EFNL 2023: Anthony Fagan appointed Blackburn coach

An ex-Blackburn skipper has taken the reins as coach at the Eastern league Premier Division club. Latest here.

FORMER Blackburn captain Anthony Fagan will coach the Eastern league top-division club in 2024.

The ex-skipper replaces Brendan Allen at the helm, who exited the role in September after six years.

Fagan carved out more than 100 senior appearances for the Burners across a decade, tying for the best and fairest in 2012 after landing at the club from Geelong Amateur in 2011.

He later served as operations manager at Richmond’s VFL outfit.

Fagan, who captained Blackburn in 2016 and ‘17 and previously spent time in Box Hill’s VFL program as a player, said he had long harboured ambitions to be a senior coach.

Anthony Fagan in action for Blackburn. Picture: Davis Harrigan

“Coaching’s always been a passion of mine,” Fagan said.

“I just love working with people, and seeing people grow and develop is something you get to do as a coach and to be able to have impacts not only on (them) as players on the field but also to grow and develop off the field is certainly something I’m looking forward to.”

Fagan said he flagged his interest in the role following Allen’s departure.

“It was a pretty extensive process that the club went through … I certainly had a couple of really thorough conversations with them throughout the process as well as some informal ones along the journey as well,” he said.

“Now (I’m) obviously excited to take the reins and get to work.”

The 34-year-old paid tribute to Allen, who never missed the finals during his time in charge, taking the club to a grand final in 2019.

“‘BA’ has done a terrific job for the footy club – obviously we fell just short in 2019, and it’s been a difficult couple of years with Covid for the footy club, but ‘BA’ has done a power of work behind the scenes,” Fagan said.

“He’s someone I’ve spoken to continually throughout my footy journey as well, as I have with other previous coaches at Blackburn – they’ve all been good mentors and people to learn off.”

Blackburn finished the home-and-away season in sixth spot with a 10-8 record, before a first-round exit from the finals at the hands of Balwyn.

Fagan said recruits were on radar this off-season, but declared the club must “maximise the talent at our disposal”, highlighting the wealth of emerging names.

“I think improvement comes in all areas … obviously we need to go and attract some talent into the club as well, as all clubs do at this time of year,” he said.

“We want to make sure we continue to retain and develop our players from within – we’ve got a great junior program at Blackburn and plenty of local talent coming through.”