Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has praised his side’s resilience after they recovered from a poor start to the season to win the premiership.
The Lions thrashed the Sydney Swans by 60 points in Saturday’s grand final at the MCG to win the club’s first AFL flag since 2003.
The victory came 12 months after the Lions lost to Collingwood by four points in the 2023 season decider.
A drought-breaking premiership seemed unlikely when the Lions lost their opening three matches, and later sat in 13th place on the ladder and 10 points outside the top eight at the halfway point in the season.
But the Lions found their groove to win 10 of their remaining 12 home and away matches to finish fifth on the ladder.
Their September campaign was not without drama, as they appeared set for a semifinal exit when they trailed by 44 points against GWS in Sydney, before fighting back to win by less than goal.
“I’m so proud of the group, the resilience that they’ve shown this year,” Fagan told ABC Sport after the grand final.
“We were looking down the barrel at the halfway mark [of the season] and somehow or other, it’s turned out like this.
“We certainly know how to do it the hard way, but it makes it all that better when you achieve it.”
It had previously been revealed Fagan had shown his players an episode of the Apple TV+ series, Ted Lasso, during the season.
Lightheartedly, Fagan did not give the TV program credit for the Lions’ turnaround.
But he admitted he showed an episode to his players when they were experiencing issues with their goal-kicking.
“We were having a bit of trouble kicking straight for goal and it was when Dani Rojas had the yips,” Fagan said with a smile on his face.
“I think it was series two, episode one. I thought I’d just lighten things up a little bit for them.
“So, we watched that episode and we’ve had a few laughs out of it since.”
At age 63, Fagan is the oldest premiership coach in VFL/AFL history.
He has been in charge of the Lions since 2017 and reached the finals for the first time in his tenure two years later.
