Chris Fagan admits his wildest dreams had his team finishing in the bottom part of the top eight and “playing a final” amid their horror start to the season.
Brisbane lost the first three games of a campaign that finished in maroon, blue and gold confetti on Saturday.
They had a 2-5 record after seven games and were 13th on the ladder halfway through the season. They were also 44 points behind in the third quarter of their semifinal and 25 points down at the same time in their preliminary final.
There were calls for Fagan, in his eighth season at Brisbane, to be sacked earlier in the season.
If you’re walking on thin ice, you might as well dance.
He became the oldest-ever premiership coach and the first to do it without playing at the top level.
“We were in a lot of trouble at the halfway mark of the season and we found a way to get ourselves back into the contest and some way or another we’re here today,” Fagan said.
“I was hoping that we might be able to recover well enough to finish somewhere in the bottom of the eight and play a final.
“We did a little bit better than I thought was possible.
“My coach’s mind, I thought ‘gee, are they going to be able to do it for a third week in a row? Will we have the energy?’.
“But I never thought about it much after Tuesday, because when I came into the club the boys had so much energy and they were up and about all week.
“I didn’t come into this game thinking we wouldn’t be able to go the distance.”
The Lions had five players nursing season-ending knee injuries. After the halfway point, they embraced chaos in their midfield and threw magnets around. They all stuck.
“The interesting thing is that crisis creates opportunity and as terrible as it is for those boys to have the ACLs and they’re all wonderful clubmen and popular boys, it opened the door for a lot of others to get the opportunity,” Fagan said.
“What we found out is those young players … on the big stage, they produced something pretty special.
Fagan’s remarkably close relationship with his players appears to be the secret behind him turning the club from a basket-case to a powerhouse.
“For us to come from where we’ve come from eight years ago to be able to do this today is a very special moment that I’ve been able to share with these boys, all the staff that I’ve worked with and my family as well,” he said.
“We kept trying to learn, kept trying to get better and everybody at the footy club has embraced that, which I’m really proud of and today they found out that if you do that, things can sometimes come your way. Good lesson in life for everyone I think.”
He admits that the fallout from the allegations of racism at Hawthorn — where he was the general manager of football — were a “tough time”, but that friends and the Lions helped him through.
“To be honest, I haven’t had too many lows,” Fagan reflected.
“I’m at a terrific football club. They know the person that I am and they’ve never had any doubt in me and neither have the players.
“I’ve had a great family as well and a good batch of friends, so I’ve just felt fairly comfortable the whole way through to be honest.
“It was a pretty tough time, especially when it all first came out and things were being said about you, but I’m just very grateful for everyone who has got in my corner and looked after me.”
At Hawthorn, Fagan was at the controls of one of football’s great dynasty. He says he will take elements of that into helping his Lions become the first team since Melbourne in 2021 to return to finals the year after winning the premiership.
“You have got to get back to work and you have got to stay grounded and not get too carried away,” Fagan said.
“That’s always the big challenge after you win one, because it is pretty intoxicating.
“I think I can use some of the things I learnt at Hawthorn from Clarko (Alastair Clarkson) Hodgey (Luke Hodge) as well, to get the group going again.
“I think they will be pretty motivated to have that feeling again.”
