremely healthy this year and extremely happy and focused this year, it has been one of his most enjoyable years,” she said.

“He changes and evolves with the modern day (trends), he loves working with the young people and he takes all the good aspects from them.”

Fagan is contracted for another two seasons, but Ursula says he still loves going to work each day, whether it is for a routine training session or on grand final day.

Family will play a huge part in their future beyond coaching at the Lions, with both of their daughters living in Melbourne.

“Chris will keep doing this for as long as he is wanted and effective,” Ursula said.

“When we need to make that decision (about what to do next), we will come up with the right one. It will definitely involve family because family means a lot to both of us.

“But for the moment, we are loving life up here and really enjoying it.”