Why the Lions Did the Hard Yards on Their Coaching Search

Every club reckons their process is thorough until someone actually asks them to show their working. This week Brisbane’s leadership group did exactly that, walking through why the Lions didn’t just hand the keys over to the obvious internal candidate and call it a day.

And look, as a Lions fan who has sat through enough succession chat to last a lifetime, I reckon this is genuinely one of the more mature things this footy club has done off the field in years.

The quote that explains everything

The line doing the rounds internally was something like “we were up front that Cam was an internal candidate and had a bit of a head start, but we had an open mind.” That’s not spin, that’s actually a really sensible way to run a process that affects the next five to ten years of a premiership-window footy club.

Because here’s the thing people forget when a club promotes from within: it’s easy to assume the assistant coach everyone likes is automatically the best fit. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they’re not. The only way you actually know is if you test it properly against outside options, not just nod along because it’s comfortable and low admin.

Why an internal front-runner isn’t a bad thing

Let’s be real, having an internal candidate with a head start isn’t some scandal, it’s normal footy business. Clubs do it because continuity matters, especially one sitting on a list this good with flags still very much on the table. You don’t want to blow up your whole program and bring in someone who needs eighteen months to learn the list, the culture, the way Brisbane actually wants to play.

But