Why? If you need to ask you don’t fully appreciate the qualities of the man.
Fagan pulled the milestone story on himself because he didn’t want to detract in any way from the twin milestones of 200-gamer Jarrod Berry and 250-gamer Ryan Lester.
So, it’s been posted early this week before he realises Josh Dunkley will play his 100th Brisbane game against Gold Coast at the Gabba on Saturday.
The up-side to Fagan’s selfless act last week and the delay is that now it’s a better story.
Because, after Friday night’s thumping Gabba win over Hawthorn, he’s got one up on mastercoach Matthews.
The Fagan record after 237 games is 143-2-92. He is half a game ahead of Matthews’ 142-3-92.
It’s an honour that doesn’t sit comfortably with Fagan. Not for a school teacher from Tasmania who started coaching aged 55 years 275 days in 2017 to sit ahead of the greatest player in football history and a triple Brisbane premiership coach who finished coaching aged 56 years 182 in 2008.
Inevitably, when people talk of Fagan they talk of age. At 65 he’s football’s favourite grandfather.
Of 48 people in AFL history who have coached 200 games he was the oldest on debut by more than nine years. Recently-appointed Tasmanian coach and good friend Ken Hinkley is next.
But the real story on Fagan should not be that he started at 55. It should be that he’s still going strong at 65 and isn’t finished yet.
A 2007 inductee to the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame, Fagan was the oldest AFL premiership coach in history at 63 in 2024. And then he won it again last year.
It’s one of football’s most remarkable stories. From the gravel oval in Queenstown on Tasmania’s west coast, where he was born, to the dizzy heights of the MCG on grand final day, where he’s locked in a future Australian Football Hall of Fame spot.
In snapshot form, the Fagan football career is:
- Played 263 senior games with Hobart, Sandy Bay and Devonport. Represented Tasmania 11 times and played in premierships at Hobart in 1980 and Devonport in 1988.
- Assistant-coach North Hobart 1991-92.
- Coach Sandy Bay 1993-94
- Inaugural Coach Tassie Mariners 1995-97.
- Assistant-Coach Melbourne 1999-2007.
- Inducted to the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame 2007.
- Hawthorn Assistant-Coach/Football General Manager 2008-18.
- Brisbane Coach 2019-26. AFL Coach’s Association Coach of the Year 2019-24-25. All-Australian Coach 2024-25.
One man not surprised by Fagan’s success is younger brother Grant, himself a veteran coach and a 2009 Tasmanian Hall of Fame inductee.
To Grant, 15 months younger, it was never a question of whether his brother would cut it at the elite level, but whether he’d get a chance.
“He was a long way ahead of the pack when he got the Mariners job. He’s always been a great student of the game and a great teacher of the game, and nobody in football is as dedicated.
“But I was probably a bit like Chris … I wondered if the fact that he hadn’t played in the AFL would count against him,” said Grant. “I was so proud when the Brisbane job came his way.”
Grant Fagan, too, was a player at North Hobart and Sandy Bay. After starting his coaching career at country level in Kingston he was assistant at Clarence under ex-Swans stat Stevie Wright in 1993-94-95.
In 1996 he took over as senior coach, adding flags in 1996-97-2000 to those of 1993-94. He returned to take Clarence to a sixth premiership in 2025 and is chasing back-to-back flags this year.
“We’re great mates and we talk often although probably not as often as we’d like. He’s so busy. And when we do talk we don’t talk a lot of footy.
“I asked him for some advice on rotations when I went back coaching last year because when I last coached there were no limits.
“He said ‘don’t worry about it – it’ll do your head in - let others take care of it - just make sure you’ve got your best team on the ground at the end’. It was good advice.”
Playfully, Grant noted that he has coached six premierships to Chris’ five, which includes Hawthorn’s 2008 premiership when he was assistant-coach to Alastair Clarkson. But he concedes that’s not counting the 2013-14-15 Hawthorn flags when Chris was football boss.
“What he’s done is amazing, but I love him because he’s my brother – not for any other reason.”
Asked if he could offer any ‘dirt’ on his brother, Grant thought for a moment and said “no”.
