Chris Fagan will become the oldest grand final coach in AFL history next Saturday as he looks to join one of world sport’s elite coaching groups.

Among a host of significant achievements, Fagan will be 62 years 99 days old when he leads the Brisbane Lions in the grand final against Collingwood at the MCG.

He will be four years and 45 days older than 2011 Collingwood grand final coach Mick Malthouse, who presently heads the senior statesmen list of grand final coaches.

And he’ll be almost 11 years old than the next-oldest first-time AFL grand final coach – St.Kilda’s Stan Alves was 51 years 128 days old when he coached his first and only grand final in 1997.

Also, set to coach his first grand final in his 162^nd game, Fagan will have endured the equal fourth-longest wait to reach the ‘big dance’.

Malthouse also heads this list, having waited 187 games to coached West Coast in the 1991 grand final. Mark Thompson was 185 games with Geelong in 2007 and Damien Hardwick 182 games with Richmond in 2017.

Like Fagan, Nathan Buckley, in charge of Collingwood’s last grand final in 2018, waited 162 games.

Fagan, who in seven years since he took charge of the Lions in 2017 has overseen the total resurrection of a one-time AFL superpower turned self-confessed basket case, will also be looking to become the first person never to play at the elite level to coach an AFL grand final side.

Technically, John ‘Jack’ Worrall, Carlton’s first grand final coach in the then VFL in 1904 and the Blues’ premiership coach in 1906-07-08, also did not play in the VFL. But he did play 90 games with Fitzroy from 1884-87 and 1889-1893 in the VFA, which was the premier competition until the birth of the VFL in 1897.

A win on Saturday would also catapult Fagan to a level alongside some of the all-time coaching greats in world sport, like NFL coaching great Bill Belichick, a six-time Superbowl winner, NBA coaching legend Gregg Popovich, a five-time championship-winning coach with the San Antonio Spurs, and soccer’s Arrigo Sacchi, an icon with AC Milan in the European Cup.

This trio sit with the great coaches in their chosen sports without having played at the elite level.

But regardless of the outcome it is another step down an extraordinary pathway for the one-time school teacher turned Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame legend.

One of football’s great gentlemen, he is closing out his 25^th year in the AFL, having been at Melbourne from 1999-2007, Hawthorn 2008-2016 and Brisbane 2017-23.

He is no stranger to football’s big day. In Tasmania he won premierships with Hobart in 1980 and Devonport in 1988, and in 1991-92 as assistant-coach at North Hobart.

He was assistant-coach at Melbourne when they played in the 2000 AFL grand final, and at Hawthorn he was a key figure in premierships in 2008-13-14-15 and a losing grand final in 2012.