Life’s all about change, and Youi’s the insurer for all the changes – big and small – that happen to you. That’s why the Brisbane Lions and Youi have teamed-up for the ‘Moments of Change’ series, where each week they’ll look back at some of the defining moments that have shaped the club you know today.

Lions CEO Greg Swann remembers vividly the first time he called Chris Fagan to sound him out about the vacant Brisbane Lions coaching job in September 2016. There was no small talk. Fagan was straight to point.

“The first thing ‘Fages’ said to me was “I’m a coach you know,” Swann recounts. “I’ve coached a lot and I’m interested in coaching. I want to be an AFL coach.”

And so began a partnership that has been a huge moment of change in Brisbane Lions history. The modern equivalent to the 1999 appointment of Leigh Matthews, who picked up a club that had won the wooden-spoon with a 5-1-17 record and was in turmoil on and off the field.

The 2016 Lions side that Fagan inherited had not been wooden-spooners, but they’d finished 17^th of 18 teams and their 3-19 record was worse. And off-field matters were not a lot better.

So, after confirming the exit of 2001-02-03 premiership defender turned 2014-15-16 coach Justin Leppitsch, the club began the search for their 10^th coach.

It was a process that began with Swann and Lions List Manager Peter Schwab, a 1983-86-88 premiership player and 2000-04 coach with rival AFL club Hawthorn.

They did the early groundwork before a formal interview process conducted by a panel that included newly-appointed Lions football boss David Noble, renowned well-being and people management expert Matti Clements and Lions Brownlow Medallist Simon Black, plus Swann and Schwab.

Even before Noble joined the club Swann and Schwab had settled on a short list of four candidates – Brett Ratten, John Barker, Brett Montgomery and Fagan.

Ratten had played 255 games with Carlton from 1999-2003, coached Carlton from 2007-12 and had been an assistant-coach under Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn from 2013, sharing in the premiership hat-trick of 2013-14-15.

Barker was a 168-game player with Fitzroy, Brisbane and Hawthorn from 1994-2006, having been a member of the so-called ‘Chosen Eight’ from Fitzroy who moved to Brisbane after the merger. He’d been an assistant-coach under Ross Lyon at St.Kilda in 2007-08, under Clarkson at Hawthorn from 2009-10 and under Ratten, Mick Malthouse and Brendon Bolton at Carlton from 2011-16. He’d coached the Blues for 14 games in 2015 after Malthouse was sacked mid-season but had missed the senior job in ’16 when the club preferred Bolton.

Montgomery was a 204-game player with the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide from 1997-2007, an assistant-coach under Ratten at Carlton from 2008-10 and under Rodney Eade, Brendan McCartney and Luke Beveridge at the Bulldogs from 2011-16.

Fagan was an entirely different type of candidate. A qualified teacher, he’d played 263 games in Tasmania with Hobart, Sandy Bay and Devonport, represented Tasmania 11 times and was a member of premiership teams at Hobart in 1980 and Devonport in 1988.

He was an assistant-coach at North Hobart in 1991-92, coached Sandy Bay in 1993-94 and was the inaugural coach the Tassie Mariners Under-18 side that played in the Melbourne-based TAC Cup from 1995-97. Later, in a decade at Melbourne he worked alongside senior coach Neale Daniher as assistant-coach, Reserves coach and General Manager – Football from 1998-2007.

After being inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2007 he filled two key roles in a nine-year stint at Hawthorn which included the premierships in 2008 and 2013-14-15. He was Head of Coaching and Development from 2018-13 and General Manager - Football from 2013-2016.

It had been a tough 2016 for the Lions. They finished 17^th on the 18-team ladder with a 3-19 record – a meagre 0.6% ahead of wooden-spooners Essendon.

On Monday afternoon 29 August, barely 24 hours after the Lions had suffered a 58-point loss to ninth-placed St.Kilda at Docklands in the last game of the year, Leppitsch was told by chairman Bob Sharpless that his contract, still with a year to run, would be paid out after a secret ballot at a club Board Meeting that morning went against him.

In a statement released by the club shortly after Sharpless said: "This is a results-driven industry and we are simply not a competitive football team at the moment. We have regressed from 10 wins in 2013, to seven wins in 2014, four wins last season, and three this year - while the nature of some of this season's heavy defeats to teams around the same position on the AFL ladder have been bitterly disappointing."

On the same day Leppitsch exited the Gabba the Lions also moved on head of football Matthew Francis, who had been in the top job in 2016 after serving on Leppitsch’s coaching staff in 2014-15.

