Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan helped inspire an all-girls high school debating team to an unlikely finals victory by sharing some of his premiership-winning advice barely a month after his side won last year’s grand final.
In a remarkable act of goodwill, this masthead can reveal that Fagan recorded a one-minute motivational video for Melbourne Girls Grammar during which he shared six simple tips about teamwork, playing your role and intimidation.
Chris Fagan helped an all-girls debating team win their final. Credit: Getty Images
A day after watching the clip, the school’s four-member year 10 debating team won the C Grade Victorian State Debating Final against Camberwell Grammar.
It was Melbourne Girls Grammar’s first Debating Association of Victoria title.
When asked about the gesture this week, Fagan said it was his way of giving back.
The premiership coach said he was approached to help out via an email while he was holidaying in Sorrento last October, and agreed to the request despite not having any connection to the school.
“I think it was the old school teacher coming out in me,” Fagan said. “My wife was egging me on as well.
“I just thought, ‘Oh well, if it helps them, why not’. I think they came from nowhere, and they were the underdogs, a bit like us [the Lions in 2024], so I just gave them a few key points.”
Fagan said he jotted down some notes and then had his primary school teacher wife, Ursula, film him with his phone while he read them out.
“Hello girls, Chris Fagan here, coach of the Brisbane Lions,” he says in the video.
“I have just been told you have got a big debating final happening tomorrow, so well done. I just thought I would send you a few key ideas that might help you in the big final.
“The first thing I would say is, ‘Have confidence in yourselves’. You made it into the final for a reason – because you were good. So respect your opposition, but don’t fear them.
“The second thing is, move on quickly from mistakes. You will make them for sure tomorrow, but like I say to my players, ‘Be like goldfish and let them go’.”
He also advises the girls to play their role for the team and be reliable.
Fagan holds up the premiership cup after his Lions won the 2024 grand final.Credit: Getty Images
“You don’t have to be remarkable, you don’t need to be the hero. That’s how we won the grand final – everyone did their bit,” he says.
In his fourth and fifth points, Fagan advises the girls to be authentic and to stay calm so that they can think clearly and listen to what their opponents are saying.
“The last point I would make is to have fun. Smile and be relaxed. This shows your opponents that you are inwardly confident and this can sometimes be intimidating. All the best,” he says.
Fagan’s words obviously struck a chord because, after their victory, the debating team held up their winner’s shield and recorded a message for the Lions coach. “Thanks, Fages,” they said.
“I probably didn’t expect to hear from them again,” Fagan said.
“I was curious as to how they performed, but fortunately the lady who organised it sent me a message from the girls saying they had won the trophy. That was pretty nice.”
Fagan revealed that one of the reasons that he agreed to such requests was payback for all the people who had helped him out throughout his life, including two of his high school teachers in copper mining outpost Queenstown on the west coast of Tasmania.
“The general course of your life if you were born in that town was: You went to school, and then you went and got an apprenticeship in the mine, and then you worked in the mine for the rest of your life and stayed in Queenstown,” he said.
“But I had a couple of teachers in high school who sort of said to me, ‘Well, not that there is anything wrong with doing that, but if you are interested in doing other things or going to university, you have got the capacity to do it’.
“So, I always look back on them and think that was a bit of a watershed moment for me because I was probably just thinking I was going to do what everybody else does in that town, and then I changed my mind and set myself to go to university and get a bachelor of education.
“It was a bit of a sliding door moment. That’s an example, I guess, probably the most profound example in my life, of a couple of teachers helping me out.”
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