AFL legend Leigh Matthews’ huge imprint on both 2023 grand final teams

Coach of Craig McRae, friend of Chris Fagan, legend at Collingwood and Brisbane. And that’s just the start of Leigh Matthews’ influence on the 2023 decider, writes Mark Robinson.

One of football’s more familiar sayings is “my old coach Leigh Matthews ...”

They all say it.

Craig McRae, the Scott brothers, Michael Voss. And Nathan Buckley before them.

Even Craig Kelly strolls down memory lane. Whatever is said next after “my old coach Leigh Matthews ...” has instant credibility because the world according to Matthews is so precise and concise.

Pragmatic is the word usually associated with Matthews.

In footy discussion, he gets to the point quickly, delivers it without histrionics, and the discussion mostly always ends with radio listeners and co-panellists nodding their heads in agreement.

The power of “Lethal”, one of the godfathers of footy, remains supreme and revered after more than 50 years in the game.

And it’s just so right, almost perfect, that Matthews will present the premiership cup to Chris Fagan if the Lions win on Saturday.

It will be a topsy-turvy day for Matthews.

“My emotions are a bit conflicted this week, that’s true,’’ Matthews said.

“I have a conflict because a lot of people I like are on both sides of the fence.

“Collingwood have got a lot of people who have been a big part of my life who I care about.

“This week, I must admit, I did text ‘Fly’ to wish him all the best.

“But I am conflicted. It’s like what he (McRae) said at the Lions’ Hall of Fame, if the Lions can’t win it, (I’d) be quite happy if Collingwood won it.

“But you can’t both win it. That’s the stark reality we all know.”

Peter Moore and Leigh Matthews with the premiership cup. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Absolutely his tentacles wash over both the Brisbane Lions and Collingwood teams. If not over the entirety of both clubs.

Matthews is a three-time Brisbane Lions premiership coach and current board member.

He loves his role at the Lions, so much so he declined an opportunity to join the AFL Commission.

He said he was initially seduced by the prestige of joining the sport’s highest decision makers, but ultimately the Lions’ role won out.

At 71, Matthews still hankers to be a footy club person.

Every week or so, he and Chris Fagan and Lions chief executive Greg Swann meet for dinner with their wives. These three erudite blokes chew the fat about the Lions, the competition, and probably the world’s problems.

“Leigh likes steak or ribs. I vary. Leigh’s very much a creature of habit,’’ Fagan once said of the dinners.

Swann agreed: “Leigh has a steak, he always has a steak. Wherever we go, he has a steak. Fages mixes it up, Leigh doesn’t mix it up.’’

In a remarkable coincidence, Matthews’ Brisbane journey started in 1999 with a phone call from current Magpies president Jeff Browne.

Matthews was working in the media after he had departed Collingwood at the end of the 1995 season. Browne, his legal adviser, made contact, almost certainly on behalf of great mate Andrew Ireland, who this week joined the commission but who was then footy boss at the Lions.

“Jeff Browne was the first person who mentioned the Brisbane Lions to me way back,’’ Matthews said.

“He was the conduit. He was good friends with Andrew Ireland. He was the first voice.’’

If the Pies win on Saturday, Browne might be the loudest voice.

Leigh Matthews with Peter Daicos in 1990.

Matthews is enshrined at the Lions.

But before the Lions, he was enshrined at Hawthorn as a player – the player of the 20th century, mind you – and at Collingwood as coach, having led the Pies to the 1990 flag, their first since 1958.

That night at the celebrations at the Southern Cross, then president Allan McAlister basically guaranteed 38-year-old Matthews the Collingwood coaching job for life.

“(Matthews) won’t get away from us until he is too old and decrepit to do anything for anyone else,” McAlister said.

Matthews coached the Magpies from 1986-95, which of course included the victorious and violent 1990 grand final. In that Collingwood team were Graham Wright (current Magpies head of football), Kelly (current Pies CEO) and Peter Daicos, the father of Josh and Nick and who is as magnetic as a cheerleading parent as he was a sharpshooter.

Also in that team was Craig Starcevich, who is Brisbane’s AFLW coach.

From Browne’s prompting, Matthews then coached the Lions from 1999-2008.

From the premiership three-peat team, there is Collingwood coach Craig McRae, who was a small forward with exceptional pace and courage and who busied himself underneath Alastair Lynch and Jonathan Brown. He was a scooter. He’d take the ball clean off the pack or clean up the loose ball and scurry towards goal. He played 195 games and kicked 232 goals.

Also in those teams was Justin Leppitsch, who is the Magpies’ head of strategy and forwards coach.