The pressure was on. Suddenly the Lions were looking for a new coach and a new football boss.

The first part of the twin process fell primarily to the vastly experienced duo of Swann and Schwab, who conducted preliminary interviews with the coaching candidates before Noble, former Fitzroy player, Glenelg (SANFL) coach and Adelaide Crows football boss, was appointed to replace Francis on 21 September.

As Schwab recalls, he and Swann spent about 90 minutes meeting with Ratten and Montgomery before heading out to Fagan’s Box Hill home in Melbourne’s east. Three hours later, captivated by the passion he had shown for the prospective job, they left thinking “he’s a real chance”.

But the formal interview process was still to come. And even before that got under way Ratten withdrew his application. It was down to Montgomery, Fagan and Barker, who was overseas at the time and was interviewed by the panel via zoom.

“You are always looking for the best overall candidate but we especially wanted someone who could establish strong personal relationships, build a rapport with people and unite the group for a common cause,” said Schwab, who had enjoyed a varied path through the football maze after his coaching stint at Hawthorn.

He’d been Marketing Manager at Hawthorn, worked in the media with ‘The Age’ and ABC Radio, was AFL Director of Coaching, CEO of AFL Victoria, and, after three years with the Lions, took over as AFL Head of Umpiring.

And while Schwab had had not worked directly in football with Fagan at Hawthorn he knew plenty at the Hawks who had. So, too, did Swann. And both knew what was needed.

“The one thing we knew for sure about ‘Fages’ was that he was really a good person,” Schwab recalls. “Anyone in football who knew him couldn’t speak highly enough of him.”

And so, on 3 October 2016, Fagan was appointed the 10^th coach of the Brisbane Football Club after Peter Knights, Paul Feltham, Norm Dare, Robert Walls, John Northey, Roger Merrett, Leigh Matthews, Michael Voss and Leppitsch.

Swann said at the time Fagan came with excellent pedigree and was exactly the person the Club needed to fill such a pivotal role. "Chris is the perfect fit for the Brisbane Lions as we strive to regain relevance - his knowledge, experience, mentoring skills and ability to communicate are all elite.

"The selection panel was hugely impressed with the standard of candidates interviewed throughout the process, and Chris was the standout. The club is making a new start and we believe he has all the skills to take us in the new direction we want to go as a Club both on and off the field.

"He comes from a really successful environment where he has played a major role in driving high standards over an extended period of time, and we are really excited about what he can achieve with our young and talented group.”

When Fagan walked into his first Lions media conference the following day he joked that perhaps he should stumble in on a walking stick.

The then 55-year-old, a humble gentleman of football finally given the opportunity he had dreamed of for more than 30 years, was having a light-hearted poke at himself. “I’m a bit like a mature-age recruit …. Hopefully I’m a trail-blazer for other 55-year-olds,” he quipped.

It was a throwaway line which at the time didn’t get the traction it should have. Because two and a half years later, as he prepared for his 50^th AFL game a search through the record books confirmed his appointment by the Lions was in fact a significant moment in football history.

Of the 164 people who had coached 50 AFL games ahead of him Fagan was found to have been the oldest first-time coach in this illustrious group. He was aged 55 years 275days at the time of his first AFL game as coach in Round 1 2017.

He was more than four years older than the coach who ranked second on this list - the Western Bulldogs’ Brendan McCartney in 2012 – and more than seven years older than the next two on the list – St.Kilda’s Darrel Baldock and Adelaide’s Neil Craig.

Having turned 61 on 23 June this year, Fagan is the senior statesman among the 2022 AFL coaching line-up, ahead of Ken Hinkley (55),  John Longmire (51), Luke Beveridge and Ratten (51), Damien Hardwick (49), Craig McRae (48), Matthew Nicks and Michael Voss (47), Adam Simpson and Chris Scott (46), Simon Goodwin (45), Stuart Dew (42), Justin Longmuir and GWS caretaker Mark McVeigh (41) Sam Mitchell and Ben Rutten (39), and new North Melbourne caretaker Leigh Adams (34).

He's one of just seven AFL coaches all-time to coach beyond their 60^th birthday, yet he is still more than 10 years younger than the oldest AFL coach, Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes, who is a statistical anomaly. Coach at Richmond from 1927-32 and Melbourne from 1933-41 and 1945-48, Hughes was 54 years 226 days when he coached his 377^th game in the 1948 grand final replay. But after 17 years in retirement he made a one-game comeback to deputise for Norm Smith at Melbourne in Round 13 1965 aged 71 years 148 days.

