Coaching Staff Chris Fagan - Coach

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Fagan takes the UK: Part 1
While in the United Kingdom, Senior Coach Chris Fagan will be visiting a number of sporting teams and facilities to learn and develop as a Coach. Here he writes about his time so far and the people he has met in the UK:

For the next two weeks, I will be in and around London visiting sporting teams, chatting to coaches and attending the Leaders in Performance Conference at The Oval.

My intention is to report back my travels to all our members and supporters via our Club website. So here goes ……

I will spend time with Brighton Hove Albion FC, Queens Park Rangers FC, Dave Alred and Fencesco Molinari, attend the Leaders Conference, peruse the English Rugby Union Training Camp with Eddie Jones and Neil Craig and spend time with Simon Wheatley, the Performance Coach Education Manager at Lawn Tennis Association of Great Britain.

It’s a reasonably full and diverse schedule and should lead to some useful learnings and ideas that we can use productively at the Lions.

On Monday I spent most of the day with the Academy staff here at Brighton Hove Albion FC. Watched the Under 23 and Under 18 teams train and had some great discussions with John Morling [Academy Manager] and Ian Buckman [Assistant Academy Manager].

I also had a tour of the training facility which is only 4 years old. It is a magnificently designed facility – practical, innovative and incredibly well looked after. Hopefully, we will have something similar to be proud of in the near future.
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Fagan takes the UK: Part 2
Hard to believe but had dinner at the Ivy Hotel in Brighton last night and our waiter was an Australian. Anyway, here's what happened on Day 2 at Brighton & Hove Albion FC:

The day started with a meeting with Chris Hughton the First Team Head Coach or Manager as they call them in the EPL. Chris has been a Manager at quite a few EPL Clubs including Newcastle United, Birmingham City, Norwich City and now, of course, Brighton & Hove Albion. Matt Ryan, Australia’s National goalkeeper, performs the same role for Brighton.

Chris outlined to me the training session that his squad would do that morning. At about 10.30am training commenced. It was a two-hour session completed at high intensity. The session was a mixture of small sided games, 30 minutes of match practice as well as some tactical elements for the upcoming game v Cardiff. I was impressed by the intensity of the session.

In the afternoon I was able to meet with several key people attached to the EPL team. Firstly, I met with Eoin Bradford the Assistant Head of Recruitment & Performance Analysis. Given that EPL teams recruit players from all over the world he is part of a rather large and important department.

They also have five analysts who are completely dedicated to assisting the coaches at Senior, Under 23 and Under 18 levels [Academy] to provide performance feedback to players as well as prepare for upcoming opposition. It was interesting to note that Brighton is big on making sure the players they recruit are of strong and reliable character.

Following the meeting with Eoin, I had an hour with Adam Brett the Head of Medical at the Club. He is a physiotherapist who first started in British Rugby. He expanded on how they individualise the training programs of each player [much like we do] and he shared some of the processes they have around player health and well-being monitoring which was interesting.

We do this area really well at the Brisbane Lions but there were a couple of ideas I got from Adam that could enhance our program even further.

I then had another meeting with John Morling & Ian Buckman, the guys who head up Brighton’s Academy program. This time it was me sharing with them some ideas around performance feedback to players and coaches and also the way we go about building club culture and developing a growth mindset amongst our players and staff. It was good to be able to share with them some ideas that could possibly help their program.

For the last hour of the day, I spent some time again with Team Manager Chris Hughton. He, like me, achieved his first Head Coaching position at a relatively old age [48] after many years doing other assistant coaching type roles at many clubs. It’s great just to have a chat with someone who does a similar job and to hear how they manage their staff, programs and the general pressure that comes with the role.

He’s had four different Head Coach roles in 10 years so he knows what pressure is all about. His role at Brighton has been to raise the club up to be more competitive and ultimately achieve a birth in the EPL. His role now is to keep them improving so that they stay in the top flight.

