The crater Chris Fagan will leave in Brisbane following his departure will be impossible to fill, especially after how he built the Lions from the depths of irrelevance to arguably the best team of the modern era.
Fagan secured a revered three-peat of premierships last week, but has admitted it was time to hang up the whistle, with a move to Melbourne to be closer to family on the cards.
But who is equipped to take over the Lions as they hunt for a historic four-peat?
There are a few names internally who have been floated, while a host of assistant coaches have been around the mark with previous coaching vacancies.
Dale Morris
A dark horse in this race, but has a huge endorsement from Brisbane icon Jason Akermanis.
Morris has had a huge impact on the Lions during his time as a development coach, before moving to his specialty: the backline.
"Dale Morris has had a huge impact at the Brisbane Lions," Akermanis told Zero Hanger in July.
"The way he works with the players is just outstanding. Like (Craig) McRae, he can tell you exactly what's going on in a nice way.
"Moz (Morris) has a real ability to tweak on game day, as does Bruce ... he's good at that, too.
"Moz is great during the week and wonderful on game day.
"He has a knack of making people feeling good, saying things like 'things are not overly wrong, we just need to fix a few things.