The other five to coach behind their 60^th birthday are the legendary Mick Malthouse, Jock McHale, Kevin Sheedy and John Kennedy, plus John Worrall, regarded historically as the AFL’s first coach at Carlton in 1906.

Already Fagan is older than Worrall’s 60 years 40 days at his last game and Kennedy’s 60 years 246 days and is closing on Malthouse at 61 years 278 days. But he’s a long way behind McHale, who coached his last game at 66 years 265 days, and Sheedy, who was 65 years 251 days.

It is a remarkable story of a man who has lived and loved football since he was born on 23 June 1961 in Queenstown on the west coast of Tasmania.

A rover/forward pocket, he represented Tasmania in the 1978 Teal Cup national U17 carnival in Adelaide aged 16 and was invited to trial with Essendon. When he didn’t quite cut it with the Bombers he went home to forge a wonderful playing and coaching career in Tasmania before graduating to the AFL. Now with 128 games at the helm, he is second in Brisbane games coached behind Leigh Matthews (237) and ahead of Walls (109) and Voss (109).

A picture of loyalty and consistency, he began with a senior coaching staff of  Danny Daly, Murray Davis, Ben Hudson, Dale Tapping and Jed Adcock. Only Noble’s appointment as senior coach at North Melbourne in November 2020 prompted a change to the off-field core, with Daly stepping up into the senior football administrative role and Mark Stone joining the coaching staff.

It’s been an entirely different situation in the Lions playing ranks, where Fagan added ex-Hawks Luke Hodge and Grant Birchall in his early years to held guide and build his young list. Only eight members of Fagan’s first Lions side are still at the club – captain Zorko, vice-captain Harris Andrews, Darcy Gardiner, Eric Hipwood, Ryan Lester, Dan McStay, Daniel Rich and Mitch Robinson.

Lions list changes during the Fagan era have been:

Off-Season 2016-17
OFF: Hugh Beasley, Justin Clarke, Billy Evans, Josh Green, Pearce Hanley, Jaden McGrath, Josh McGuinness, Daniel Merrett, Jackson Paine, Josh Watts, Trent West.
ON: Jacob Allison, Jake Barrett, Jarrod Berry, Cedric Cox, Matt Eagles, Jack Frost, Blake Grewer, Mitch Hinge, Corey Lyons, Hugh McCluggage, Oscar McInerney, Alex Witherden.

Off-Season 2017-18
OFF: Josh Clayton, Michael Close, Jono Freeman, Blake Grewer, Matthew Hammelmann, Ryan Harwood, Jarrod Jansen, Tom Rockliff, Josh Schache, Reuben William.
ON: Zac Bailey, Charlie Cameron, Luke Hodge, Jack Payne, Cam Rayner, Brandon Starcevich, Toby Wooller.

Off-Season 2018-19
OFF: Jake Barrett, Claye Beams, Dayne Beams, Tom Bell, Rohan Bewick, Liam Dawson, Jack Frost, Cian Hanley, Sam Mayes, Marco Paparone.
ON: Marcus Adams, Noah Answerth, Tom Berry, Tom Fullarton, Tom Joyce, Jarryd Lyons, James Madden, Lincoln McCarthy, Connor McFadyen, Lachie Neale, Ely Smith.

Off-Season 2019-20
OFF: Ryan Bastinac, Tom Cutler, Luke Hodge, Ben Keays, Corey Lyons, Nick Robertson, Lewis Taylor, Josh Walker.
ON: Brandon AhChee, Grant Birchall, Keidean Coleman, Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Jaxon Prior, Deven Robertson, Brock Smith.

Off-Season 2020-21
OFF: Jacob Allison, Allen Christensen, Cedric Cox, Matt Eagles, Mitch Hinge, Corey Lyons, Stefan Martin, Sam Skinner, Alex Witherden, Toby Wooller.
ON: Nakia Cockatoo, Blake Coleman, Joe Daniher, Carter Michael, Harry Sharp, Henry Smith, Devidas Uosis, Kalin Lane (mid-season)

Off-Season 2021-22
OFF: Connor Ballenden, Grant Birchall, Cam Elllis-Yolmen, Tom Joyce, Archie Smith, Brock Smith.
ON: Darcy Fort, Kai Lohmann, James Tunstill, Darcy Wilmot, Mitch Cox (mid-season).

Moments of change? It doesn’t get any bigger than the appointment of Chris Fagan to the Lion coaching job.

Thanks to our friends at Youi for helping bring this series to life.