Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko has denied claims that an off-season holiday to the USA has unravelled the Lions in 2024.
Media reports and speculation suggests that Lions players are divided after a WhatsApp mishap late last year, which uploaded incriminating photos via an iCloud account, was seen by the partner of a player.
It reportedly sparked tension in the ranks of last year’s Grand Finalists and is being mentioned in conjunction with the winless start to the season for a side whose latest failure was losing to Collingwood last Thursday night.
However, Zorko has poured cold water on the reports and is adamant that nothing as such has upset the playing group.
“All I can honestly say on the whole topic is there his absolutely nothing in this story,” he said on SENQ Breakfast.
“It also has had no impact on our playing group whatsoever and the results that have been on the field. I can promise you that.
“What’s happening on the field at the moment is there’s a connection issue between our inside 50 entries.
“I spoke about it last week and it was quite evident as well on Thursday night that we didn’t give our forwards the best chance to mark the ball.
“When we were reviewing that and looking at that yesterday (Monday) we can see it’s an area to work on and improve on extremely quickly.”
Zorko was quizzed again on the story, but insisted that the media conjecture has not contributed to the downfall.
“There’s absolutely nothing in this story,” Zorko added.
“I can’t stress to you enough that it has no impact on this playing group whatsoever.
“It hasn’t had anything to do with our results that have been on the field either.
“That’s all I’m willing to comment on the situation because that’s just what it is.”
Brisbane’s GM of footy Danny Daly said the situation centres around personal issues, indicating that the players are not divided.
“There are some issues which we don’t need to be aware of,” Daly told reporters.
“It’s an end of season trip for our players, they’re on leave, and whatever happened on that trip wasn’t to the extent that the football club needed to know about it
“There’s no policies or anything they went outside of that we need to address. The issues are of a personal nature and that’s where it’ll be left.”
Channel 9 journalist and SEN regular Tom Morris reported on Footy Classified that the Lions are considering boycotting major media outlets such as the Herald Sun and 3AW for their reporting of the story.
Back on the field and Chris Fagan’s Lions are in desperate need of a win which they’ll hope to pick up against North Melbourne at Norwood Oval in Gather Round on Friday.
