The Brisbane Lions’ premiership teams of the early 2000s have emulated the successful Hawthorn sides of the 80s in terms of breeding AFL coaches.

Hawthorn famously produced a wealth of senior coaches, including Gary Ayres (Geelong/Adelaide), Peter Schwab (Hawthorn), Terry Wallace (Western Bulldogs/Richmond), Ken Judge (Hawthorn/West Coast), Gary Buckenara (Sydney), Rodney Eade (Sydney/Western Bulldogs), Peter Knights (Brisbane Bears/Hawthorn), and Leigh Matthews who delivered Collingwood the 1990 premiership before guiding the Lions to their historic 3-Peat.

Matthews also helped developed the next wave of AFL coaches during his tenure in Brisbane, with four of his players since going on to fill senior positions.

The most recent of Matthews’ pupils to have graduated to senior coaching is Justin Leppitsch, who was officially appointed Lions Senior Coach on Tuesday.

Leppitsch replaced former captain Michael Voss, who had spent the previous five years at the helm of the Lions, while fellow AFL coaches Chris Scott (Geelong) and Brad Scott (North Melbourne) were also part of those successful Lions sides.

There are another half a dozen former Lions currently in the AFL ranks as assistant or specialist coaches, including Blake Caracella (Geelong), Craig McRae (Collingwood), Luke Power (GWS Giants), Jamie Charman (Brisbane Lions), Shaun Hart (Gold Coast), and Nigel Lappin (Geelong).

Chris Johnson, Clarke Keating and Beau McDonald have also previously dabbled in coaching at AFL level, as has 300-gamer Marcus Ashcroft, who has since moved into football administration and currently holds the critical position of Football Manager at the Gold Coast Suns.

With so many great football minds, it’s little wonder these sides are largely recognised as two of the best throughout the modern era.

Given Geelong’s relative dominance over the past decade, you would suspect that Adelaide’s Brenton Sanderson won’t be the only Cats player from that era to occupy a Head Coach position.