AFL grand final: I had sleepless nights over Lachie Neale decision, says Chris Fagan

Dual Brisbane premiership coach Chris Fagan has revealed he had sleepless nights agonising over whether to gamble on gun midfielder Lachie Neale’s calf injury in the grand final.

Neale was named in the team after a remarkable recovery from tearing the muscle in the qualifying final loss to Geelong.

Fagan started Neale as the sub and threw the veteran into battle after half-time with the scores locked.

“I was laying in bed last night and was thinking I am either going to look like a total idiot or a total genius,” Fagan said.

“If we had have lost and he only played a half we would probably be bemoaning the fact that we went about it that way.

“But the bottom line was this – Lachie was fit to play – but how much game time could he play?

“He played one game in eight weeks. One game in 56 days.

“Coming into a grand final I was a little bit worried about his ability to see the whole game out if he had to actually start.

“So Lachie and I had a good chat during the way about (Fagan saying) “I want to play you mate, if you’re right to go, but this was the bit of the puzzle that we have to sort out’.

“We both agreed that the best way to do it was for him to start as the sub and introducing him into the game.

“I didn’t know when that was going to be, but it felt right to do it at half time.

“I was pretty grateful that we were equal (on the scoreboard) and I thought he’d come on and bring great energy in the second half, which is exactly what he did.”

Two-time Brownlow medallist Neale finished with 17 possessions, a goal and seven clearances.

“It was a bit of a bold plan I suppose and it’s come off, but it might not have too,” Fagan said.

Fagan, 64, in his ninth season at the helm, spoke of the mental fortitude of his players and referenced former South Africa president and anti-apartheid activist, the late Nelson Mandela, whose philosophies he said had framed their rise up the ladder from easybeats to back-to-back premiers.

The Lions kicked 13 goals to six after the main break to register the 47-point victory against the favourites entering the game.

“One of things I tried to teach the boys when I first got to the club was the concept of having a growth mindset,” he said.

“And the fact that if you are going to be any good you are going to fail a fair bit til you get there.

“I always talked about the idea of failing our way to the top and that’s what did and for the first three years there I think we won one out of six finals.

“We had a few lessons, but since that point in time we have become a really good finals team.

“That’s all on the back of learning our lesssons. I think it’s a good way to live your life to be honest.

“We have a saying on our wall. It is a famous Nelson Mandela quote, ‘We never lose, we either win or we learn’.

“That’s the attitude that we have tried to take and I think everybody has embraced that at the footy club.

“We don’t get too upset when we lose.

“Today is probably a good example. We got a lesson from Geelong three weeks ago.

“And we went to work on it.

“We obviously had to win two finals to get another chance but … today you saw that we learnt some things from that game and did some things better and ended up with a premiership, so I am very proud of the group.

“It’s such a good group of men and they handled the premiership win last year particularly well,” Fagan said. “That’s not easy to do because you get a lot of accolades when you win premierships and it’s quite intoxicating.

“The blokes turned up in good shape pre-season even though we had a lot of blokes who had surgeries.

“And we went to work again and found a way to do what we did today.”

Fagan said they “did it the hard way by playing four finals”.

“That suits us, somehow,” he said.