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.

Leigh Matthews has always said there are only two kinds of coaches … those who have been sacked, and those who are waiting to be sacked.

Matthews was famously sacked five years after being given a lifetime contract at Collingwood when he piloted the Magpies to a drought-breaking premiership in 1990, ending the club’s 32-year drought.

But on Sunday 31 August 2018, after 10 years, 237 games and three glorious premierships with the Brisbane Lions, he went out on his own terms.

At 56, after 38 years in the spotlight that is AFL football, he retired.

It was no surprise to anyone who knew him. He often said seven years in the same job was enough for any coach, and his extended service was more about helping the club regenerate after the down period that followed the golden era of the early 2000s.

That his official retirement came less than 24 hours after his last game as coach is proof that it was the right time. He knew, as much as Lions officials would have been delighted if the master coach had chosen to continue.

Indeed, Tony Kelly, Chairman at the time and still a close friend of the master coach, said at the time he had accepted Matthews’ resignation with ‘great disappointment and regret’.

Matthews had nothing more to prove. Four premierships in the 1970s and ‘80s as a player, and four premierships as a coach in the 1990s and 2000s. Widely acclaimed as the greatest player of the 20^th century and a legend of the game.

Already a member of the ‘sacked coach club’ before he joined the Lions, Matthews was the seventh of what is now an all-time Brisbane Bears/Lions coaching list of 11. It’s a list which largely confirms his long-held theory of inevitability.

The club’s first coach from 1987-89 was Peter Knights. Sacked in 1989. Paul Feltham was initially appointed as caretaker coach in 1989 but looked set to continue into 1990 until a player revolt. Sacked. Norm Dare was appointed senior coach 34 days before the first game.

Dare was the odd man out. He was never sacked. Coach of the Queensland Team of the Century after his magnificent career with Kedron, Southport and the Queensland State side through the 1980s and 1990s, the former Fitzroy player and assistant-coach fully understood he had inherited the job on a one-year basis. He volunteered to step down and was a key player in the appointment of his successor, Robert Walls.

Walls coached the Bears from 1991-95 and retired. But he was already a member of the sacked club, having been axed by Carlton in 1989 three days after a shock loss to the Bears.

John Northey, who had three times stepped down from coaching jobs at Sydney, Melbourne and Richmond, took charge in 1996. He was sacked mid-1998 and replaced by Roger Merrett. Merrett, like Feltham, wanted to keep the job but was sacked.

After Merrett it was Matthews. After Matthews it was Michael Voss in 2009. Sacked in 2013. Caretaker coach Mark Harvey was never staying and was replaced by Justin Leppitsch in 2014. Sacked in 2016. And since 2017 it’s been Chris Fagan.

Yes, he’s pretty much right is ‘Lethal’. But then he’s pretty much right all the time.

The Matthews exit was a massive moment of change for the Brisbane Lions. Like the exit of any coach, but more. Much more. It was the end of golden era, and the start of a new era.

The numbers don’t lie. In the Matthews era from 1999-2008 Brisbane won 142 games. Next best was Port Adelaide (137), Geelong (132), Essendon (131), Sydney (130), Adelaide (127), North Melbourne (124) and West Coast (119).

Interestingly, outside the all-wins top eight are Hawthorn (113), Collingwood (109), Western Bulldogs (104), St.Kilda (103), Melbourne (98), Fremantle (92), Richmond (89) and Carlton (84).

More importantly, Brisbane’s 14 finals wins during the Matthews was a League high. Easily. Essendon (9), Port (8), Sydney (8), Collingwood (7), Geelong (7), Hawthorn (7), West Coast (6), North (5), Adelaide (4), Carlton (4), Melbourne (4), St.Kilda (3), Western Bulldogs (2), Fremantle (1) and Richmond (1).

And the number that matters most … Brisbane won three flags. They were the only multiple premiers of the era, with North, Essendon, Port, Sydney, West Coast, Geelong and Hawthorn winning one.

