The Tasmanian Demon

He played all his junior footy on Queenstown's infamous gravel oval and now even finds himself defending the merciless, graze- breeding surface.

"It was all right as long as you didn't fall over. If you fell over, you got cut - so you learned not to fall over," he says.

"We always found playing on grass really unusual. It's actually a good practical surface because there's so much rainfall around the area. Rosebery Oval was 40-odd kilometres away and was unplayable by mid-year, but the gravel oval you could play on in any conditions."

Fagan is sitting in the stands of Collingwood's run-down old Victoria Park ground, watching a training session involving the players of Melbourne, the club where he is general manager of football operations.

His apprenticeship for one of Australian football's most respected positions was conducted almost entirely in his home State. And few people within the AFL set-up could be as well versed on Tasmanian football.

Fagan watches high-flyer Russell Robertson and reminisces about first seeing him as Tassie Mariners coach, and when David Neitz takes centre stage recalls being boundary umpire when the Ulverstone-born forward's father, Alec, won the WTFA's Bartram Medal for Rosebery.

He also relates a playing career which involved more than 250 games in the TFL and took him throughout the State, his father's proud record on the West Coast, the possibility of Tassie hosting an AFL club, the State's North-South squabbles and the tasty flatheads he landed on a recent holiday to Hobart.

"Tassie is a fantastic footy State with a rich heritage and has produced some amazing players - probably per head of population far outreaching anything else around Australia," says Fagan, whose daughters, Jessica, 18, and Ellen, 14, are both Tassie-born.

"So it would be good if you could see the rewards with an AFL team, but from a business perspective I just don't know if it could be sustained.

"I played 13 seasons in all parts of the State so understand all the regional rivalries down there which is an unfortunate thing about Tassie but just the way it is. It was a great experience playing in either end of the State and also working for Football Tasmania."

And as for the recent holiday ... "I played a bit of golf and had the annual catch-up which was very pleasant, plus we had the Taste of Tasmania and the finish of the (Sydney to Hobart) yacht race. It was just a party for about 12 days."

Born in Queenstown, Fagan lived on the West Coast until his family moved to Hobart when he was in year 10.

He made his senior debut for Hobart in the TFL aged just 16 and stayed for five years, more than 100 games and a premiership under Paul Sproule in 1980.

After another five years under Sproule at Sandy Bay, a teaching transfer to Sheffield District High School saw him join Devonport who he helped to a Statewide flag in 1988.

At North Hobart and then Sandy Bay he moved into coaching before giving up teaching for the joint roles of Tassie Mariners coach and State director of coaching.

"I always wanted to work full- time in football if I could and at that stage there weren't too many jobs in Tasmania where you could do that," he says. "The Mariners concept came up and I couldn't help myself.

"I wanted to do it and was passionate about football in Tasmania and thought we could compete strongly with the best teams in Victoria. That was my over-riding motivation but how it's turned out for me personally to be able to come here and work in the AFL is a fortunate by-product I suppose."

After three years he joined the Demons and a decade later has risen through the coaching ranks to a role he defines as "creating the development of a good performance environment".

He is responsible for annual operational costs of more than $10 million but insists it is not substantially different from his coaching position.

"It's challenging but there are similarities in that what you are always trying to do is let people get the best out of themselves. That's what I enjoy doing. I love helping people. I was able to do that when I was coaching, when I was teaching and now in this role.

"I'm probably still a teacher, just perhaps in a different environment."

And he admits he's loving it.

"Football was my hobby, it was the thing I enjoyed most in my life, so now I never feel like I'm going to work. Every day I look forward to the new challenges and whatever problems might be around the corner. I just think that's great. It does take up a lot of my time but I don't mind."

Fortunately, it doesn't take up so much time that there's not room for a few more Queenstown recollections.

He chuckles at the yarn about his dad, Austin "Doos" Fagan, kicking a ball into the wagon of a passing train bound for Strahan which remains the only known example of a 34km drop punt.

With a broad grin now firmly fixed on a face which looks like it has felt the full force of the West Coast winds, he continues.

"We used to put bars on the bottom of our boots after we took our stops out. It took a heavy toll on your boots - you'd wear a couple of pairs out a season because of the rough surface.

"I remember playing in a TFL side that went down to Queenstown to play the WTFA on the gravel. I was only a young feller, about 18, and thought I'd be right because I'd played there all my life.

"We flew in on one of those little planes which made half the blokes turn white, and then when they saw the ground they turned whiter. When I got out there I thought `How did I play on this for all those years?'

"It was definitely an intimidating environment and if you hadn't been there before it must have been even worse."

The boy may have been taken out of Queenstown ...

CHRIS FAGAN FACT FILE:
Age: 45.

Clubs: Playing: Hobart, Sandy Bay, Devonport, North Hobart; coaching: North Hobart, Sandy Bay, Tassie Mariners, Melbourne.

Achievements: More than 250 games in the Tasmanian Football League. Melbourne reserves coach 1998-2000, assistant coach 2000-04, general manager of football operations 2005-present.

Career highlight: When I coached the Tassie Mariners and we won the Division 2 carnival for the first time in 1996, with a side including Robbo, Mark Harwood, Leigh Brockman, Daniel McAlister, Ben Beams and Brodie Holland.

Sporting inspiration: James McDonald who won our best and fairest last year and all-Australian. The fact that at age 30 he was still able to improve so much. Anyone in sport who demonstrates continuous improvement at the highest level is an inspiration because it's so hard to do and he's a terrific example of that.

Favourite TV show: Sports Tonight on Channel 10.

Last book read: Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, who escaped from Pentridge Prison in the late '70s and ended up in India.

Ideal dinner party guest: Kevin Sheedy would always be pretty interesting, and so would Shane Warne.