There are many similarities with what we have been striving to achieve at the Lions these past two years and what we aim to do in the years ahead. At the conclusion of the meeting, Chris was off to do his regular yoga session. He does this to relax and relieve a bit of stress. Might have to consider taking it up myself!!
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Fagan takes the UK: Part 3
Late last week I ventured out to Harlington, the location of the Queens Park Rangers training centre to watch them train. Massimo Luongo, a regular selection in recent Socceroos teams, is a midfielder at QPR and as such plays an incredibly important role in linking up the play for his teammates. He was impressive at training – I was able to meet him and Coach Steve McLaren at the session.

On Friday I ventured out to Wisley Golf Course – a private club about an hour from London. It is the home club of this year’s British Open winner Francesco Molinari, the 8th ranked golfer in the world in 2018. Dave Alred, who lives part-time in Brisbane and part-time in England, is one of his coaches. Dave did some goalkicking work with a few of our forwards late in the 2018 season and will continue doing so with us during the pre-season. When Dave found out that I was going to be in London this month he invited me to come along and watch a training session with Francesco. What an opportunity!

I’ve got to say it was an absolute pleasure and a great learning experience to watch Fran train. Dave pushes him hard and designs training that is tougher than tournament play. Fran embraces this and works his hardest to make every shot that he plays count. He trains at an incredible intensity and his ability to concentrate on what he is doing is impressive. Golf can be a very frustrating game at times, but Fran embraces this and moves on quickly when things don’t go his way. The consistency of his skills is just amazing and on top of he is a humble and generous person. There was a lot to take away that we can use to help our players improve their individual skills – particularly in regard to mindset and concentration at training.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I planned to attend the Leaders in Performance Summit at The Kia Oval in London. They come from all parts of the world and from many different sports. The event is a mixture of talks, interviews, focus groups and discussions. It is a great way to pick up new ideas and to build your network of sporting connections around the world. There were quite a few AFL people at the event including past Lions greats in Chris & Brad Scott.
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Fagan takes the UK: Part 4
On Wednesday I headed off for a day with the England Rugby Union team who are currently in the middle of a series of international games. Neil Craig who coached the Adelaide Crows has a role as Coach Development Manager with the team and he generously facilitated my visit.

The day was a great learning experience for me with a couple of unexpected outcomes. I watched the England team train – it was their main hit out for the week. The session was highly organised and purposeful. I was able to attend the team meeting post training where the focus areas for their game against Japan at the weekend were discussed.

It was great to see the amount of player involvement in the meeting. This is something we have worked hard on at the Lions over the past two years, so it was good to see a high performing international team using similar methodologies to us. Eddie Jones the Head Coach asked a lot of questions in the meeting probing the players understanding of what was required from them to achieve victory against Japan. He was pleased with their response and input.

Later in the afternoon, I was able to spend an hour or so with Eddie and Neil Craig just talking about coaching, sharing philosophies on player management, creating culture and how best to assist players to learn and develop. It was time well spent with two men of vast coaching experience at the elite level.

The unexpected outcome of the day was that two other high profile coaches happened to be spending the day with the team as well. Craig Bellamy, the highly successful Melbourne Storm NRL Coach, and a fellow by the name of Frank Dick who works as a Coaching Consultant with the England team. Craig and I spent two hours watching training together and chatting about all things coaching and Frank gave me an hour of his time at the end of the day sharing his philosophies and experiences.

Overall it was a productive learning day for me. The effort to get out to Penny Hill Lane was well worth it and my mind is still churning, reflecting on the many ideas I was able to glean from my conversations with four great coaches.

The bit I loved most was when he referred to the fact that the training session was heavily player driven. Our future success will be on the back of how hard our players can push each other to improve and how well they can work together so that was music to my ears.
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Fagan takes the UK: Part 5
Today I headed off to meet with Simon Wheatley, the Coach Development Manager for the Lawn Tennis Association of Great Britain. Simon has a big job developing all the elite level tennis coaches in England, Scotland & Ireland.

Somehow, he needs to assist a large number of tennis coaches to improve all elements of their coaching craft – technical, tactical and mental to produce future world women’s and men’s champions at junior and senior levels. He was a great person to speak with and we shared plenty of ideas on how best to go about educating coaches in both our sports effectively. He showed me around the centre and I met most of the staff from the different departments including strength and conditioning, game analysis and administration.

