Coaching in the AFL is a chalice that can be poisoned or make you immortal.
That's the deal made when someone agrees to become a head coach of an AFL club 99.9 per cent of the time: If you win a premiership, you are a success; anything less and you have failed. It's as ruthless a business as any.
The pressure internally and externally, the media scrutiny, would become all-encompassing. Just look at what Carlton coach Michael Voss is experiencing right now as people list the best person to become the Blues coach while he is still at the helm.
But for all its flaws, it is so heavily desired by the competitive few who seek eternal glory and have a deep burning desire to become a premiership-winning coach.
Having been born in the first year of the 21st century, that is where this ranking list shall begin. The work of coaches from 2000 to the present will be the main source of argument, but the ability to look further back in time at their exploits can be used as a form of tie-breaker.
To enter the top 10, a coach must have won a premiership, so St Kilda's Ross Lyon, despite leading two of the league's "smaller teams" to a total of three (four if you count the draw) grand finals, is omitted from the pool.
2. Leigh Matthews - Brisbane, 2001, 2002, 2003
Matthews is regarded as one of the most respected minds in the history of the AFL, and for good reason.
He was one of the best players of all time, who became one of the greatest coaches as well.
Matthews, like Fagan after him, took Brisbane from a rabble to a rampaging beast. The Lions took over the competition in the early 2000s and were a formidable force for anyone who went near the likes of Voss, Jason Akermanis, Simon Black, Jonathon Brown, plus 18 others.
Brisbane achieved the first three-peat of premierships since Melbourne in the mid-1950s. And did it against powerhouses Collingwood and Essendon on their home deck, the MCG.
In reality, these top five coaches could all be split by whiskers, and the one that helps Lethal stand out is his "tie-breaking" premiership win with Collingwood in 1990. A victory that broke a 32-year drought and the "Colliwobbles curse" which saw the Pies lose eight grand finals between 1960 and 1981.
