Analysis So what did Brisbane change to turn around their player retention issues?

[Bucking Beads]

One thing that I believed that has helped is the way society has changed. Some players would really enjoy the ability to go to the local shops and not be noticed. A lot less heat on them from the media up here. Plus the weather is obviously superior.

 

[mpal6]

Cameron
Dunkley
Daniher
Neale

These four can't be understated. All have been incredible.

Those 4 came along after we sorted things in-house. Cameron was borderline in terms of recruitment timeline at the end of 2017 as we didn't truly hit our strides yet in 2018. Neale came onboard after seeing what we were building and wanting to be part of it at the end of 2018. Daniher was 2021 and Dunkley 2022.

Our pivotal change was when kids chose to stay after Fagan told them he'll back them to play, grow and deliver no matter what. Fagan was also able to entice Luke Hodge over to set some professional standards. Playing with Hodge was like a dream come true for new boys like Rayner, Bailey, McCluggage, Berry and Starcevich. That truly changed our landscape as a destination club where players wanted to stay and build something together rather than have a revolving door of draftees leaving all the time. We did do some tinkering along the way letting the experienced ones go who didn't want to be there like Rockliff, Hanley etc.

Rayner has never been dropped throughout his career - come what may. Does this set a bad precedent for other new draftees? may be. But Fagan by then had a core group of 22 to 25 players to rely on who played for him and started delivering more consistently. Did Rayner finally come through this year delivering on the faith Fagan put on him? yep, absolutely.

Our coach is a stubborn one-eyed backer of his core group all these years which caused angst many times amongst our bigfooty supporters. Even he acknowledged this year that he grew as a person having to deal with 5 ACLs so had to look beyond his core and rely on new upcoming players throughout the season. They delivered for him as well. I can't wait to see what Fagan does next year when ACL players are back and he has a bigger pool to manage.

 

[WillHayward]

Those 4 came along after we sorted things in-house. Cameron was borderline in terms of recruitment timeline at the end of 2017 as we didn't truly hit our strides yet in 2018. Neale came onboard after seeing what we were building and wanting to be part of it at the end of 2018. Daniher was 2021 and Dunkley 2022.

Our pivotal change was when kids chose to stay after Fagan told them he'll back them to play, grow and deliver no matter what. Fagan was also able to entice Luke Hodge over to set some professional standards. Playing with Hodge was like a dream come true for new boys like Rayner, Bailey, McCluggage, Berry and Starcevich. That truly changed our landscape as a destination club where players wanted to stay and build something together rather than have a revolving door of draftees leaving all the time. We did do some tinkering along the way letting the experienced ones go who didn't want to be there like Rockliff, Hanley etc.

Rayner has never been dropped throughout his career - come what may. Does this set a bad precedent for other new draftees? may be. But Fagan by then had a core group of 22 to 25 players to rely on who played for him and started delivering more consistently. Did Rayner finally come through this year delivering on the faith Fagan put on him? yep, absolutely.

Our coach is a stubborn one-eyed backer of his core group all these years which caused angst many times amongst our bigfooty supporters. Even he acknowledged this year that he grew as a person having to deal with 5 ACLs so had to look beyond his core and rely on new upcoming players throughout the season. They delivered for him as well. I can't wait to see what Fagan does next year when ACL players are back and he has a bigger pool to manage.

Agree but I think Neale took a pretty big leap of faith and showed a lot of balls by moving in 2018.

 

[iameviljez]

Agree but I think Neale took a pretty big leap of faith and showed a lot of balls by moving in 2018.

Same with Charlie Cameron - shifting from a team that was the flag favourite at the back end of 2017, to Brisbane who were just nowhere at the time.

 

[werdna78]

Same with Charlie Cameron - shifting from a team that was the flag favourite at the back end of 2017, to Brisbane who were just nowhere at the time.

I think Charlie wanted out of Adelaide and had family in Queensland.

 

[iameviljez]

One thing that I believed that has helped is the way society has changed. Some players would really enjoy the ability to go to the local shops and not be noticed. A lot less heat on them from the media up here. Plus the weather is obviously superior.

And the footy club up here (I live in Brisbane now) is really, really well established. Crowds of 25k to 35k, a fantastic location, a one-team town (AFL-wise), and the city has grown up a fair bit over the last decade or so.

The Lions have really significant traction up here, heaps of people all over the city last week decked out in the colours, plenty of chat about it round the office.

