Lions farwell reigning BFNL best-and-fairest winner

The Lions captain originally planned to return to his native Queensland at the end of the BFNL season, but a change in personal circumstances pushed the interstate move forward.

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It's the latest blow for coach Travis Hodgson, who saw four of his five leading goalkickers in 2019 depart for new pastures - including Lachie Bramble, with his incredible rise to Hawthorn's AFL ranks.

"(Alik) told me before round one that we'd pretty much only have him till round four," Hodgson told The Courier.

"You'd probably think he was taking the piss if it hadn't already happened with Mitch Conn (interstate), Bramble, Aaron Christenson and Jayden Eales (injuries).

"We've just had that sort of season. When he said he was leaving, it didn't surprise me. I just thought, who's next."

Magin joined Sunbury in 2016 and quickly asserted his dominance on the BFNL.

The former Gold Coast Sun was twice named The Courier's player of the year and in 2019 won the league's best-and-fairest count by a single vote.

"I've obviously only been coaching Sunbury since the 2019 season, but I coached against him from 2016 to 2018, and for me, he will absolutely go down as one of Sunbury's greatest players," Hodgson said.

"What we're most looking forward to about getting him back for a few games is just to send him off properly, really."

Hodgson was still unsure if Magin would pull on the Lions jumper one last time, amid a growing aura of uncertainty born from the latest snap lockdown.

"It's unlikely he'll have any real impact on our season," he said.

"There is the possibility he may come back three or four times and come back for finals if we make it as well.

"But when you've got a young family, and you're all the way in Queensland, it's probably hard to see it happening.

"We haven't ruled it out, but it's unlikely."

Magin's pre-planned departure and the loss of several players to injury has opened the door for the Lions' youngsters.

Hodgson said the club had the opportunity to blood a developing list.

"The blow (of losing Alik) is not as big as if he was in our future plans. We knew he wasn't going to be here in 2022," he said.

"It's just an opportunity to play another kid.

"At the end of the year, we're going to end up having got some games into kids that we think are going to really good players.

"The challenge is going to be in replacing the talent we lost in February, March and in Alik's case, May, over summer.

"It's pretty hard when you're losing players so late, but the upside is the kids are getting plenty of footy into them."

The Lions are scheduled to have the bye in round eight next weekend.

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