Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan’s ability to return his side to back-to-back Grand Final appearances, despite facing enormous obstacles throughout this season, has seen him claim the coveted 2024 Monjon Allan Jeans Senior Coach of the Year award announced on Tuesday night.
Fagan’s Lions absorbed an enormous amount of adversity throughout 2024, with the coach resurrecting his team’s season following a 2-5 start which saw many question his coaching future.
The Lions coach won the prestigious award for the second time in his coaching career (2019) ahead of Grand Final combatant and Sydney coach John Longmire, while Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell was also recognised for his side’s stunning season with third place in voting.
“Being the recipient of the 2024 AFLCA Coach of the Year Award is a great honour,” Fagan said.
“I view it as recognition for everyone who is part of the coaching team at the Brisbane Lions – Cam Bruce, Murray Davis, Dale Morris, Scott Borlace, Ben Hudson, Daniel Lloyd and our GM of Football Danny Daly. Coaching an AFL team is a collective effort and the Senior Coach at all clubs requires the support and expertise of their assistant & development coaches to deliver a quality program to our players. I’m incredibly grateful to all these men for what they do to help me.
“I would also like to thank our players for their efforts – without doubt they make us coaches look better than we are at times.
“Coaching is full of interesting & unique challenges but overall is an immensely rewarding job. I’m thankful to the Brisbane Lions hierarchy for showing faith in an old bloke like me to be their Senior Coach 8 years ago. It’s been a fun ride and I’m very proud of the consistent club we have become.
“To be recognised by my peers in this way is something I didn’t truly expect but it is something I’m very proud of.
“Congratulations to all coaches at every AFL Club. This season has been more competitive and hard fought than ever and the general public have been entertained to the max. A large reason for this is the professionalism and quality of our respective programs. Hopefully the AFL continues to acknowledge this and provides us with the financial support to keep chasing excellence into the future.”
The well-deserved accolade comes for Fagan following a challenging start to the season where key players were lost to injury, many of his side’s star players were struggling for form and questions lingered about whether the heartbreaking Grand Final loss of 2023 had sapped his players’ belief.
“Since being appointed as the AFL Reserves coach at Melbourne in 1998, ‘Fages’ has had a huge impact on the many people he has coached in the AFL,” AFLCA CEO Alistair Nicholson said.
“While his care and connection are well known, it is his resilience and leadership that have shone through in recent times, and he has continued to be true to himself while performing at the top level.
“We wish him and his coaching panel all the best for the Grand Final this week.”
2024 MONJON ALLAN JEANS SENIOR COACH OF THE YEAR
- CHRIS FAGAN – BRISBANE LIONS
- JOHN LONGMIRE – SYDNEY SWANS
- SAM MITCHELL – HAWTHORN
