Celebrations broke out at a Melbourne hotel on Saturday night, just hours after the Brisbane Lions secured a dramatic seven-point AFL Grand Final win over the Fremantle Dockers.
Video has captured Lions coach Chris Fagan perched on co-captain Harris Andrews’ shoulders on the dancefloor during the team’s after-party at the Pullman Hotel East Melbourne.
The 65-year-old coach, who stands 170cm tall, appeared to be enjoying the elevated view from atop the 200cm defender.
Fagan beamed as he raised his arms in the air, while several partygoers captured the jubilant scene on their phones.
The celebration was a fitting one for Fagan, who guided the Queensland club to a historic three-peat, with premiership victories in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
The festivities followed a major revelation from ‘Fages’ about his future, with the coach admitting he was considering stepping down despite being contracted to the Lions through to the end of 2027.
Speaking to Channel 7 after the match, Fagan said he was weighing up his next move after what he described as a demanding decade in the role.
“I’m going to have a think about it this week,” he said.
‘Fages’ is lifted into the air by co-captain Harris Andrews during the Lions’ after-party
The veteran coach raised his arms as he celebrated the Lions’ three-peat
Lions players revelled in their thrilling Grand Final victory over the Fremantle Dockers on Saturday
“I’ve been doing it for 10 years. It’s a hard job. I’ll think about it. I’ll give it a few days just to clear my head and make a decision.”
He separately admitted: “I don’t really want to be that guy who hangs around until we fail.”
“There’s a little bit inside me that would rather walk away when the team’s on top… a dream way to finish.”
For Saturday night, however, Fagan’s attention was firmly on savouring the premiership triumph.
The coach, affectionately nicknamed Papa Fages by midfielder Lachie Neale, remained at the heart of the Lions’ celebrations until at least midnight.
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After the clock passed midnight, several players continued the festivities at The Osborne Rooftop & Bar, following a tradition established by those involved in the club’s previous two Grand Final victories.
The Herald Sun reported that Josh Dunkley, Logan Morris and Kai Lohmann drank from the premiership cup, while Cam Rayner performed a shoey to the cheers of an applauding crowd.
About five minutes away by car, at The Beverly Rooftop on Chapel St, the atmosphere was considerably more subdued.
The premiership-winning coach was still smiling as he greeted fans on Sunday morning
Midfielder Lachie Neale signed autographs for fans in Melbourne’s Fitzroy
Many players hid their night of celebrations behind dark sunglasses
Fremantle’s past players gathered to drown their sorrows, with the Dockers failing their second attempt at winning the club’s first AFL premiership.
On Sunday morning, players hid the signs of their big night behind sunglasses as they made a poignant return to Brunswick Oval in Fitzroy North, their club’s historic home.
The Fitzroy Lions merged with the Brisbane Bears and based operations out of Queensland in 1996, leaving the footy-mad inner city Melbourne suburb without a team.
The premiership players greeted their heartland fans, signing autographs and taking to the stage in ‘three-peat’ T-shirts.
‘It wasn’t the prettiest of grand finals and for large parts of it we looked like we probably weren’t going to win the game,’ Fagan told the crowd.
‘But this group’s got amazing heart and amazing resilience but when they got 17 points up and played that wharfie thing, our boys fired up and were able to play the best five minutes you’ll ever see in a grand final.’
Fagan was referring to ‘Wharfie Time’, a Dockers crowd-rallying celebration when a goal is scored late in tight matches, in which stadium lights dim, waves crashing through a storm appear on the big screen, and the tolling bells of AC/DC’s song Hells Bells can be heard.
Fagan trained his players to use it as their own motivational tool in the event of a close scoreline, in a move many have hailed as coaching genius.
On Saturday, when Wharfie Time was played late in the fourth quarter as the Dockers raced to a 17-point lead, the Lions responded with four majors in the final four minutes of the match.
Fagan left the Brunswick stage to cheers of ’10 more years’ from the crowd.