Lions to address US trip fallout
No split in group: Swann
Brisbane’s senior leaders are expected to make clear the fallout of the club’s American football trip has not had any bearing on their winless start to the season.
The Lions will travel to Adelaide on Wednesday as they desperately attempt to push the fallout from the controversy into the background with a Friday Gather Round win over North Melbourne.
Multiple Brisbane players broke up with their partners after a chain of WhatsApp messages from the trip involving players from multiple AFL clubs were discovered by the wife of a player via iCloud back in Australia.
One of those couples has since re-established their relationship but the poor form of many Brisbane players has put the heat on the club given the obvious links.
Brisbane co-captain Harris Andrews, not on the football trip, is likely to address the controversy on Monday and make clear the club’s issues are only on-field.
Andrews and fellow co-captain Lachie Neale both spoke to football boss Danny Daly last week and made clear those issues had been addressed since the October football trip.
Neale (ankle) will be available to take on North Melbourne at Norwood Oval on Friday, with the Lions aware they were 1-2 last year and able to steady the ship. The Lions will consider recalling Darcy Gardiner (knee) after he got through a VFL game but Tom Doedee will need a third knee reconstruction after partially tearing his ACL last week.
He has been told a reconstruction is the only way to repair the ACL, so he will miss the entire season.
Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd told Nine on Monday the club would never be able to know how much of an impact the controversy was having on its players.
“(Premierships) are so hard to win and this is the last thing you need in an off season. They can say that, that it’s not affecting on-field performance but I am not sure they truly know when you are dealing with players and their emotions,” he said.
“Home life is critical. Often when players are going off the rails or not going well you ask questions and often things at home aren’t going well and you spiral out of control or you are not going well on field. It certainly wouldn’t be helping their form.”
Brisbane chief executive Greg Swann said on Friday there was no ongoing issue with players.
“If the question is, ‘Is there a split in a group?’ Well, no there isn’t,” Swann said.
“It’s just bulls***. There’s no split in the group.”