In many ways it was like an AFL Football Department except the focus was on resourcing elite tennis players and their coaches so that they can compete at the highest level possible. There’s no doubt everything I have done over the past two weeks has been beneficial. Thanks to the AFL Coaches Association and the Lions for funding the majority of the trip.
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AFL coaches Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan were guests of honour at the MCG on Christmas Eve, swapping stories and chatting about coaching with Australian cricket counterpart Justin Langer.

Good friends Clarkson, Hawthorn's four-time premiership mentor, and Fagan, who has made great improvements at the Brisbane Lions in the past two seasons, were on deck at the invitation of Langer.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cri...pre-boxing-day-test-chat-20181224-p50o2k.html
 

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Fagan on rules: Unleash the speedsters (Marc McGowan)
Brisbane is set to remodel its centre-bounce set-up with a focus on speed – rather than big-bodied midfielders – in response to the AFL's new starting positions. Each team must station six players inside each 50m arc, including one in both goalsquares, with four others in the centre square, plus two wingmen, at the beginning of each quarter and after goals. The general consensus among coaches is that scoring will spike as a result of the decreased congestion, possibly by a couple of goals a game.

Lions coach Chris Fagan, who was on the AFL's Competition Committee that analysed the state of the game and recommended rule changes, has tested a variety of onball units in match simulation. "Centre bounces look really open now, with just your four players in the middle and the wingers on either side and the forwards back in the 50," Fagan told AFL.com.au. "Bigger bodies are still important, but not necessarily as many of them. "The ball's going to get out in space pretty quickly, so speed and agility are going to be fairly important elements of winning the ball out of centre clearances."

Fagan earmarked captain Dayne Zorko, top recruit Lachie Neale, Charlie Cameron and first-round draft picks Hugh McCluggage, Cam Rayner and Zac Bailey as centre-bounce options in that vein. Only Neale, while at Fremantle, and Zorko made at least 150 centre-square attendances in 2018, so it would be a dramatic change for Brisbane, which granted star midfielder Dayne Beams' trade wish last year.

Rayner, the No.1 pick in the 2017 Draft, will spend more time in the midfield, but will likely still be used mostly as a forward this year. Strong-bodied onballer Jarrod Berry is highly rated at the Lions and will also have a role to play in the middle, while Mitch Robinson and Rhys Mathieson were others in there last season.

"I think you can expect a (Brisbane) midfield that will share the load," Fagan said. "I feel like our midfield over my first couple of years – and it's no-one's fault, it's not a criticism – has been a little bit too much about Dayne Beams and Dayne Zorko. "That's understandable, because the other boys, like McCluggage and Berry, have just come on the scene, but they're third-year players now and their numbers are starting to look like bona fide AFL midfielders.

"Then you throw Lachie Neale and Jarryd Lyons into that mix, who are elite at clearances and contested ball, and our ruck stocks are healthy with Stef Martin, Oscar McInerney and Archie Smith. "The thing I'm pleased with is that what I'm seeing is they're a group that might work well together, so the strength will be the unit and not just a couple of individual players."
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Fagan setting big goals for 2019 (Marc McGowan)
Brisbane Lions' players have set the lofty goal of qualifying for finals in 2019, with coach Chris Fagan admitting such an aim would have been unrealistic even a year ago.

The Lions won five games last year for the second straight season under Fagan, but it was met with far more positive reviews – and the club's cavalcade of talented cubs seem primed to roar. They would have posted nine victories if they reversed their 1-5 record in matches decided inside 10 points. The Lions added Lachie Neale, Jarryd Lyons, Marcus Adams and Lincoln McCarthy in the off-season, while former captain Dayne Beams was the sole best-22 departure, albeit a significant one.

The Lions last contested a final a decade ago, in the first of Michael Voss' almost five years at the helm. "No, it wasn't (a goal to make the top eight last year). It wasn't realistic," Fagan told AFL.com.au. "It probably seems a little strange to say that a team that won five games last year believes they can push for finals, but there were so many of those games that we lost by not much. "They know they're close – and much closer than they were the year before.

"So with the guys we've been able to bring into the Club, with the continued development of our really good young talent, their belief is they can push for (finals). "It's no good me telling them. It's more important they think they can."

