Chris Fagan

About Chris

Chris Fagan is the head coach of the Brisbane Lions Football Club and a Tasmanian Football Hall of Famer. He came to coaching via an Education degree, beginning as an assistant coach at Melbourne Football Club in 1998 before moving to Hawthorn, where he served as Head of Coaching and Development and General Manager of Football — and played an integral role in four Hawthorn premiership victories between 2008 and 2015. Appointed Brisbane's head coach in October 2016, he has since led the Lions to back-to-back AFL premiership wins in 2024 and 2025.

Fagan is widely recognised for his people development skills above all else. His reputation within the game is built less on tactical systems than on his capacity to identify potential, build trust and draw out consistent performance from diverse individuals under pressure. That emphasis on human development — rooted in more than twenty years at football's highest level — gives his corporate speaking a grounding in lived experience that pure theory cannot replicate.

He is an ideal fit for leadership conferences, team performance forums and keynote panels where audiences want to hear from someone who has built and sustained high-performing cultures at the elite level. His Bachelor of Education background means he communicates with clarity, and his dual perspective as both a player and a premiership coach gives him a rounded view of what excellence in team environments actually requires.