LEIGH Matthews has quit as coach of the Brisbane Lions with a year to run on his contract.

Matthews leaves the Lions with one of the greatest coaching records in the history of the game.

The 56-year-old, who simply believed his time was up, surprised his club with the decision while those in AFL circles were also caught unaware by the news on Monday morning.

But while the Lions have received a massive boost with news Brown, one of the game’s match-winners, will stay at the club, Matthews won’t be in the coaches’ box to guide the champion forward and his teammates.

“I found over the last 12 months or so I was asking myself the question of when I would finish, how I would finish and when would be the right time,” Matthews said.

“I guess I sort of found that on Saturday I asked myself the one last time and I thought; ‘No, I’m asking myself too often, so it’s time’.

“So I made the decision Saturday afternoon basically that that would be the last game I would coach.”

Lions chairman Tony Kelly said his board would meet on Monday evening to start discussing possible candidates, although no names had yet been mentioned.

Matthews, meanwhile, said after winning 10 matches in 2008 and being on the cusp of finals for the past few seasons, the club was in need of a change.

“It’s just time for me to move on for my own psyche and for the rejuvenation of this footy club,” Matthews said.

In 461 career matches across two clubs in the coaching box Matthews has a winning percentage of 58 per cent, while during his time at the Lions that percentage was closer to 60.

He coached Collingwood to an AFL premiership in 1990 before leaving the Magpies at the end of the 1995 season.

Matthews then joined the Lions in 1999, where he would spend the next 10 seasons and embark on one of the most successful periods in AFL history.

After finishing with the wooden spoon the previous season (in 1998), Matthews took the club to a preliminary final in his first season at the helm.

Matthews then guided the Lions to a famous hat-trick of premierships from 2001-03.

The club also made the 2004 Grand Final, but were beaten by Port Adelaide in their quest for four straight flags.

Matthews’ success at the Lions surprised even himself.

“In all honesty when I came up here I didn’t think we were a premiership team,” he said.

“It was not even in my psyche that we might win a premiership.”

But arguably the greatest player of all time helped mould the Lions into one of the greatest teams of any era.

Led by its stellar midfield, still known today as the ‘Fab Four’, the Lions overran Essendon in the 2001 Grand Final on their way to an historic ‘three-peat’.

Following the departures of champions Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis and Justin Leppitsch, the Lions were expected to go into sharp decline for a sustained period however there was not the long, slow rebuild that many had expected.

Despite missing the finals for each of the past four seasons, Matthews has blooded several promising youngsters and this season the Lions was expected to push strongly for a top-eight position.

But a disappointing second half of the season raised questions not only about where the Lions were headed, but also about Matthews’ future at the club.

Following his team’s round-21 loss to Carlton, Matthews labelled the 2008 season a “failure” and said if others believed he wasn’t the best man to continue coaching the side he would step down.

The Lions were then belted by the Sydney Swans in their final home-and-away match of the year on Saturday night.