AFLW Grand Final 2024: Why Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich is the GOAT

He’s taken the Lions to six of a possible eight AFLW grand finals. Win or lose on Saturday, Craig Starcevich is undoubtedly the competition’s GOAT coach. Callum Dick explains why.

Is Craig Starcevich the AFLW’s GOAT coach?

A win on Saturday against the most dominant team in competition history would almost certainly cement his legacy as such.

But Brisbane Lions skipper Breanna Koenen says that conversation has long sailed. In her eyes – and that of her teammates – Starcevich is already the best in the business.

“Absolutely he is the GOAT, 100 per cent,” Koenen tells this masthead.

“The next closest is probably Doc (Matthew Clarke) for the Crows – he’s been incredible as well – but Craig would be pretty stiff to miss out on that (title).”

The Lions are vying for back-to-back flags. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

Starcevich’s record speaks for itself.

Brisbane’s inaugural coach is a two-time premiership winner – one of only two AFLW head coaches to achieve that feat, Clarke being the other.

Of a possible eight grand finals in the competition’s history, he has now steered the Lions to six of them. Only once have they not reached at least the preliminary final stage. In both regards, he has no peer.

Ask any Lions player about him and their face will instantly light up. The superlatives flow thick and fast.

Though he looks like a “6’5 crazy Croatian guy” – as Brisbane’s Head of Women’s Football Breeanna Brock joked last year – Starcevich is the prime example of not reading a book by its cover.

“Hard on the outside but soft on the inside, that’s Craig,” Koenen says.

“He’s just got this really fun, jovial side to him – a bit of a larrikin, a bit of a peacock – and this serious, thoughtful and caring side as well. He’s just got a great balance I feel.

“Particularly with women in sport he has gotten that balance perfect, I think. He’s been incredible over the years – and obviously me being in the leadership group and captain the last few years, he’s helped me a lot and mentored me so much. I’m very grateful for that man.”

Starcevich pulls players from obscurity and turns them into champions.

Brisbane’s Irish stars Orla O’Dwyer (left) and Jennifer Dunne. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Last year it was Jennifer Dunne, the All-Ireland Gaelic Football champion who nobody outside of the Emerald Isle had heard of – until Starcevich unleashed her as the centrepiece of Brisbane’s retooled backline.

Alongside her was Poppy Boltz, the unsung converted midfielder from Cairns who herself struggled to believe was fit for AFLW football until Starcevich told her otherwise.

At the other end of the ground are spearheads Dakota Davidson and Taylor Smith.

Davidson, who only picked up the game at the age of 18, was playing local football for the University of Queensland until the Lions threw her a lifeline with the No. 60 pick in the 2019 draft. Last year she was an All-Australian.

This year the blazer belongs to Smith.

Incredibly, the 180cm key forward featured only once for the Gold Coast Suns before she was shipped to the Lions in a swap of draft picks ahead of the 2021 season.

Smith has since barely missed a game and this year was the joint-leading goalkicker in the competition – capping her stellar season with an All-Australian nod earlier this week.

Two players either unknown or unwanted in the eyes of other clubs who have led the Lions to consecutive grand finals.

“I can remember him years ago being down at literally every QAFLW game the whole weekend – he was just absolutely footy crazy but he did his research and he was passionate about it,” Koenen recalls.

“He’s a real people person, so with the Irish girls for example even before they were signed he was over there meeting the families, making them feel comfortable … he just does it perfectly, I think.”

Brisbane AFLW coach Craig Starcevich (left) with AFL coach Chris Fagan. The two men have steered the club to five consecutive grand finals across the two competitions. Picture: Michael Klein

By both design and necessity, Starcevich has had to pluck players from all over the world to build this brilliant Brisbane side. Because during the AFLW expansion years, like clockwork, rivals would come knocking for his best players.

In one 12-month span, Starcevich watched 16 players walk out the door. No other club has been pillaged as regularly as the Lions.

Last year was meant to be the straw that broke Brisbane’s back: Emily Bates, Greta Bodey and Jesse Wardlaw, a trio of All-Australians, all departed. There was no way the Lions would be a finals threat.

Then they went on to win the flag.

Starcevich has carefully constructed a team that refuses to be told no – that time and again has proved the naysayers wrong.

Once again the deck is stacked against his Lions. The unbeaten Kangaroos are in imperious form and will have a point to prove after last year’s grand final disappointment. To many, this season’s script has already been written.

But with Starcevich at the helm, anything is possible.

In Brisbane, they call him the GOAT.

Originally published as AFLW Grand Final 2024: Why Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich is the GOAT