How Lions went from flops to contenders

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan prioritised one habit during the club’s transition from wooden-spooner to contender.

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan at training ahead of the Lions preliminary final against Geelong at the Gabba on Saturday night Picture: Getty Images

Every couple of months in Brisbane, senior coach Chris Fagan makes a habit of clearing his diary of anything bar meeting his players for a one-on-one chat about their lives and goals.

The life of a senior coach is particularly demanding, notwithstanding the support of their assistants and well-equipped football departments.

During a conversation with The Weekend Australian in January, Fagan made it clear that for all the duties he has as a senior coach, a driving motivation was mentoring young men.

The 59-year-old meets with his players regularly, no matter their profile or status, to find out how they are faring and identify what makes them tick.

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When Fagan was hired by the Lions in 2016 after working at Melbourne and Hawthorn following a playing and coaching career in Tasmania, Brisbane was in the wilderness.

The Lions finished 18th in his first season. But Brisbane is now a win over Geelong at the Gabba on Saturday night from playing in its first grand final since 2004.

Every club has a goal of improving their players. For several years the Lions struggled to bring out the best in their players. They also struggled to retain their young talent but that has changed under Fagan.

Veteran ruckman Stefan Martin has spent the best part of two decades playing sport at the highest level, initially as an elite junior basketballer and then with Melbourne and the Lions.

The 33-year-old won a best-and-fairest with Brisbane in 2015.

But Martin has no doubt the club is in far better shape now under the stewardship of Fagan, football manager David Noble, chairman Andrew Wellington and chief executive Greg Swann.

He believes a critical part of the development of young stars such as Harris Andrews, who became vice-captain at 21, and Hugh McCluggage relates to the responsibility they have been given.

“You can focus on something but if the foundations aren’t very strong, you are addressing the tip of the iceberg, I think, so the biggest change I have seen is cultural,” he said. “Has anyone defined (what culture means) well? It manifests in all sorts of ways, and I think this is a pretty cliched definition, but it is about the behaviours that are acceptable to the group and the ones that you allow through and the ones you don’t allow through.

“It starts at the top and if your leaders behave in a way that sets a good example, it tends to trickle down. At least in this organisation, I have seen it trickle down, to the point where you have these young men who are precocious and acting beyond their years.”

Fagan and many of his assistants were either teachers or had trained in the field before working in football.

According to mature-aged recruit Oscar McInerney, this factors in their daily dealings, with an emphasis also placed on personal development away from the game.

McInerney completed an accounting degree before being drafted and Wellington helped further the ruckman’s ambitions last year by securing work experience for him at PwC, a firm where the Brisbane chairman is a partner.

“A lot of them have teaching degrees and I think that has definitely helped them in their ability to be hands on, to understand the best way for you to learn, and I really could not speak highly enough of that,” McInerney said.

“They really implore you to work on your weaknesses, but just as much to develop your strengths and what you are good at. I think it is a great asset for our club.

“A lot of those guys are consistently striving to make us better players and better people. It is a really strong culture.”

Cam Rayner arrived in Brisbane from inner-Melbourne with the pressure of being the nation’s No 1 draft pick in 2017.

Rayner, who is maturing nicely and kicked a critical goal in Brisbane’s qualifying final win over Richmond, said the work the Lions put in to help him settle was crucial.

“The way the club is set up family wise is the main thing that got me probably invested straight away,” he said. “My family and my mum and dad, obviously still being down in Melbourne, we appreciated that straight away. And knowing they are happy obviously gives me confidence to be happy and to do my thing.

“The age group of the boys, the demographic, everyone is around the same age, so it is really easy to connect with them and for me, since everyone has been so friendly and bubbly all the time, I think that helped me fit in straight away, to be able to build those relationships.”