A total of 99 players wore the Lions jumper during the Matthews era. No less than 34 were already at the club when he arrived while he recruited 10 players from other clubs and handed 55 players their AFL debut.

A total of 26 players shared in the premiership glory. Of them, 17 were already at the club – three-time flag winners Jason Akermanis, Marcus Ashcroft, Simon Black, Shaun Hart, Chris Johnson, Clark Keating, Nigel Lappin, Justin Leppitsch, Alastair Lynch, Craig McRae, Luke Power, Michael Voss and Darryl White, and two-time winners Daniel Bradshaw, Beau McDonald, Tim Notting, Brad Scott and Chris Scott.

The three imports were three-time flag winners Mal Michael and Martin Pike and one-time winner Blake Caracella. And the six who won a flag after debuting under Matthews were Jonathan Brown (3), Robert Copeland (2), Jamie Charman (1), Richard Hadley (1), Des Headland (1), Ash McGrath (1) and Aaron Shattock (1)

Pike (104 games) and Michael (140) were superstar imports and Caracella, a premiership player at Essendon in 2000 and a member of the 2001 grand final side beaten by Brisbane, was a perfect fit even if only for two years after being squeezed out at Essendon by salary cap problems.

Oddly, the other seven imports only played a combined 154 games - David Calthorpe (9), Stefan Carey (3), Ben Fixter (27), Adam Heuskes (39), Travis Johnstone (49), Michael Martin (10) and Martin McKinnon (7).

Overall, the cumulative statistics of the 237-game Matthews era, never published before, confirm what we already know … the stars were the stars. But they add an extra dimension when the years before the premiership era are included.

GAMES: Simon Black, who had played only nine games before Matthews’ arrival, played 224 games under him – all but 13 - to head the games list of the golden era. Behind him were Luke Power (208), Tim Notting (191), Michael Voss (182), Nigel Lappin (177), Jason Akermanis (176), Chris Johnson (172), Daniel Bradshaw (166), Jonathan Brown (160), Justin Leppitsch (145).

POSSESSIONS: Not surprisingly, the prolific Black, whose 39 possessions in the 2003 grand final is still a record for a premiership decider, was also the leading ball-winner. And by a long way. He had 5230 possessions in the Matthews era to head Luke Power (4278), Nigel Lappin (4154), Michael Voss (3959), Jason Akermanis (3291), Tim Notting (2806), Chris Johnson (2456), Jonathan Brown (2347), Chris Scott (2293) and Shaun Hart (2085).

But who averaged most possessions per game? Needing to play a minimum 10 games to qualify, the winner is Nigel Lappin (23.5) by a whisker from Black (23.3), Voss (21.8), Power (20.6), Travis Johnstone (19.3), Cheynee Stiller (19.3), Akermanis (18.7), Chris Scott (17.1), Adam Heuskes (17.1) and Josh Drummond (17.1).

And if we exclude the 10-game minimum, Bradd Dalziell, who played seven games in 2008, is the winner at 26.4ppg, and the injury-cruelled Brad Boyd, restricted to eight games in 1999 under Matthews, slots in alongside Power at 20.6.

GOALS: This is tougher. No prizes for suggesting it will be between Jonathan Brown, Daniel Bradshaw and Alastair Lynch, who between them kicked 29.7% of the 3604 Matthews era goals. Bradshaw (384) topped the list from Lynch (349) and Brown (338), with Jason Akermanis (231), Luke Power (189), Michael Voss (160), Craig McRae (144), Simon Black (141), Tim Notting (132) and Nigel Lappin (109).

Only seven players averaged a goal a game - Lynch (2.93), Bradshaw (2.31), Brown (2.11), Jarrod Molloy (1.64), Akermanis (1.31), South African-born utility forward Damian Cupido (1.23), McRae (1.18) and Des Headland (1.00).

BROWNLOW MEDAL: The Lions won the game’s highest individual honour twice in the Matthews era via Jason Akermanis (2001) and Simon Black (2002). Plus, they had 14 top finishes split between Black (4), 1996 Brownlow Medallist Michael Voss (3), Luke Power (2), Jonathan Brown (2), Akermanis (1), Nigel Lappin (1) and Des Headland (1).