Brisbane's percentage spiked from 74.31 per cent to 89.07 last season, while its average losing margin dropped from 47 points to 25. The Lions also made major, and necessary, inroads in key statistics such as contested possession, clearances and time in forward half differential, as well as points from stoppages.

The logical next step is to actually win more matches, with Fagan saying he would be "disappointed" if Brisbane failed to increase its tally from last year. "In a way, you've got to fail your way to the top," he said. "You've got to set your goals high and stretch yourself, and sometimes you're not going to get there, but in trying to get there, you learn a lot about yourself and that enables you to improve. "We very much have that growth mindset at our footy club and we know it's not going to be smooth sailing and a direct line, but as we saw last year, we improved in so many ways."

Ex-Bulldog Adams gives Brisbane greater depth in its tall defensive stocks, while young bucks Cedric Cox and Zac Bailey are being trialled at half-back to provide more of an attacking dimension. However, one of the critical factors in the Lions' potential climb could be how capably Dan McStay can serve as their go-to target in attack while Eric Hipwood grows into his slight frame."Hippy's' not physically big enough (to be that player for us yet). What he is, is a great athlete, and he runs," Fagan said. "We need the Dan McStays and guys like him to play that pillar sort of role up there, where the ball gets kicked on their head and they make a fierce contest and occasionally take a mark – and importantly don't get outmarked. "He's at an age now where he has to shoulder that responsibility, but we've also got to find and develop others who can play similar roles.

"Some of those guys, like Connor Ballenden and Tom Fullarton, are in the ranks, but they're still young." Fagan's cautious confidence about his side stems not only from the obvious improvement in 2018, but also what he has witnessed from his players this pre-season. "We haven't played a game against opposition, so I have to be careful," he said. "But I'm really thrilled with what I see, in terms of their professionalism, the way they train, and their mateship. There's a great brotherhood growing at Brisbane. "The way they turned up to pre-season, the shape they were in, the way they turned up after Christmas, the shape they were in – they're all just little signs they're on a mission and that they have belief. "I think that's taken a little while to develop."
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Chris Fagan says making finals won’t define Brisbane Lions’ campaign (Ben Waterworth)
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan insists his club doesn’t necessarily need to finish in the top eight for 2019 to be considered a pass mark.

With a young, talented list that showed promising signs throughout 2018, there’s been ample external hype around the Lions over the off-season. Gun midfielder Dayne Zorko declared on Monday that the playing group felt it had the potential to feature in September for the first time since 2009. Star recruit Lachie Neale also declared to foxfooty.com.au that Brisbane was closer to a premiership than old side Fremantle.

But Fagan said making finals wouldn’t define Brisbane’s 2019 campaign. “No I don’t think we need to make the eight this year. We just need to continue to improve,” Fagan told Macquarie Sports Radio Breakfast. “The thing that’s important in terms of the goals you set around the season is what the players think they can do — and the one thing I’m pleased about with our group is they think they’re capable of a fair bit more than what they were able to do last year. “How many wins that turns into? I’m not sure. But we’ve raised the bar and we want to do better than we did last season.”

The Lions finished 2018 with a 5-17 record, yet five of those losses were decided by seven points or less. While Fagan hasn’t implemented any late-game scenario training over the off-season yet, he said the additions of Neale, Lincoln McCarthy, Jarryd Lyons and Marcus Adams would some “steel and experience to our group”. “Our biggest problem last year, even in the close wins, was that we had a poor record in first quarters, particularly in the first half of the year … that’s more of a mindset when you first get into games and a little bit of experience. I think we’ll keep stepping forward in that regard,” he said.

Fagan said one of the team’s short-term goals was to end several current losing streaks against rival clubs. “We’ve only beaten around five or six different sides over the last two years, so certainly one of our aims will be to beat some of those sides that have been able to clean Brisbane up for the last so many years,” he said. “We got close to doing it a number of times last year and from that the boys have got a little bit more belief in themselves, which is an important thing when they’re young.”
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T Rick said:
Our Coach is a classic!
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The full interview was fantastic; particularly his insights into ensuring he calls all players on the lists and checking in with them on a regular basis on his walks. His dedication is immense and like a lot that have been fortunate to meet him and have a chat, you can see why the players respect and have such unity.

Seriously one of the best recruits this club has ever made.
 
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