“I was the larrikin in the family who was always in trouble … he’s the complete opposite … always the sensible one. I don’t think he’s ever done anything too embarrassing. He’s so consumed in what he does he doesn’t have time for much else.”
The Brisbane players wouldn’t be so silly as to speak of any embarrassing moments for their coach, who is a huge collector of records. Not football records but ‘vinyls’. The musical type.
Not ex-Brisbane player Dion Scott, who played with Fagan in Devonport’s 1988 grand final win over a Glenorchy side that included Adrian Fletcher, a five-year Brisbane teammate and father of Jaspa.
Scott recounted how Fagan would always lead a team sing-a-long on the bus heading back to Devonport after a game in Hobart. “It would always start ‘Devonport are champions, we’re all bloody champions’ and then he’d throw in a line about each player and what they’d done that day”.
“He’s so competitive one day before a time-trial he was seen running laps so that when the real thing started, and the rest of us had just got out of our cars, he got his second wind.
“He was cheeky little bugger but everyone loved him and learned so much from him. I was just a kid but he had as much time for me as he did the senior players.”
Ursula, his wife of 41 years with whom he shares two daughters and four grandchildren, concedes life at home after a match swings entirely on the result.
“After a win he pulls out the records (vinyls) and he’s all chatty, but after a loss he goes into the cave .. he shuts down. The brow looks a bit heavier and he’ll be off walking and thinking. And he doesn’t relax until he’s processed it all worked out how they are going to move forward,” she said
“His only rule is that he’s happy and ready to go by Monday morning, which after a couple of Sunday games has meant nights where he didn’t go to bed at all.”
Because his milestone win was Friday night last week ‘Fages’ had plenty of time to sort through his huge vinyls collection and enjoy a bunch of them, but truth be known he would have been more pleased Berry and Lester, two of the real ‘culture’ players within the Lions ranks, had celebrated with a win.
Berry and Lester are two senior members of a Lions playing ‘family’ that under Fagan numbers 94 since he arrived in Brisbane to take over a team that that posted a 7-4-3 win count in 2014-15-16 and finished 15th-17th-17th.
Only five current players were at the club prior to his arrival – 2011 debutant Ryan Lester, Dayne Zorko (2012), Darcy Gardiner (2014) and Harris Andrews and Eric Hipwood (2016).
Oddly, Fagan will break Matthews’ record at the Gabba next Saturday against the club he faced in his first game – Gold Coast. They won by two points after a late goal from Lewis Taylor.
Fagan’s first Brisbane side, in notional positions, was:
B: Ryan Harwood, Harris Andrews, Michael Close
HB: Daniel Rich, Darcy Gardiner, Tom Cutler
C: Rohan Bewick, Dayne Beams, Sam Mayes
HF: Mitch Robinson, Dan McStay, Ryan Lester
F: Lewis Taylor, Eric Hipwood, Ryan Bastinac
R: Stefan Martin, Tom Rockliff, Dayne Zorko (c)
INT: Tom Bell, Jake Barrett, Nick Robertson, Ben Keays.
Key Statistics for the Fagan Era are:
Most Games: Hugh McCluggage 222, Harris Andrews 221, Dayne Zorko 214, Charlie Cameron 202, Jarrod Berry 200, Eric Hipwood 197, Cam Rayner, 188, Zac Bailey 186, Lachie Neale 180, Ryan Lester 170, Oscar McInerney 165, Darcy Gardiner 150.
Most Wins: Hugh McCluggage, Charlie Cameron (132), Harris Andrews, Dayne Zorko (130), Zac Bailey (126), Lachie Neale (122), Jarrod Berry (121), Cam Rayner (120), Eric Hipwood (119), Oscar McInerney (108), Ryan Lester (105).
Most Possessions: Lachie Neale 5145, Hugh McCluggage 4954, Dayne Zorko 4874, Jarrod Berry 3570, Zac Bailey 3156, Harris Andrews 3032, Daniel Rich 2887, Cam Rayner 2576, Josh Dunkley 2365, Ryan Lester 2359, Jarrod Lyons 2292, Charlie Cameron 2189, Will Ashcroft 2033.
