WHEN Greg Swann was announced as Brisbane Lions chief executive officer in July, he had one immediate aim – to make the once-powerful club relevant again.
Swann took over from Malcolm Holmes during a turbulent period in Lions history.
The club has debt totalling more than $10 million, has made the finals just once in the past decade, has dwindling crowd numbers, and at the end of 2013 watched five young players walk out on the club.
Slowly but surely, the former Collingwood and Carlton CEO has started to turn things around.
While ultimate success in the diverse Brisbane marketplace will be determined by on-field results, the Lions have taken plenty of steps in the right direction in the past four months.
They helped their on-field prospects by recruiting Dayne Beams, Allen Christensen and Mitch Robinson in the off-season, as well as continuing to lock-up the raft of talented youngsters to multi-year deals.
Fans are also back on-side after the traditional Fitzroy lion was brought back to the 2015 jumper, following years of unrest with the 'Paddle Pop' lion fronting the guernsey.
And Swann has now added to the portfolio of sponsors by announcing on Sunday global airline Garuda Indonesia has jumped on board.
Ever so slowly, the Lions are turning their fortunes around.
"One of the things we wanted to do was become relevant again. We just thought we'd slipped off the radar a little bit," Swann said.
"It's a whole of club approach, it's sponsors, it's players, it's members, all those things that make a successful footy club.
"Touch wood it's been pretty successful, it's been a good few months, and with hopefully a few more things to come."
It's not all rosy though as the Lions are expected to announce another multi-million dollar financial loss for the past 12 months.
"We've got a lot of work to make up that way but we've put some good blocks in place and hopefully we can build on that," Swann said.
Captain Jed Adcock said the players had noticed a change.
"There's definitely a different vibe this year to last year," Adcock said.
"It's nice to have some excitement around the group. On-field and off-field, things seem to be moving in the right direction."
