Brisbane has been urged to make a bold play for Geelong dual premiership coach Chris Scott to try and get the current group to the next level and win a flag.
After finishing top four in four of the last five seasons including playing in the 2023 Grand Final, the Lions have slid down the ladder in 2024 to currently sit 13th with four wins, a draw and six losses ahead of their bye.
Hampered by several key injury blows, the Lions are now up against it to play finals from here, sitting two and a half wins outside the top eight with 12 home and away matches remaining.
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It could mean Brisbane misses finals for the first time since 2018, Fagan’s second season as coach, with the 62-year old having led the club out of a lengthy rebuild period and back into contention.
But speaking on Fox Footy’s The First Crack, Kangaroos legend David King posed whether it was time for the Lions to try and really maximise the talent on their list by targeting one of the greatest coaches of the modern era in Scott, who played in Brisbane’s dynasty teams of the early 2000’s.
“This is just a hypothetical. We always wait until teams have finished their opportunity to win a flag before we make a move in any form of coaching,” King began.
“When you look at the Lions’ list and the club being so settled and such a great place – they’ve had a great run with Chris Fagan, who’s set them up for this opportunity of potentially an eight-year window they’re halfway through.
“Would it be too ruthless to put all chips in the basket and go and get Chris Scott?
“Say: ‘We’ve got had four or five chances with Chris Fagan, you’ve done nothing wrong and been a very good coach. But if we can get a great coach, an absolute top liner who’s been there for a long, long time and done it against the odds more often than not. We are doing this, we are not settling, we are not happy, we are not comfortable’.
“(Scott) can come in and we can refresh this message to the list, the new voice and fresh game plan. We can challenge guys plateauing a bit at the moment – Charlie Cameron, Zac Bailey and Hugh McCluggage – still very good players, but are they doing what top liners at other clubs are doing? I don’t think so.
“Reenergise, reinvent and show a different system and be the absolute pointy end of coaching. Give them a chance while they’re still in the window to win that elusive flag. What’s it worth to a win a flag and how aggressive do you need to be?”
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King went on to say he believes “this year’s over” for Brisbane and that it should be thinking about how to best position itself to bounce back in 2025.
“You can easily make the case they bounce next year, but are they the grand final, premiership contender we all think?,” he posed.
“I’m a gambler, I think if you’ve got the opportunity to get someone like this at whatever cost, you drive a wedge into the relationship Chris Scott has with Geelong and you say: ‘Come home and take us to the promise land again’.
“There’s nothing wrong with Chris Fagan, but this guy is a different beast altogether.”
Dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna concurred with King and pointed to “similar examples” of such coaching handovers in recent years.
“Think about Nathan Buckley, I know he had a really poor year (in 2021), but Nathan Buckley was a good coach and took Collingwood to a grand final and got so close (to winning a premiership). But they decided to go in a different direction and we’ve seen what Craig McRae has done,” Montagna said.
“You can say the same about Leon Cameron … he took the Giants to finals and a grand final and he was a good coach. But there was a greater coach and it was Adam Kingsley. They were speculating on first-time coaches let alone a proven coach (like Scott) we know is brilliant.”
However King said he’d only consider moving Fagan to get one of the game’s best coaches.
“My caveat is I would only do it if you can get greatness,” the Roos great added.
“I’m not taking a risk, I know what I’ve got – and it’s pretty good, I’m not speaking ill of Chris at all. But if you can get that next level, chips in.”
Source Agencies