Average Possessions: Lachie Neale 28.6, Dayne Beams 28.2, Will Ashcroft 25.7, Tom Rockiff 24.0, Josh Dunkley 23.9, Dayne Zorko 22.8, Jarryd Lyons 22.5, Hugh McCluggage 22.3, Daniel Rich 21.9, Alex Witherden 20.7, Tom Cutler 20.1.
Most Goals: Charlie Cameron 395, Eric Hipwood 285, Zac Bailey 215, Joe Daniher 204, Cam Rayner 194, Lincoln McCarthy 148, Hugh McCluggage 142, Dayne Zorko 138, Logan Morris 128, Dan McStay 108, Kai Lohmann 103.
Average Goals (min 20 games): Joe Daniher 2.13, Logan Morris 1.97, Charlie Cameron 1.96, Eric Hipwood 1.45, Oscar Allen 1.44, Kai Lohmann 1.39, Jack Gunston 1.29, Zac Bailey 1.16, Lincoln McCarthy 1.14, Cam Rayner 1.03.
Most Brownlow Medal Votes: Lachie Neale 162. Dayne Zorko 84, Hugh McCluggage 70, Jarryd Lyons 52, Dayne Beams 35, Charlie Cameron 25, Harris Andrews and Joe Daniher 24, Cam Rayner 23, Josh Dunkley 22, Eric Hipwood and Will Ashcroft.
AFL Debutants (40): Jarrod Berry, Hugh McCluggage, Cedric Cox, Alex Witherden, Jacob Allison, Sam Skinner, Cam Ryaner, Zac Bailey, Oscar McInerney, Matt Eagles, Brandon Starcevich, Noah Answerth, Mitch Hinge, Deven Robertson, Tom Berry, Connor Ballenden, Jack Payne, Tom Fullarton, Keidean Coleman, Harry Sharp, Jaxon Prior, James Madden, Kai Lohmann, James Tunstill, Carter Michael, Darcy Wilmot, Will Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher, Logan Morris, Bruce Reville, Shadeau Brain, Henry Smith, Levi Ashcroft, Will McLachlan, Sam Marshall, Ty Gallop, Luke Beecken, Zake Zakostelsky, Daniel Annable, Cody Curtain.
Brisbane Debutants (23): Jake Barrett, Jack Frost, Charlie Cameron, Luke Hodge, Jarryd Lyons, Lincoln McCarthy, Lachie Neale, Marcus Adams, Callum AhChee, Grant Birchall, Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Joe Daniher, Nakia Cockatoo, Darcy Fort, Josh Dunkley, Jack Gunston, Conor McKenna, Darragh Joyce, Brandon Ryan, Sam Day, Tom Doedee, Oscar Allen, Sam Draper.
Biggest Win & Highest Score: 119 points - Brisbane 26-7 (163) d Richmond 6-8 (44) at the Gabba – R10 2024.
Biggest Loss & Lowest Score: 93 points – Richmond 16-14 (100) d Brisbane 2-5 (17) at the MCG – R4 2018.
Among 40 different coaching opponents, Fagan has locked horns most often with Chris Scott (18), Damien Hardwick (17), Luke Beveridge and Simon Goodwin (14), Ken Hinkley (12), Alastair Clarkson (11), Craig McRae and Stuart Dew (10), and has enjoyed most wins against Dew (9), Chris Scott, Hardwick, Hinkley and Ross Lyon (8), and Alastair Clarkson (7).
His best win/loss ratio is against Gold Coast (84.2%). West Coast (80.0%), Carlton and StKilda (76.9%) and North Melbourne (70.8%).
And he’s coached at 18 different venues – Gabba (116 games), Marvel Stadium (27), MCG (24), Carrara (15), Adelaide Oval (11), Perth Stadium (9), Sydney Showgrounds (6), Kardinia Park (5), SCG (5), Launceston (5), Canberra (3), Hobart (3), Ballarat (2), Norwood (2), Barossa Park (1), Cairns (1), Subiaco (1), Mt.Barker (1).
