Brisbane premiership coach Chris Fagan has taken out the 2025 Monjon Allan Jeans Senior Coach of the Year Award for the second-straight season on Tuesday night.
In what’s now the mastercoach’s third honour, after also taking the title back in 2019, Fagan beat Geelong counterpart Chris Scott and Adelaide’s Matthew Nicks to the title.
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Fagan polled 305 votes, 60 ahead of second placed Scott (245) and more than double that of third-placed Nicks (128) who lifted the Crows from 15th on the ladder to minor premiers.
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Brisbane started their premiership defence with a bang, losing only one of their first nine games.
But three losses in the next five games saw the Lions slip from their stronghold at the top of the table.
Fagan was able to lead Brisbane to a 16-win season which put them into the top four – and the prized double chance.
Finals wins over Gold Coast and Collingwood has ensured the Lions head into their third straight grand final in a remarkable run of success for Fagan.
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“I feel proud,” Fagan said on AFL360 after claiming his third coaching crown.
“Not so much for me, but for our entire football department – the coaching of an AFL team is not done by one person.
“There’s so many people that contribute – I feel like this award is recognition of the work a lot of people do, not just the senior coach.
“I think as a head coach, you’ve got to be a good generalist. The key is the people that you have around you.”
Fagan credited his background as a schoolteacher with his ability to connect with his Lions players.
“One of the things you do straight away with the classes you have is try to build a relationship with every student you have in the class and I don’t see that it’s any different when it comes to coaching,” he said.
“You get to know them as people, spend time with them, invest in them, help them when they’re struggling a little bit.
“I think that people of all ages respect that and enjoy that, and respond to that way of doing things. That’s always been my way – I don’t know whether it’s the right way or not, but it’s how I’ve always operated.
“I don’t think I’m any sort of expert – I never pretend to be.”
And the Lions mentor opened up on the big calls he and the selection committee will face for this weekend’s grand final with both Lachie Neale and Jarrod Berry pushing their returns from injury.
“So (Neale) trained today. It wasn’t a heavy session but he did everything and he did it at a much higher speed than probably everyone else did because they’re still trying to recover from Saturday night,” he shared.
“We’ve obviously got our main training session on Thursday in Melbourne so I’ve spoken to Lachie and said ‘well mate you’ve got to train flat out – there’s no holding back. We’ll just see how you pull up from that’ and we’ll make a decision from there with the medical staff and myself and see which way we go.
“If the medical staff and our fitness people give him the tick off, then I’m going to back them in.
“He’ll need to get through training on Thursday. He did a very, very hard session on the weekend which our medical and fitness people were really impressed with. He moved well today and I think Lachie expects that he’s going to be right to go but we’ll still wait and see.
“I think he knows what’s at stake. He’s not taking this decision lightly. I’m confident with that aspect of it.
“Jarrod Berry trained today – he’s desperate to make himself available.
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“We’ll let him train on Thursday and we’ll see how he is. The difficult part about that is it’s now popped out twice and the second time around there’s always a bit more damage done.
“I think it will be a big call to include Jarrod, but I’m going to give him the opportunity to show what he can do on Thursday. More for his own peace of mind I think.”
Capping off a brilliant awards haul, Fagan was also named as winner of the 2025 Neale Daniher AFL Coaches Association Lifetime award.
It’s fitting given Daniher was the man who gave Fagan his first AFL coaching job in 1998 at the Melbourne Football Club.
COACH OF THE YEAR
2025 Chris Fagan
2024 Chris Fagan
2023 Adam Kingsley
2022 Craig McRae
2021 Simon Goodwin
2020 Ken Hinkley
2019 Chris Fagan
OTHER AWARD WINNERS
For the 12th time, Gerard Whateley has won the AFLCA Media Award.
Named the winner by Fagan on AFL 360, the Lions coach said it was a remarkable effort to claim 12 titles.
“You’re obviously well trusted and well regarded by the coaching fraternity,” he praised.
“That’s a credit to you!
“You’ve done it 12 times – that’s an amazing effort.”
AFL Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year: Cameron Bruce (Brisbane)
AFL Coaches Association Development Coach of the Year: David Mackay (Hawthorn)
AFL Coaches Association Career and Education Award: Murray Davis (Adelaide)
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