“Reflectiveness and age a powerful combination”

Full disclosure: my husband and I are members of the Brisbane Lions AFL club. We were very excited to be at the MCG on Grand Final day where our team won convincingly.
Regardless of whether you are a sports fan or not, stay tuned as we believe this story may have more relevance than you may initially think.
Chris Fagan, Brisbane Lions coach, began this role in 2017, when the Club was at a low ebb. Three previous VFL/AFL stars had led in the coach role. Leigh Matthews (led a very successful era), triple premiership captain Michael Voss had mixed success and by the time triple premership player Justin Leppitish had finished as coach the Brisbane Lions were struggling in every way on the field, with disunity, and financial stress.
Chris Fagan spoke to The Roar Deal https://www.theroardeal.com/ about being 55 years of age (comparatively old to previous coaches), had never played at AFL level, though had some experience as an AFL assistant coach. Fagan, a former teacher, rang his daughter (also a teacher) and asked her what’s the latest thought in education. His daughter told him Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset book The Growth Mindset Workbook: CBT Skills to Help You Build Resilience, Increase Confidence, and Thrive Through Life's Challenges was big at that time, and Fagan read the book. The essence of the book was that you either succeed or learn. For Fagan, this was highly relevant as player feedback had indicated that they preferred to be part of the off-field rehab group rather than be playing. Fagan was shocked, interpreting this information that players saw the on-field role as a harsh, critical environment.
Fagan intentionally shared his vision of a winning or learning environment. Winning wasn’t to come until later. A memorable image was when a young player at the time, Cam Rayner, missed an important shot at goal which could have made a winning score, moments before the Lions lost the game. Fagan is pictured walking off the ground comforting Rayner: Lions coach Chris Fagan’s touching gesture after Cam Rayner heartbreak | The West Australian This has been replayed much in 2024, particularly after Rayner kicked a winning goal to seal the game win in the preliminary final.
In a recent interview, Chris Fagan revealed how a very young Darcy Wilmot came to his place when he first arrived at the club. As an 18 year old he said to Chris Fagan, “I do things the Wilmot way”. Chris Fagan laughed and said: “what that?”, to which Wilmot replied “you’ll find out”. Rather than try to claim his authority, Fagan accepted Wilmot for who he was. Once into the team Wilmot has been a crucial addition to the team effectiveness.
For the sake of brevity this story has been over-simplified. What isn’t denied by anyone though, is that Chris Fagan is the oldest AFL Premiership Coach , and also very reflective, bringing wisdom and insight.
So, if you are older, and choose to be reflective do you have something to offer? The story of Chris Fagan illustrates you most certainly do.