Lions Hand the Keys to a Premiership: Good Luck With That

So Brisbane are finally about to tell us who’s getting the clipboard after Chris Fagan walks out the door. Good luck to whoever it is, because they’ve been handed what looks like the best job in footy and is actually one of the hardest.

Taking over a reigning premiership side sounds like a dream gig. It’s actually a hospital pass the size of the Story Bridge.

Following a Flag is Never as Easy as it Looks

Everyone outside Queensland is sitting there thinking the new bloke just has to turn up, roll the balls out and let Lachie Neale do his thing. Carn, it’s never that simple.

Fagan built something up there over years. A culture, a list, a way of playing that got them over the line when it mattered most. Whoever walks in now isn’t just coaching a footy team, they’re inheriting a legacy and every single thing they change will get compared to what worked last September.

Does the new coach keep the structures exactly the same? Does he tinker? Every decision gets magnified because this list knows what winning feels like now. That’s a different beast to coaching a rebuild where no one expects anything.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before at Other Clubs

History isn’t exactly kind to coaches who inherit a flag. Plenty of premiership sides have gone backwards the very next year under a new voice in the box, even good coaches, because the hardest thing in sport isn’t winning once. It’s doing it again with different hunger levels in the group.

Some of these Lions players have been near the top for three or four years running now. Are they absolutely starving for another one, or is there a touch of ‘we’ve already done it’ creeping in? That’s not a question Fagan has to answer anymore. It’s the new fella’s problem from day one.

I’ll say this much as a Collingwood supporter who watched our own club go through coaching transitions that didn’t exactly sail smoothly – the players notice everything. They notice the tone in the meetings, they notice if training gets harder or softer, they notice if the new coach backs the senior blokes or wants his own stamp on it straight away. Get that balance wrong and a flag outfit can unravel fast.

The Pressure From Outside Will Be Brutal

Brisbane have been building towards this moment for the best part of a decade. The fans up there have waited a long time for a flag and now they’ve got one, the appetite isn’t for a nice season, it’s for back-to-back.

That’s a pressure cooker most incoming coaches never have to deal with. You could coach a club out of nowhere into finals and get a free pass if it doesn’t quite come off. Walk into Brisbane right now and anything less than deep finals footy in year one gets asked about every single week.

And let’s be honest, the minute this bloke gets appointed, every commentator in the country is going to be comparing him to Fagan for the next two years regardless of what actually happens on the park. That’s just how it goes in this industry.

What Does Brisbane Actually Need Here?

In my view they need someone who isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel in round one. The list is good. Arguably great. You don’t walk into a premiership den and start ripping up game style for the sake of putting your fingerprint on it.

What they need is someone who can manage bodies, manage egos a little bit (premiership players always think they know best, don’t they?) and keep that hunger alive. That’s man-management more than it’s whiteboard genius. Anyone can draw up a gameplan. Not everyone can keep a flag-winning group believing they need to go again.

I reckon whoever gets it will have spent time somewhere as an assistant and will know this group inside out already. That’s usually how these things go at a club that wants continuity rather than a total reset.

Why This Matters Beyond Brisbane

Look, I barrack for the Pies and I’ll never pretend otherwise. But this appointment matters for the whole competition, not just Lions fans.

If Brisbane go backwards under a new coach it tells every club in the AFL that chasing back-to-back flags with a coaching change mid-cycle is basically rolling the dice. If they kick on and win another one, it proves the system and the list carry more weight than any one bloke standing in the box.

Either way we’re all watching. Every rival supporter, Collingwood included, wants to know if this Lions empire has legs or if it was always going to be a short window.

My Honest Take

I don’t think the new coach will have it easy, no matter how talented the list is. Premiership windows close quicker than people reckon and the Lions know that better than anyone after years of near misses before they finally broke through.

The umpires will cop plenty of blame along the way too, they always do when things don’t go a club’s way, though I won’t pretend my own club hasn’t had a sook about decisions more than a few times this year. Fair’s fair.

What I do know is this appointment is going to be scrutinised like few coaching gigs in recent memory. It’s not the dream job everyone thinks it is. It’s probably the toughest seat in the comp right now, and whoever takes it should of gone in with their eyes wide open about what’s coming.

Carn the Pies regardless – we’ll be watching how this Brisbane transition plays out with plenty of interest, mostly because if it wobbles even slightly, suddenly the gap at the top of the ladder looks a lot more interesting for the rest of us.