Matthews joined the Lions’ board a month or so after Voss was sacked as Brisbane coach in August 2013 and was replaced by Leppitsch. He was still football director when Leppitsch was sacked in 2016 and Fagan was appointed, from which a sound friendship has developed.

Matthews knows more about Fagan the person than he does Fagan as coach.

“I deliberately don’t spend a lot of time around the football department, in terms of being hands on,’’ Matthews said.

“I tend to observe from afar.

“I know the person (Fagan) is, but in terms of the way he coaches – and that would be the same with Fly and Leppa – I observe them from afar.’’

He said McRae, 50, and Fagan, 62, are the poster boys of modern-day coaching.

“Fly has been a revelation to the sport really, just his manner,’’ Matthews said. “They’ve played well and, let’s face it, it’s all reflected by the team and the team’s played well.

“But just his manner, his turn of phrase, he’s been a revelation.

“The coaching role and the type of natural personality suited to the coaching role has changed enormously over the coaching decades.

“And it’s no surprise the two coaches of the grand final teams are both school teachers, mature men, and tend to be what you’d call conciliators, not authoritarian school-principal types who coached in the old days.

“They talk about that term ‘man managers’ and I guess all coaches have been man managers, and we know Barass (Ron Barassi) has just passed, and to use him as an example, but that real alpha male authoritarian as coach.

“But modern coaches aren’t like that any more. They can’t be that any more.

“I think Fly and Chris Fagan almost represent modern coaching.

“It doesn’t mean they are not competitive, but in terms of their manner, they are people who are very hard not to like.’’

Leigh Matthews sings the song with Lions players including Craig McRae in 2002.

Matthews is pragmatic with his loyalty. Where he is in his life is where his attention centres. He is fond of the Hawks, is a hero at Collingwood, and now a key component of the rebuilt Lions.

“Obviously, I’m on the board of the Lions, and Collingwood was my previous involvement,’’ he said.

“But the thing that’s different about this Collingwood team is we played against them 20 years ago of course, and the difference this time is there’s two very well-known people who I coached that I’m friends with who are on the other side.

“When you’re involved with a club, you’re involved with the club. I’ve got good relations with the Collingwood people and the Collingwood people at the moment are people I’ve been involved with.

“It’s like Hawthorn. I had a tremendous part of my life at Hawthorn. I had a tremendous part
of my life at Collingwood, and the current part of my life is at the Lions. The individuals involved at the Lions are Fages, Andrew Wellington (chairman), all the board people, and Greg Swann.’’

Leigh Matthews is a universally respected voice in footy. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Matthews will be part of 3AW’s pre-match panel, but will not be part of the game call. He will join Lions people in the grandstand.

“I’m an invested fan this week,’’
he said. “Normally I’m an unbiased commentator, but I will be an invested fan this week.’’

He says it’s a “50-50’’ game, and most pundits would agree.

Last year Geelong was the dominant team and raging favourite on grand final day.

This year, and broadly speaking, it’s the talent of the Lions versus the grit of Collingwood.

Both teams have talent and grit, but it’s the case of which component has the most impact on the day.

Stats dominate the landscape, and the team profiles indicate the Lions have an edge.

Clearance. Turnover. Defence. Offence. The Lions are ahead.

Matthews is not a stats man. “The stat which will be really critical is the accuracy stat because it always is,’’ he said. “And can your personnel get through unscathed?’’

ROBBO ON WHO WINS

On a sparkling 29C day, I’m on the Brisbane Lions.

The midfield match-up will decide the result, in terms of gaining territory and inside-50s, and Jordan De Goey versus Josh Dunkley looms large, as does Lachie Neale, who without a tag could dominate between the arcs.

The Magpies can’t allow Harris Andrews to patrol the Lions’ defensive 50 on his terms, and Billy Frampton might have a role there.

And ‘Kiddy’ Coleman’s piercing left foot and Conor McKenna’s dinky right boot need to be contained.

Can’t wait to see Nick Daicos. What role will he have? Suspect it will be in the middle. And imagine if he won the Norm Smith Medal? It would be a brilliant cap to a majestic season from the 20-year-old. Greatness is enhanced on grand final day, and greatness beckons for the young man.

Darcy Moore versus Joe Daniher will be crucial, and if big Joey can get it all together, it will end the constant consternation about his up-and-down ways. The time is now for Daniher.

To be honest, the time is now for all the players.

The Lions like speed on the ball, as do the Pies, but if the Pies can rein in their opponents on the spread, we know they will be there at the death.

These Pies have ticker, all right. And experience and brilliance if they are allowed to move the ball.

It’s a grand final with layers and storylines everywhere. Let’s hope it’s a close game. The Lions by a goal.

Originally published as AFL legend Leigh Matthews’ huge imprint on both 2023 grand final teams