After an agonising four-point grand final defeat to Collingwood last year, Brisbane slumped to a 2-5 start in April as a series of devastating knee injuries struck down key players.
It forced Fagan to shuffle his magnets, but the 63-year-old always felt he had something to work with.
“If you had’ve said to me when we were 2-5 that with three weeks to go we’d be in the hunt to finish in the top two, I probably would’ve laughed at that suggestion,” Fagan said.
“We were in a spot of bother on the ladder, but we weren’t internally though.
“We knew that we were actually going a bit better than what the win-loss suggested.
“To the credit of the group and everybody around the footy club, we just stayed tuned in to what we needed to do and things have turned around.”
In the tightest of seasons, Brisbane have been able to build consistency like no other side through the back half of the campaign.
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They are on the verge of matching ladder leader Sydney’s season-best 10-match winning streak, which the Swans built from April to June before hitting the skids.
“It’s been very much a week-by-week sort of effort,” Fagan said.
“We haven’t talked about finals or anything and I’m still not really talking about finals.
“We just try to win each game that we get to and hopefully in a few weeks time when the home-and-away is finished we’re in a good spot.”
A dozen teams are left in the hunt.
Melbourne are hanging on by their fingernails, Essendon and Collingwood have breathed life back into their seasons, and Hawthorn are still in contention despite their hot streak being halted by GWS last week.
After looking almost invincible mid-year, Sydney’s flag credentials are under the spotlight with a run of five losses in six weeks compounded by a record thrashing from Port Adelaide.
The Power are on the rise, as are Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs, while GWS, Geelong, Fremantle and Carlton are right in the mix.
AAP
