3 minute read

Australian basketball great Phil Smyth's low-key role with the Brisbane Lions has developed into one of the most important: keeping coach Chris Fagan sane.

Phil Smyth thought it might last a couple of days.

Nearly six years later the former Boomers great and NBL-winning player and coach is more invested than ever in the Brisbane Lions and their coach Chris Fagan.

The four-time Olympian keeps an extremely low profile at the club but has been described as the Lions' "everything man".

His primary objective?

"Keeping Fages sane," Lions football boss Danny Daly tells AAP.

Brought in as a consultant in 2019, the Adelaide-based Smyth - a former point guard nicknamed The General - has only known success in his time at the Lions.

"Rob Snowden was a mate of Fagan's," Smyth told AAP of the former Sydney and Port Adelaide football boss.

"He said, 'Mate, Fages needs a friend' and I said I'd be really keen.

"We'd met once before and really enjoyed that chat.

"I came up for a couple of days. That turned into a week then that's turned into more."

Smyth, a three-time NBL championship winner as a player and then a coach, sits in the box for games and has been a valued sounding board for the Lions' coaching staff.

He and Fagan have walked thousands of laps after training, but rarely talk tactics.

"That's when the magic happens," Smyth beams.

"The walks and the talks, solving the world's problems, the conflict in Ukraine.

"There will be some footy talk, some ironing out of the frustrations.

"From me it's more about the philosophies and (Fagan) asking me whether it's OK to be feeling like that."

The past two years have been especially busy, with the Lions reaching both grand finals since their head coach was implicated in Hawthorn's historic racism scandal that first came to light in the week of the 2022 decider.

A drawn-out AFL investigation has since found no adverse findings but there has been no closure, with details of the allegations broadcast in the Federal Court just last month.

"It's been a long two years for Chris," Smyth said.

"It's so wrong; coaching alone will send you to dark places and then to pile that on top.

"(Co-accused former Hawthorn coach) Alastair Clarkson had to take a year off.

"It's a difficult time when things are being said about you that just aren't true and you can't defend yourself. But finally the rhetoric has changed."

Fagan has been under the spotlight more than ever this season, his grand finalists sinking to 2-5 and seemingly out of the conversation before storming into the decider from fifth.

A win on Saturday against Sydney would give critics who say he's a good development coach, but not a premiership-winning one, nowhere to go.

"He's unique; he's a great person but also a genius with footy tactics," Smyth said.

"People misread him, because he's got that father-like figure that the players love, they don't see the tactical genius behind it."

Players have noted how much calmer Fagan has been at this point of the season compared to last, and media have also remarked at his cheerful nature in press conferences that can sometimes be prickly.

"As a coach everyone's looking at you and you have those moments," Smyth said.

"But there's a calmness about any time you experience something.

"It's been an amazing story. 

"Seven games in, we had five ACLs (knee injuries), any other club would have gone, 'you're done'.

"But to be able to spin it around, and what people missed through that period, was Fages including the VFL boys in everything.

"He created that thing where they all feel connected and it's why the Kais (Lohmann) and Logans (Morris) and all those guys already felt like part of the group."

Smyth reserved praise for Daly, who took over from David Noble in 2020 and has more than two decades of experience in different AFL roles.

"He's the quiet achiever that gets lost in the background, but he's the calm," Smyth said.

"He's the glue and again, no ego."

Daly returned the favour, grateful Smyth has been willing to listen to their grumblings.

"He's taken a bit more direction to Fages in the last couple of years because of the racism inquiry and the start of our year this year, because it was a bit too much for me to take on board along with everything else," Daly said.

"He's just a good listener, one you can vent to, if you want. 

"He's done so much in his life, he has good advice, sets you straight on a few things.

"He'll be walking 100 laps with Fages, chatting about life and keeping Fages sane. Phil's a really positive person and instils that into you."

Smyth recalls a 2019 chat with Fagan on his first road trip with the team, having witnessed the entire squad mingling as one.

"Usually they split up into little groups ... I said 'Mate, you've got a unique group here'," he said.

"It's been fun, hopefully they get the prize at the end now."