Brisbane CEO Greg Swann confirmed midfielder Dayne Zorko will lead the Lions indefinitely while former captain Dayne Beams works out personal issues.
The Lions announced today Beams would step down from the role to continue dealing with the passing of his father.
Beams will continue to play, but Swann explained how he went about handing over the captaincy.
“He came to Chris Fagan on Saturday about it and internally we know he’s been struggling a bit after the passing of his father so he’s been not involved directly as much as he used to be in the leadership group,” he told SEN Evenings.
“It’s been an ongoing dialogue and Saturday morning he sort of said to Fagan I think it’s going to help even further if I can just relinquish the captaincy because I’m not doing it properly, I’m not as invested as I was earlier in the piece.
“Once that was said and we sort of worked through it this week, he probably played his best game for the year on Sunday, he was outstanding so I think the pressure of the captaincy coming off him has helped.
“It was pretty raw, he laid it all out on the table.”
Swann said the plan was for Zorko to keep the role until Beams is ready to return to it.
“He’s sort of said he’ll step down until he feels he’s right to put his hand up again, but look that might take a month, it might take a week or it might be the end of the season, he’ll determine that when he feels he can give it the same attention he gave last year,” he said.
“At the moment for the foreseeable future it’ll be Zorko as captain.
“Zorko’s been fantastic, even during this episode and Luke Hodge is there as well sort of mentoring these young guys so the leadership group and the set up there has been first class.”
21-year-old key defender Harris Andrews was named vice captain and Swann said the youngster was the right man for the job.
“He’s really mature for his age, he’s been in the leadership group for two years so he’s just a wise head on young shoulders,” he said.
“He’ll do a great job, he’s very mature.”
The Lions will take on Sydney on Saturday afternoon at the Gabba and Beams is expected to play.