Bruce: It would be madness to change Fagan's Lions recipe

The Brisbane Lions have entered a new chapter of their storied history, officially appointing Cameron Bruce as the club’s next head coach.

With legendary coach Chris Fagan departing off the back of three straight premierships, the club looked inward for his replacement, appointing assistant coach Bruce ahead of contenders Nathan Buckley, Adam Simpson and Hayden Skipworth.

The former Demon and Hawk, who played 234 games across 13 seasons, steps into his first senior coaching role having spent five years as an assistant under Fagan at Brisbane.

But their connection doesn’t end there. Bruce and Fagan have enjoyed the entirety of this century working in combination, both as player-coach and as coach-assistant.

“I started my footballing journey at Melbourne nearly the day after I finished my year 12 exams - that was back in 1997,” Bruce told SENQ.

“I got invited down post the draft. I was a late developer and ended up getting on what they used to call like a sub-list, a top-up list in the AFL reserves for Melbourne.

“The coach of the AFL reserves at Melbourne at that time was a guy called Chris Fagan. 1998 was the first year, and he obviously played a variety of roles at Melbourne and with my playing career there.

“Then he went across to Hawthorn, I finished up at Melbourne, was about to retire, and Hawthorn under Fages’ influence got me across as sort of an older player and some experience.

“I was with him there, and obviously then he got the role at Brisbane, and eventually he made a few calls throughout the years along the way to try and get me up to Brisbane, and eventually, we thought it would be a great opportunity and a great adventure as a family to come up.

“As you can imagine, I had absolute belief and faith in what Fages stands for and the environments he's involved in. So, we made the trip up and haven’t look back.

“It's been five years (at Brisbane) and 30 years of the experience and togetherness and connection with Fages to end up here.

“The most influential person on me as a player and as a coach and as a person that I’m so grateful to have an involvement with.”

While the Lions boast the best list in the competition and enter next season off the back of three straight flags, the job isn’t an easy one to inherit.

With expectations that the club will immediately contend once more, Bruce has very little time to adjust to life as a head coach before the weight of expectations arrive.

That said, demanding change isn’t in his immediate plans.

“What I do have an absolute obsession with is continual improvement,” he said.

“So, demanding continual improvement and uncompromising with elite standards.

“It'd be madness for me to come into what is working so well to overhaul and make significant changes. Subtle adjustments will occur because I am different to Chris, we are different people.

“I have a different way I approach meetings, a different way I connect with the players, I relate to the players because of my journey to coaching.

“It was different to what Fages did in terms of the way he got to where he got to from a coaching point of view. So those things mean that I relate to people differently.

“Those are some subtle things that are different, but overall, we've obviously got very similar philosophies on what makes a great club. We've been involved in six Premierships, eight Grand Finals, nine including Melbourne together.

“We have a pretty similar understanding of what makes a successful club and successful team, so those things will be maintained, but it'll be those subtle differences because of our journeys and being different people.

“It's a freshen up and the players, you know, will hopefully continue to improve.”

Listen to Bruce’s full interview below:

Image Credit: @brisbanelions on Instagram