Hi everyone,

After 10 fantastic years at the lions I decided to call an end to my coaching career. It's been an absolute privilege to coach this group of players and it's been a wonderful experience interacting with our members and fans.

I can still remember when I first started at the lions we only had a small membership 20,000. Now our membership is north of 80,000. How good is that! Thank you so much for jumping on board. We used to struggle to get good crowds to our games and now the Gabba is packed with you guys whenever we play there. The noise you make and the passion you display makes it a very hostile environment for our opposition and an uplifting place for our boys to play. I love it when you sing along to the players goal songs. This has become an institution!

My other favourite time at the Gabba is when we are walking off the ground after a victory - the way you cheer and applaud the team and myself has always made me feel very happy. It gives you a huge buzz to know just how much it means to each of you when we put in a winning performance.

I also appreciate the support we get wherever we play around the country - particularly in Melbourne where there are thousands of diehard lions fans shouting their heads off and urging us towards victory each time we play. I've grown to love the ritual of putting the cones out for the captain's at the mcg the day before a game - the cheer that goes up when I finally put the cone in place on the ground makes me laugh and feel good about all of you. The players love it too!

What I mostly value and appreciate is the patience you displayed towards the team in the early days of my coaching tenure when the team was young and just learning to win. We got beaten up a few times in those years but you hung in, could see the improvement and now you’ve been rewarded with 8 finals series in a row, 4 grand finals and 3 premierships. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?

I will miss you all - your passion, your noise, your encouragement and your singing. It’s all indelibly stamped in my mind though so when I'm having a bad day any time in the future I will just think of you guys and it will change my mood for the better instantaneously.

Thank you so much for making me feel valued and welcomed as your coach for the past 10 years.

Fages