Cameron Bruce takes over at Brisbane, replacing Chris Fagan

Brisbane has chosen Cameron Bruce as its new senior coach, replacing Chris Fagan. The Lions board met on Monday afternoon and ratified the appointment, and Bruce was expected to be formally named on Tuesday, according to ABC News.

Bruce is 47. He beat candidates including Nathan Buckley and Adam Simpson for the role. Jake Niall reported in The Age that Bruce won the race for the job.

Fagan leaves after a decade as Brisbane's coach and three premierships. He has joined Carlton as director of coaching. When he announced his exit in September, Fagan praised backline coach Dale Morris and floated Bruce as a possible successor. Danny Daly, once a frontrunner, pulled out of the race. He will not coach Brisbane in 2027, but he will sit on the panel that picked the new coach.

Bruce's football life has run through the AFL's biggest clubs. He played 234 games over 13 years for Melbourne and Hawthorn. He was part of Melbourne's 2000 grand final team, and he won the club's best and fairest award in 2008. That award goes to the player judged best across the season.

His coaching started at Hawthorn, where he worked as an assistant under Alastair Clarkson from 2013 to 2017. Hawthorn won three premierships in those years. He then moved to Carlton as an assistant under Brendon Bolton and left at the end of 2021. The Brisbane Lions brought him in after that.

For the past five seasons he has been an assistant under Fagan. He was on the staff during the club's premiership years. His title is senior assistant coach, midfield, which means he works with the players who compete for the ball through the centre of the ground. In his first season in that role, he received the AFL Coaches Association's assistant coach of the year award.

Bruce is not an outsider. He knows the playing list, the staff and the way Brisbane wants to play, which is a fair reason the club picked him. The job now moves from working beside the head coach to standing in front of the group. Fagan's record of three flags sets a high bar for whoever follows him.

For Brisbane supporters, the next question is how much will change. The answer will come once Bruce begins to set the playing group's direction, and that will show over the coming months.