The future of Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has sparked debate, with opposing viewpoints on his tenure at the club leaving one AFL legend “agitated”.
On Fox Footy’s First Crack, David King, a two-time North Melbourne premiership player, stated that the Lions could benefit from recruiting rival coach Chris Scott to replace Fagan.
The Lions coach is in his eighth year in charge and has been virtually as successful as a coach can be without winning the ultimate prize, a Premiership.
As a result, King believes it would be worthwhile for the club to consider hiring a coach of Scott’s caliber to replace the heroic Fagan.
“I just wonder, when you look at the Brisbane Lions’ list and their football club being so settled at such a great place at the moment – they’ve had a great run with Chris Fagan – he’s set them up for this opportunity for potentially an eight-year window that they’re probably halfway through,” King stated on Sunday.
“Would it be too ruthless to put all chips in the basket and go get Chris Scott?”
“We’ve had four or five chances with you, you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve been a very good coach, but we just think if we can get a great coach – an absolute top-liner – then he can come in, we can refresh this message to the list, and give them a chance while they’re still in the window to win that elusive flag,” King concluded by referring to Brisbane’s potential thought method.
On Monday night, On The Couch panelists Garry Lyon, Jonathon Brown, and Nathan Buckley discussed King’s statements, with the latter expressing irritation with the opinion.
“He’s effectively saying he’s taken them as far as they can go,” three-time All-Australian Lyon said to kick off the discussion.
“It’s the opinion game isn’t it; I’m not in that camp with Kingy, I think Chris Fagan has done a tremendous job, he’s earned the right to continue on,” Brown responded.
“The club’s success is largely due to Chris Fagan…” They all want to play for Fagan, and players come to the club, including Josh Dunkley (and a number of other players).
“Within four points of a (premiership), they’ve had a huge amount of injuries to key players.”
Brown, a three-time Lions premiership player, concluded by noting that he does not believe “Fages is going anywhere”.
The floor was then left open for former Collingwood player and coach Nathan Buckley to express his thoughts on the topic, as he vehemently disagreed with his colleague David King.
“That irritates me a little because it assumes Chris Scott is better than Chris Fagan,” Buckley said.
“That’s the presumption; if Chris Scott was at Brisbane and Chris Fagan was at Geelong, we don’t know what would have happened with the different players during that time.
“I think making the premise that Chris Scott will make Brisbane better than Chris Fagan is the wrong assumption; I think ‘is it time for change?’ is fair enough, but if it is, it might not be Chris Scott; it might be another coach.
“I don’t like the analogy when you put one coach above another when you’re judging them on two different criteria.”
Fagan has won 91 of the 173 games he has coached for the Lions since 2017, giving him a win percentage of 52.6%.
Geelong’s Scott, on the other hand, has won 204 of 292 games, for a 69.9 percent victory rate – albeit, as Buckley pointed out, they are not necessarily comparable on multiple fronts.
The former Brownlow medalist and seven-time All-Australian went on to say that, while the idea of a Lions refresh is acceptable, the team’s lack of ultimate success should be attributed to the playing group, given their demographic and maturity.
“They have been up for five years… I believe we blamed the coach, but I would also blame the senior leaders; it is not an inexperienced group, and the locker room drives the team (and) club just as much as the senior coach,” Buckley continued.
“And, while a change of scenery may be beneficial at times, these players will return.
“I think he can (take them one step further), but we still need more evidence for the back half of this season.”
The Lions will have a bye in Round 12 before facing the Western Bulldogs on Friday night at Marvel.
GET MORE NEWS HERE
Leave a Reply