Lions leaders insist there’s no split among the playing group amid the side’s winless start to 2024, despite holding a crisis meeting following reports of “tough conversations” between some teammates stemming from a post-season Vegas trip.
3AW on Friday afternoon reported some Lions insiders had indicated there’d been a “few headaches” at the club after “certain information” from an end-of-season trip to Las Vegas last year – which several Brisbane players attended – “got back to loved ones that didn’t go down too well”
The Herald Sun later reported a member of the travelling party had “accidentally uploaded a WhatsApp group chat to iCloud”. The content was then read by that person’s partner and subsequently shared with other partners.
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Loved ones back home were reportedly displeased with “some of the wild antics being discussed in the group chat”, per the News Corp report. Both 3AW and the Herald Sun reported some Lions players had split from their partners following the Vegas trip.
Brisbane chief executive Greg Swann confirmed members of the Lions’ player leadership group were called together on Good Friday to discuss the fallout to the trip, but they insisted to club officials that there was no player rift.
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Swann said he was unaware if the WhatsApp group chat had been uploaded and distributed, but stressed the Vegas trip hadn’t contributed to the team’s 0-3 start to 2024.
“If the question is, ‘Is there a split in a group?’ Well, no there isn’t,” Swann told the Herald Sun.
“It’s just bulls***. There’s no split in the group. This was in November, by the way. It’s not the reason we’re going no good.
“We’re not horrible, by the way. It’s just that a few of our good blokes are out of form.
“We asked all the leaders again today and they said, ‘No, there’s nothing in it at all’ in terms of a split in the group.”
AFL legend and Brisbane board member Leigh Matthews was on 3AW radio live when colleague Sam McClure reported the story on Friday.
“It’s a little bit difficult for me because I only found out about this when you (McClure) mentioned this 10 minutes ago, so it’s not something I was aware of as a board member at the Lions. Whatever transpired is complete news to me,” Matthews told 3AW Football.
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“But the principle of the thing, which is really what we’re talking about here, if there’s friction between players or partners of players behind the scenes, that’s not a good thing … ‘if’ is the big word.”
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd added: “It’s not just relationships between teammates and whether they’ve broken down, but it’s the relationship back home and how you are going in your home life is so much about how your football goes.”
The Lions remain without a win after three games, with two of their defeats, including Thursday night’s 20-point loss to the Magpies, coming at the Gabba, where Brisbane went undefeated last season.
Coach Chris Fagan on Thursday said it was wrong to “catastrophise” his side’s ordinary start to season, but admits Brisbane “has work to do”.
“We certainly haven’t had the start that we hoped for, and we’ve dropped two home games which has been very unusual for us over the last period of time, so we’ve got a bit of work to do to find ourselves,” Fagan admitted.
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“It’s not a great start, but let’s not catastrophise it either, would be the way I’d look at it.
“We’re zero and three, and there’s 20 games to go.”
Fagan said he wouldn’t “press the panic button” with players that were down on form.
“Some of our players are not at their best at the moment. I can’t explain to you why, and that’s sport for you,” he said.
“Sometimes you go through form slumps … so we’ve got to keep working away with those guys.
“I’ve trusted them for a long time and they’ve delivered so I’m not going to jump off them just because we’ve lost three games in a row.”
— with NCA NewsWire
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