The off-Broadway AFL success story of 2018 steadily unfolding is surely the steady improvement and the stable environment emerging at the Brisbane Lions. As a consequence, the most unlikely new coach in the game, Chris Fagan, is about to be rewarded with a new contract which should secure him to the club until the end of 2021.

While Fagan, who recently became a grandfather, was in Melbourne this week debating the game's on-field changes as part of the AFL's competition committee, the Brisbane Lions board have deferred a call on his future until the end of the season but that call is now a formality.

Coach Chris Fagan will soon have his contract extended by the Lions. Credit:AAP

The original three-year deal he signed with the then official basket case of the game included a commitment to review his performance at the end of 2018 and that review has seen the club resolve to stick with him. And the decision is surely a victory for age, experience and steadiness.

One of seven AFL coaches, along with Alastair Clarkson himself, to have played a key role at Hawthorn in at least one of the four flags under Clarkson, Fagan's ascension into a senior coaching role seemed the most improbable of all of them.