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Melbourne Lions coach Mike Fagan has announced his resignation following a decade at the Gabba during which he transformed the team into a dynasty with three consecutive flags. Fagan cited the need for a fresh leadership perspective as the primary reason for his departure, noting that the club is in its best shape and the player group is well-equipped to continue contending. The 65-year-old stated that 2026 was the right time for him to step aside after giving the job his all, leaving internal candidates and external options to fill the vacancy.
Brisbane The 65-year-old has made the decision to step down after a transformative 10 years at the Gabba, turning the club around from wooden spooners to a dynastic powerhouse.to claim their third straight flag last Saturday that he was weighing up his future, despite having a year to run on his contract.7NEWS reporter Tom Morris revealed that Fagan had told his close confidants for the last six weeks that 2026 would be it.
“Together, we have been on a mission to make the Lions the most entertaining and competitive team in the competition, and we have done that,” Fagan said in a statement “This job is all encompassing; I’ve given it my absolute all and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved, but now is the right time to go. “This club has never been in greater shape, and the list profile would suggest this.
The boys will continue to contend, and I’ll be their number one fan, but a fresh face at the helm will be a key pillar for the players to come back to next season, as they work hard to achieve more success. ” Fagan said earlier this week that, if he did make this decision, he would not offer an opinion on who should be his successor.
But a number of his understudies are more than capable of stepping up to take over, with assistant coaches Cameron Bruce and Dale Morris both highly rated, while footy boss Danny Daly has admitted he would have an interest in coaching if asked.
“That’s something that the club will have to work out if that’s what occurs,” Fagan told SEN on Monday. “I would be happy to talk ... to the club about the kind of person that’s required and my ideas. But I figure, if I decide to go, it’s none of my business really.
”Fagan took over at the Lions at arguably their lowest eb in history, having finished just 0.64 per cent above Essendon, who were forced to play that 2016 season with state-league top-ups in the wake of their supplements saga bans. In Fagan’s first year, he took Brisbane from three to five wins and marginally increased their percentage, but still fell further down the ladder to claim the 2017 wooden spoon.
The next year, his young cubs again won just five games, but their percentage shot up from 74.31 to 89.07 on the back of a much more competitive season and several close losses. Then came the bounce: Fagan’s boys rocketed up the ladder to second with 16 wins in 2019 as the young core group of Harris Andrews, Hugh McCluggage, Jarrod Berry, Cam Rayner, Zac Bailey and co. started finding their feet.
But their ascension to finals wasn’t the immediate fairytale the Tasmanian-born mentor might have hoped it would be. Brisbane bombed out in straight sets in 2019 and won just one from their first six finals between 2019 and 2021. A breakthrough of sorts came in 2022 when the Lions beat Richmond in an elimination final thriller and reigning premiers Melbourne at the MCG the following week.
But they still couldn’t get past the penultimate week of the season, losing their second preliminary final in three years to Geelong. It wasn’t until 2023, in Fagan’s seventh year, when they finally took advantage of a top-two finish, winning their home qualifying and preliminary finals to meet minor premiers Collingwood in the decider. The Lions would ultimately lose in a four-point classic, but the coach was adamant it wouldn’t define his team.
“There are lots of teams in the history of the game that have lost close grand finals and gone on to win premierships in the ensuing years,” Fagan prophetically said after losing in 2023. “You know me, that’ll be my attitude, what can we learn today to make us a better team next year and I’ll never veer away from that.
“There’s plenty of history around to say that grand final losses don’t have to define you or destroy you — they can make you, so that’s what we’ll be looking to do. ” What ensued in the following three seasons would have exceeded even what serial optimist Fagan could have hoped for.
The veteran coach steered his side in 2024 to their first premiership since 2003, went back to back the next year, and then equaled the feats of Leigh Matthews’ legendary team of the early 2000s to win three in a row last Saturday. Fagan now bows out as just the seventh coach in VFL/AFL history to achieve a premiership three-peat and, remarkably, the second at the Brisbane Lions this century.
The much-loved figure spent the first 30 years of his life in Tasmania, but is expected to head back to Melbourne, where he spent most of his professional life before getting the gig in Brisbane.
Mike Fagan Melbourne Lions Resignation AFL Coaching
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