Dawn of new era

Footy clubs love a catchphrase and at Brisbane it is “growth mindset”. It is all about looking for the positives in everything you do and building on it.

In his first two years of his time, Fagan looked for proof of improvement and presented it ad nauseam to the players. So instead of seeing a nine-game losing streak in his first season – or a 0-8 start to season two – they saw reduced losing margins, then an increase in quarters won until eventually games won.

The ladder suggests it has been an overnight success for the Lions who have climbed from 15th to 2nd at the end of the home-and-away season in a year. But the confidence and positivity from the playing group stems from the fact they have seen and celebrated improvements from day one. Fagan focuses on strengths. It means the world to Jarryd Lyons who was not rated by the Suns but has become a key contributor in the Lions’ surge up the ladder.

He reckons Fagan cut straight to the point when he drove down to the Coast this time last year to make a pitch.

“Fages talked about the role they wanted me to play inside. They were talking about my weapons, whereas Gold Coast were more about the weaknesses I had,’’ he said. The Lions suddenly appear bold with their decisions.

Letting Rockliff and Dayne Beams go, two premier midfielders, took some nerve. The in-the-dark-ofthe-night recruitment of Lachie Neale was brazen, while CEO Greg Swann still reckons the controversial decision to trade down the draft in 2016 to secure both Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry was a game-changer for the Lions. Decisions of such magnitude would usually have at least one opponent, but Swann said the Lions are all in or they are out.

“Everyone has to agree or we don’t do it,” he insists.