The forgotten Lion coach backs to shine

Anna Harrington | January 8, 2026

After Keidean Coleman missed Brisbane’s back-to-back premierships, coach Chris Fagan believes the luckless defender can be a pivotal part of their bid for a third straight flag.

Coleman finished second in the Norm Smith Medal voting after a star turn in Brisbane’s 2023 AFL grand final loss to Collingwood.

But the silky-skilled defender suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the opening round in 2024, then played just one AFL game last year before a quad strain.

With gun defender Brandon Starcevich departing for West Coast, the Lions will welcome Coleman’s quality.

“Keidean Coleman’s back in doing drills and he looks as fit as I’ve ever seen him,” Fagan said.

“I think he’s pretty much been two years out of footy. He had a couple of games last year. I think he’s learned a lot about how to prepare his body and it’s the fittest I’ve ever seen him.

“So fingers crossed he has no more setbacks and he’s ready to go. He’s going to be a really important player for us with ‘Starce’ heading back to Perth. 

“It’s a good bonus to have a bloke potentially coming back into your team that was runner-up in a Norm Smith medal in a grand final not so long ago.

“So I hope for his sake that he can get a good go at it this year.”

Zac Bailey, Jarrod Berry, Jaspa Fletcher and Noah Answerth are all tracking to be ready for round one after off-season surgery.

The likes of Lincoln McCarthy (knee) and Tom Doedee are also looking to make an impact after injuries.

The Lions snapped up Oscar Allen and Sam Draper as free agents and drafted academy gun Daniel Annable.

Fagan believes the pressure for spots will help keep motivation high.

“The good thing is that this group knows what it feels like to win a premiership, and that’s a pretty good feeling that you might want to try and achieve again,” he said.

“They’ve put themselves into a position where there’s three or four years to go in this decade. Can we be the best team of the decade? 

“I don’t know whether that gets them excited or not, but we’ll keep searching around for things to motivate.

“But I think a lot of them know that there’s some pretty good players that have come into the club, and there’s some pretty good players coming back from injury, so there’s no complacency, I don’t think. 

“It’s going to be pretty hard to get a spot and that’s good.”