It's not like the Gold Coast where the whole thing still feels pretty plastic, the jumper is terrible, the location is weird, and you play in front of sub-15k crowds at home most weeks.

 

[Tom14]

Agree but I think Neale took a pretty big leap of faith and showed a lot of balls by moving in 2018.

Genuinely I do think that how club officials talk about their club matters to an extent. We did basically stop whinging about how things were unfair or hard - the realities we had (shit facilities, go-home risk for draftees, poor performance for a decade) didn't go away, but Fagan and Noble had a mature, calm message. Rayner, McCluggage and Berry signed on in early 2018 when we had been worried about draftees leaving after 2 years.

We were able to sell Neale on our capacity to spike after 2018 where we won 5 games but went 1-5 or something in close games. Then after 2019, players so reward for sticking around which made retention easier and recruitment significantly more attractive.

Shoutout to the work done on our AFLW team as well - the disgrace of not being able to have a home AFLW grand final because the Gabba was still hosting cricket was a significant factor in building the public and government support required to get our training base off the ground.

 

[iameviljez]

It wasnt a hidden secret. Rockliff/Hanley were absolute pieces of shit.

We know Rockliff went to Port and continued to be a piece of shit

I mean, all Google seems to come up with is crapping in Polec's footy boots, which seems scarcely believable.

 

[bungalow_bill]

I remember the go home 5 which was lowest point the club has ever been in. No one wanted to play for us or be drafted by us.

Culture is the most impactful thing a club can have. We stopped drafting sooky mummies boys and started drafting hard nut country boys.

I also remember many poking fun at us for drafting McStay.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

I mean, all Google seems to come up with is crapping in Polec's footy boots, which seems scarcely believable.

It never really came out fully but was more boxing related im pretty sure as opposed to turds in boots if you catch my drift

 

[bungalow_bill]

Agree but I think Neale took a pretty big leap of faith and showed a lot of balls by moving in 2018.

There was also an issue or two at Fremantle too from memory. Some player was re-signed - Bennell I think - and Neale wasn't too happy about it.

 

[samFFC]

Interesting stuff re: culture

The Zorko / Petty situation would seem to be relevant. Behind the scenes, making him face the music as captain and then step down at season’s end.
Some accountability, and not treating him as a protected species?

 

[iameviljez]

There was also an issue or two at Fremantle too from memory. Some player was re-signed - Bennell I think - and Neale wasn't too happy about it.

And Lyon put a few noses out of joint.

 

[Cyclops]

Poor old Beams was a lost soul, not great when he left us and a real mess when he came back. Dunno if we traded him out in good faith but can't blame Brisbane for trading him back.

Interesting stuff re: culture

The Zorko / Petty situation would seem to be relevant. Behind the scenes, making him face the music as captain and then step down at season’s end.
Some accountability, and not treating him as a protected species?

Reading through this stuff about Rockliff I was wondering where Zorko came in: seems like he learned some bad habits, then he learned a good lesson.

 

[Godzke]

Speaking to someone who was connected with a former Lions board member, Voss was a big reason why younger players want to leave. He'd persecute young players for minor mistakes and created a culture of fear and suppression. His attitude as coach was very different to what he was captain. No doubt he's worked on that over the years.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Probably should throw Hodge in as well for coming in and helping the culture shift before we really became good

surprised it took so long for this to be posted.

 

[RUNVS]

Speaking to someone who was connected with a former Lions board member, Voss was a big reason why younger players want to leave. He'd persecute young players for minor mistakes and created a culture of fear and suppression. His attitude as coach was very different to what he was captain. No doubt he's worked on that over the years.

I sort of always got the feeling Buckley was the same way. I don't think he was good with players who were not self motivated stars and seemed to join in on bullying too (Lumumba and Treloar)

 

[Mop]

I don't think the positive top-down leadership approach can be understated.

Danny Daly / Chris Fagan are both very people oriented leaders, of that you've got Luke Hodge helping at the ground level, from that you've got one of the best leadership groups in the league.

Couple it with the drafting of mates together and Brisbane is once again a powerhouse. Good to see from a league point of view.

 

[samFFC]

Poor old Beams was a lost soul, not great when he left us and a real mess when he came back. Dunno if we traded him out in good faith but can't blame Brisbane for trading him back.


Reading through this stuff about Rockliff I was wondering where Zorko came in: seems like he learned some bad habits, then he learned a good lesson.

Debuted 2012
Rockliff won his first B&F in 2011, took over captaincy 2015.