Fagan revels in greatest moment as Lions complete fairytale recovery

AFTER taking Brisbane from rock bottom to the top of the AFL mountain in his eight years at the club, Chris Fagan says Saturday's premiership is the greatest moment of his footballing life.

A man that sat in Alastair Clarkson's coaches' box for all four Hawthorn premierships in that era has now won his own Jock McHale Medal after a season for the ages in 2024.

SWANS v LIONS Full Grand Final match coverage and stats

He has completed one of the great arcs in coaching history.

Walking into a broken club in late 2016, then 'winning' the wooden spoon in his first season, Fagan turned the Lions around, taking them back to September, playing a huge role in recruiting star players and ultimately guiding them to Saturday's triumph over Sydney.

He is the first man to not play at the top level and coach a premiership.

Fagan said, all things considered, this was the best moment of his almost 40 years involved in coaching, nearly 30 of which have been in the code's elite competition.

"When you're the coach of an AFL team you've got to put up with a lot of scrutiny and a lot of pressure," Fagan said following Brisbane's 60-point win.

"To come from where we've come from eight years ago, to be able to do this today is a very special moment.

"We were in a lot of trouble at the halfway mark of the season, and we found a way to get ourselves back in the contest and we're here today.

"So yeah, I'd probably say that (it is my greatest moment)."

Starting with Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry in his first draft, then Cam Rayner, Zac Bailey and Brandon Starcevich in the draft 12 months later, Fagan paid credit to everyone at the Lions from the recruiting staff to the coaches and players for creating a winning culture.

In many ways, this season was a fitting one to triumph, after starting 0-3, overcoming five ruptured ACLs, still being placed 13th after 14 rounds and overcoming huge deficits in semi and preliminary finals to advance.

Fagan's own journey has not been easy, entangled in the Hawthorn racism saga during the past two years.

However, he said there hadn't been many lows during that period.

"I've had a terrific football club that got around me and they know the person I am and they've never had any doubt in me and neither have the players," he said.

"I've had a great family as well and a good batch of friends.

"I felt fairly comfortable all the way through. 

"I don't think I'm anything special. It was a pretty tough time, especially when it all came out and things are being said about you.

"I'm very grateful for everyone that's got in my corner and looked after me."

On the season itself, Fagan said at its lowest he hoped Brisbane would recover to hopefully play in a final.

"Crisis creates opportunity. As terrible as it is for the boys to have the ACLs … it opened the door for young players to get some opportunity, and what we found out is those young players, on the big stage today, they produced, and they have from the moment they came into the team," he said.

"It's pretty intoxicating winning an AFL premiership.

"I think the group will be pretty motivated to have that feeling again.

"We'll enjoy what we've done this season for a little while.

"We will get back to work and hopefully next year we can turn up an even better version of ourselves from all the experiences we've had."