The level of public scrutiny placed on the Club and Senior Coach Michael Voss has subsequently escalated as people seek answers for their poor current form.
While rumours abound about potential ‘unrest’ within the Club, the Lions Leadership Group were quick to dispel such talk by providing a united front at the Gabba on Tuesday.
Captain Jonathan Brown spoke on behalf of the Lions’ playing group following one of the team’s most painful losses of the season against Hawthorn in Launceston.
The inspirational skipper said the playing group needed to take responsibility for their on-field actions and assured Lions members and supporters that the team was committed to fighting through this latest adversity together.
“We’re certainly disappointed about our effort last weekend that’s for sure,” Brown said.
“It was an embarrassing loss on the weekend. You don’t train your butt off all week and put in all the effort just to show up and get defeated like that.”
“We’re also disappointed that our win/loss record over the past few months hasn’t been too flash either,” he said.
“We’re working very hard as a playing group and we’re certainly not making any excuses. It sits squarely on the players’ shoulders to help dig us out of this trough. We acknowledge as a playing group that we need to start taking responsibility for how we’re going.”
“Vossy has copped a bit of heat, but we’re all in this together. We’re the ones who go out there and have to perform on the field - not the coaches or any other staff.”
While the Lions’ 2010 season looks unlikely to continue through to September, the players are still determined to make the most of the remaining six matches.
“We’ve got a really strong and united group and will keep chipping away at what we need to do,” Brown said.
“We’re very unified off the field, we just need to translate that to our actions on the field.”
“We need to put in strong and admirable performances from here on in where all 22 blokes can look each other in the eye afterwards, give each other a nod, and know they did their part,” he said.
“We certainly can’t be thinking of end-of-year ladder positions. We’re on a journey and we have to keep building to where we want to go.”
“Hopefully through this adversity, we can get stronger as a group, find that character within and get out and do something about it.”
Brown also rejected notions that there were any problems within the Club.
“There’s been a hell of a lot of talk - certainly from outside this footy Club - about external issues,” Brown said.
“It’s untrue. The playing group is so supportive of what happens off the field. We just have to start performing out on the field.”
“If you look at every side in the competition at the moment that is going through a rough trot - there’s supposedly always something going on behind the scenes.”
“It’s no different to any other footy club whether you’re wining or losing. It’s just that with the sides that are losing, things either get made public or things get made up.”
The Lions will undertake the most difficult trip in football this Saturday afternoon when they travel to Geelong to take on the reigning premiers.
But this week’s opposition doesn’t seem to faze the Lions players who welcome the opportunity to play against the best team in the business.
“We’re looking forward to going down there,” Brown said.
“There is a certain sense of fear attached to going down there and our recent record at Skilled Stadium hasn’t been too flash.”
“But we can either stand back or we can hit (the contest) head on. We’re looking forward to the challenge. They’re a great side, but we can’t get rattled before we get down there.”
