Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
A humble Chris Fagan says it “doesn’t feel right” to be breaking AFL legend Leigh Matthews’ record for most games as Brisbane Lions coach.
Fagan will coach the Lions for the 238th time on Saturday when Brisbane hosts the Gold Coast Suns in a QClash at the Gabba.
Matthews guided the Lions to three straight premierships from 2001 to 2003.
It’s an achievement Fagan has the chance to mirror this year after Brisbane’s back-to-back flags in 2024 and 2025.
However, despite closing in on matching what Matthews achieved in terms of premiership success at the Lions, Fagan doesn’t feel entirely comfortable being compared to his close friend and “mentor”.
“There has been a lot of chat about something that I’d rather not probably talk too much about,” Fagan said on Friday.
“The club has been really generous in the way that they’ve celebrated the (record-breaking) occasion.
“Leigh Matthews has been even more generous in his comments about me, which is a little humbling, to be honest.
“He’s a great friend of mine, and he’s been such a mentor of mine since the day I arrived here.
“It doesn’t quite feel right to be breaking his record, but hopefully we can just live side-by-side in the history of the Brisbane Lions, and the people will appreciate what both of us did in our times here.”
While winning has become a habit for Fagan at the Lions, it wasn’t always that way.
In his first season in charge of Brisbane in 2017, the Lions won just five games and finished with the wooden spoon.
The following season Brisbane again could only muster five wins despite climbing to a 15th-placed finish.
Since then the Lions have contested eight successive finals series and are again set to do so this year.
“We were a long way from that 10 years ago, and I would say from the outset, it hasn’t been me that’s created this, it’s been everybody working together in the one direction that’s made the club what it what it is today,” Fagan said.
“It wasn’t a good place in terms of the team hadn’t won many games of football for a few years, the membership was pretty low, the attendances at games were quite low, the club was struggling financially, and I guess the good part about it now is that 10 years on, all those things have gone into absolute reverse.
“Credit for that goes to everybody, particularly the playing group, who early days didn’t have the greatest levels of confidence, and in my first couple of years, we only won five games in each of those seasons, but a lot of those boys stuck to the task, and in the third year, we got our breakthrough, and things have been going pretty well ever since.
“Premierships weren’t the aim at the start. The aim at the start was just to get the club to be a good club again and get a level of respect within the competition.
“I don’t think our goal has ever changed. The premierships are a by-product of all the things that we’ve done. It’ll still be that, and I just know how hard it is to win them, so I’m not even prepared to talk about the possibility of winning one this year, let alone next year.”
Fagan, 65, is contracted to coach Brisbane until the end of next season, but Lions chief executive Sam Graham hasn’t given up hope of convincing the master mentor to further extend his tenure.
“‘Fages’ has said while he’s got the energy and passion to keep coaching, that’s where he’s at,” Graham said.
“We’ll always chat at the end of the year on where he’s at and how he’s feeling, and that’ll be no different (this year).
“He’s contracted for next year and we’ll sit down when the time’s right.”
