Paul Roos' gut feeling on what's next for Brisbane after Chris Fagan's departure

Well, the news today, Chris Fagan stepping down as coach of the Brisbane Lions after ten years. He goes out with a three-peat, incredibly the second for the Brisbane Lions this century. So why might now be the time for Chris Fagan? And what should the Brisbane Lions be looking for? Because let's remember, it's not a restart for the Brisbane Lions. They've just won the premiership. Surely it's just the status quo that remains. Joining me on the line now is Paul Roos, of course Sydney premiership coach, former Fitzroy champion. Roosy, good afternoon. Thanks for your time on 3AW.

Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

Uh, were you surprised at all that j-- less than a week ago you were giving Chris Fagan the Jock McHale Medal, today he's no longer a senior coach?

Yeah, probably not after we heard him speak after the game, and there was some amazing vision of him really close to the bench just after the siren, and he, he almost looked like in disbelief, but there looked like a, a just an amazing sigh of relief. So when you couple up what he said at straight after the game and, and then what happened today, uh, if I was a betting man, I probably would have said he was gonna give it away after what he'd said after the game. But he's been a, an ornament to the game and just a credit to, to AFL Footy.

He spoke a short time ago about the, the role of the senior coach and, and after ten years, he feels it's, it's time to give back to his family, his grandkids as well. As a former senior coach yourself, do you get to that point where it does just become too all-encompassing and you kind of forget what's outside [chuckles] of the footy club?

Yeah, well, you don't really have a weekend and you don't have... People say when I finished, you sort of say, "Oh, it's Easter." And you're like, "Oh, what's Easter?" Now I know we played on Easter, but you don't really... To be honest, it's sort of like you don't really think about public holidays and days off and all those sorts of things. And I think it's easy to forget that he's been there for ten years. Even when that came up, I'm like, "You forget that the six years prior to him pl-them playing in the grand final, he was coaching them as well." Um, so and I almost feel like, and I said this when I was coaching, I always feel like, you know, if you don't have success, which he did, and we were able to win the premiership in '05, probably seven or eight years, it sort of... I'd felt as a player, you wear out your welcome, the coaches. Now, again, that was based on not winning a premiership, so him winning three in a row and, and, and four grand finals. But yeah, I can see why he's made the decision. It, it's a smart decision and a wise decision, but certainly well thought out.

What does Brisbane do here now? The-the-there's been talk about their head of footy, Danny Daley, taking over. They'll obviously go through a, a process as well. But most clubs, Roosy, when the coach leaves, they're at rock bottom. They need a, a brand new start.

Yeah.

Standards need to change. A, a new game plan needs to come to the fore. None of that is true for the Brisbane Lions.

No, I'd be staggered to think they haven't got a plan. I, I, I