But who polled most votes overall? Black (142) and Voss (104) showed the way from Akermanis (84), Brown (72), Lappin (68), Power (65), Daniel Bradshaw (30), Chris Johnson (27), Martin Pike (20)and Justin Leppitsch (18).

And on a votes per game basis? It’s Black (0.69) from Voss (0.63), Akermanis (0.50), Lappin (0.43), Brad Boyd (0.38), Power and Headland (0.34), Martin Pike (0.22) and Jared Brennan (0.20).

FINALS: The Lions played 18 finals under Matthews. Jason Akermanis, Simon Black, Chris Johnson, Nigel Lappin and Nigel Leppitsch played all 18, while Shaun Hart and Luke Power played 17, and Alastair Lynch, Michael Voss and Darryl White 16.

MERRETT/MURRAY MEDAL: The Lions had 12 winners of the Merrett/Murray Medal during the Matthews era, with two ties. Simon Black and Michael Voss won three, Jason Akermanis and Jonathan Brown two, and Nigel Lappin and Justin Leppitsch one.

No less than 33 different players finished top 10 over the Matthews decade, and 14 players did so three or more times. Simon Black was top 10 nine times in the 10 years – he won it three times, was runner-up twice, and finished 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th and 10^th once each. Details were:-

Matthews’ rein of 10 years and 237 games in charge at the Gabba makes him the longest-serving coach in the combined Brisbane/Fitzroy history, having gone past Bill Stephen’s 214 games as Fitzroy coach and Robert Walls’ combined total of 224 in two stints at Fitzroy and Brisbane.

Matthews’ combined AFL career figures as a player at Hawthorn and a coach at Collingwood and Brisbane stand at an astonishing 793 games and eight premierships – four as a player at Hawthorn, one as a coach at Collingwood and three as a coach at Brisbane.

After his exit from the Lions the AFL Hall of Fame Legend stayed on to help the club in the appointment of his successor, and later served as the club’s Football Director. He remains on the Board of Directors today.

Fourteen years after his last game, a now 70-year-old Matthews remains a much-revered figure among his former Brisbane players, many of whom catch up with him regularly.

And he continues to have a massive influence on the competition via his disciples – the Brisbane players who have moved into coaching and other senior roles.

Michael Voss, Chris Scott and Craig McRae are senior AFL coaches this year after Brad Scott and Justin Leppitsch also had time in a senior role. While Brad Scott is now general manager football at the AFL, Leppitsch has stayed in club-land and is now McRae’s right-hand man at Collingwood. Nigel Lappin fills a similar role with Chris Scott at Geelong, where short-term Lion Shane O’Bree is also as assistant-coach, and Luke Power works closely with Voss as head of development at Carlton.

Blake Caracella is a key member of the Essendon coaching panel, Jed Adcock likewise at Brisbane and Josh Drummond at the Gold Coast, and Craig Lambert is a part-time coach at GWS. Daniel Pratt, who played three games under Matthews at the Lions, is an assistant-coach at West Coast.

Craig Starcevich, the only person to play under Matthews at Collingwood and Brisbane, is AFLW coach at the Lions, with Clark Keating and Simon Black among his assistant-coaches, while Matthew Clarke is AFLW coach at Adelaide.

Jonathan Brown, Alastair Lynch and Chris Johnson are national figures in the media, with Jason Akermanis doing some part-time local commentary, Previously, Daniel Merrett (now working in the Lions commercial team) was an AFLW assistant-coaches at Brisbane, Marcus Ashcroft was head of football at the Gold Coast and later a senior football figure at the AFL, and Shaun Hart was a development coach and was involved in player welfare at the Gold Coast and Port Adelaide.

Although Leigh Matthews is most well known by Brisbane Lions fans as a triple Premiership coach, and deservedly so, Matthews didn't just build Premiership players, his legacy continues to live on through those players today. In key media roles, at AFL head office, as coaching staff at some of the best Clubs around Australia.

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