Rise of the Lions: And the fall no one saw looming
WHEN first-year coach Michael Voss steered the Lions into a semi-final and sixthplace finish in 2009 there was hope a new dynasty was around the corner.
The side had some young stars led by Daniel Rich, who had won the Rising Star award in a landslide, and a collection of triple premiership heroes still at their peak: Simon Black and Jonathan Brown were equal fourth in that year’s Brownlow Medal count.
No one imagined there would be a decade between drinks. The tricky part is not identifying what went wrong in a turbulent era that saw two club legends sacked, but why.
Voss and Justin Leppitsch were first-time coaches and both made mistakes, but neither had the benefit of a stable board, strong administration and seniority in their football departments that the Lions now boast.
There was a change at board level early in Voss’ tenure – first, premiership chairman Graeme Downie and then his replacement Tony Kelly left, leaving Angus Johnson in charge.
Then premiership era CEO Michael Bowers was pushed out the door at the end of 2010 and replaced by New Zealander Malcolm Holmes, a man with no understanding of footy.
Brown, who was captain at the time, said his former premiership teammates did not receive the support they needed.
“This is not to offset what was happening on the field by any means and mistakes were made with the list over that time, butI don’t think the footy club was well led off the field,’’ Brown said. “We talk about culture and it is a funny word, but it has to start at the top and everything flows from there, and I don’t think anyone can look back on that time and say there was cohesion at our club.
“You look at the successful clubs and they all have that in common; you can’t fluke your way to success with a substandard administration.’’
The unshakeable confidence in themselves as players that Voss and Leppitsch shared led to dangerous traits as coaches; they didn’t accept advice or opinions and lacked empathy for players less skilful or physical. The knock on Voss early and Leppitsch right the way through was that their feedback could have been more constructive.
The most frequent direction the finger of blame aims at for the on-field woes is the illfated recruitment drive immediately after the 2009 finals series that brought Brendan Fevola to the club. The Fevola year of 2010 was messy for the club and the player, who would also hit rock bottom in the New Farm clinic before getting his life back together.
The Lions gave away a top 10 draft pick – Lachie Henderson – as well as pick 12 to Carlton to secure Fevola, and Voss lost a friend in premiership teammate Daniel Bradshaw, who was disgruntled at being offered for trade.
The other player shopped to Carlton, Michael Rischitelli, kept his anger to himself and went on to win the club championship in 2010 before walking out with teammate Jared Brennan to be one of the inaugural Suns players.
Voss also had to deal withexternal factors few coaches could imagine – the impact the arrival of the Suns had on the Brisbane Lions coupled with the devastation to the city and its economy from the floods over the summer of 2010-11 always being undersold.
The exodus of experienced staff at the end of that first successful season was also a factor. Voss had never served a coaching apprenticeship before being handed the top job and just over 12 months into the role legendary premiership footy manager Graeme “Gubby” Allan, former Carlton coach Wayne Brittain and his brother Craig – a long serving member of Leigh Matthews’ coaching panels – were all gone.
The club’s hierarchy had meekly handed Voss complete power and in doing so had set him up to fail.
It was a lesson they failed to learn with Leppitsch, who pushed back hard against suggestions he needed a senior figure to guide him through the early years.
TOMORROW: PART 2 – THE START OF THE LIONS REBUILD