Player power in leadership decision
BRISBANE will hand their players total control of appointing a new captain as Lachie Neale looms as a potential leader in his first season at the club.
The Lions will wait until February before players vote on a skipper to replace Collingwood recruit Dayne Beams, to give players a chance to prove their worth over summer.
Vice-captain Dayne Zorko took over the captaincy from Beams in May after his health issues, with key defender Harris Andrews named as vicecaptain.
Both will be considered as a captain, with ex-Fremantle midfielder Neale likely to push hard for a leadership position after being part of the Dockers leadership group for years.
Gold Coast talent Zorko won the Lions best-and-fairest by a vote this year, his fourth year in a row as club champion, but has also had to deal his separation from his long-term partner in a messy dispute that went public.
Lions football boss David Noble said Brisbane were in a strong position to consider captaincy candidates over the next two months.
“We won’t be in a hurry, we want to give the new guys who have come in through trades and the draft a chance to get a feel for the group,” he said.
“We will announce it in the lead-in to the JLT series, somewhere through February.
“It entirely comes down to the players. We don’t interfere in that, they vote and the leadership group elects a captain and we have good discussions with the football department and then take that to the board, but we support the players’ decision.”