Celebrations erupted at a Melbourne hotel on Saturday night, hours after the Brisbane Lions claimed a thrilling seven-point AFL Grand Final victory over the Fremantle Dockers.

Footage has emerged of Lions coach Chris Fagan sitting atop co-captain Harris Andrews on the dancefloor at the team’s after party, held at the Pullman Hotel East Melbourne.

Fagan, 65, who is 170cm tall, appeared to be delighted with the view from his 200cm defender’s shoulders. 

He was seen grinning broadly as he threw his hands in the air, with multiple partygoers seen filming the joyous moment on their phones. 

It was a fitting celebration for Fagan, who coached the Queensland team to a ‘three-peat’ – winning the flag in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The celebrations came after ‘Fages’ dropped a bombshell about his future, revealing he was considering stepping down despite being contracted to the Lions until the end of 2027. 

Speaking after the match, he told Channel 7 he was weighing up his future in what has been a ‘tough job’ for the past decade. 

‘I’m going to have a think about it this week,’ he said.

‘Fages’ is held aloft by co-captain Harris Andrews as the Lions’ after-party

The veteran coach threw his arms in the air as he celebrated his ‘three-peat’ win

Lions players celebrated their thrilling victory over the Fremantle Dockers on Saturday 

‘I’ve been doing it for 10 years. It’s a hard job. I’ll think about it. I’ll [give it] a few days just to clear my head and make a decision.’ 

Separately, he said, ‘I don’t really want to be that guy who hangs around until we fail’.

‘There’s a little bit inside me that would rather walk away when the team’s on top… a dream way to finish.’

But on Saturday night, the coach was clearly focused on celebrating his victory.

Fagan, who has been nicknamed Papa Fages by midfielder Lachie Neale, was the centre of Lions’ revelry until at least midnight.

As the clock ticked over to Sunday morning, several Lions players kicked on to The Osborne Rooftop & Bar, something of tradition for those who played in the previous two Grand Final wins.

According to the Herald Sun, Josh Dunkley, Logan Morris and Kai Lohmann were drinking out of the premiership cup, while Cam Rayner did a shoey for an applauding crowd. 

Five minutes’ drive away at The Beverly Rooftop on Chapel St, the mood was slightly more sombre.

The premiership coach remained all smiles as he greeted fans on Sunday morning

Midfielder Lachie Neale signed autographs for fans in Melbourne’s Fitzroy

Many players hid their night of celebrations behind dark sunglasses

Fremantle’s past players gathered to drown their sorrows, with the Dockers failing their second attempt at winning the club’s first AFL premiership.

On Sunday morning, players hid the signs of their big night behind sunglasses as they made a poignant return to Brunswick Oval in Fitzroy North, their club’s historic home.

The Fitzroy Lions merged with the Brisbane Bears and based operations out of Queensland in 1996, leaving the footy-mad inner city Melbourne suburb without a team.

The premiership players greeted their heartland fans, signing autographs and taking to the stage in ‘three-peat’ T-shirts. 

‘It wasn’t the prettiest of grand finals and for large parts of it we looked like we probably weren’t going to win the game,’ Fagan told the crowd.

‘But this group’s got amazing heart and amazing resilience but when they got 17 points up and played that wharfie thing, our boys fired up and were able to play the best five minutes you’ll ever see in a grand final.’

Fagan was referring to ‘Wharfie Time’, a Dockers crowd-rallying celebration when a goal is scored late in tight matches, in which stadium lights dim, waves crashing through a storm appear on the big screen, and the tolling bells of AC/DC’s song Hells Bells can be heard. 

Fagan trained his players to use it as their own motivational tool in the event of a close scoreline, in a move many have hailed as coaching genius. 

On Saturday, when Wharfie Time was played late in the fourth quarter as the Dockers raced to a 17-point lead, the Lions responded with four majors in the final four minutes of the match.

Fagan left the Brunswick stage to cheers of ’10 more years’ from the crowd.