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One man won’t arrest the trend of wantaway youngsters at Brisbane but Lions coach Justin Leppitsch reckons retaining Simon Black will sure help.
Five young guns want out at the Lions and Leppitsch believes only “disenchanted” ruckman Billy Longer is likely to stay.
Leppitsch said there was no quick fix to retaining interstate players in Brisbane, admitting they wanted to leave due to “varied issues”.
However, the Lions’ coach believes keeping another player in Brisbane – retired triple premiership player Black – would go a long way to ensuring a similar situation never happened again.
Black entertained the idea of becoming a Lions assistant coach on Friday as he drew the curtain on his 16-year career.
Leppitsch said WA-bred Black was just what the club needed as they prepared for the departure of Sam Docherty, Elliot Yeo, Patrick Karnezis and Jared Polec.
“No doubt; Blacky is a great lesson. He came over from Perth and stuck it out, resisting the temptation to go home,” Leppitsch said.
“They are the people you want to retain and attract to our football club.
“He will be massive in that (retaining players as assistant coach) but it won’t be up to just Simon.
“It will be a big focus of our club going forward.”
Lions co-captain Jonathan Brown said he had seen first hand how Black could make interstate players feel at home in Brisbane.
“For a bloke who is so decorated, you would expect him to be a big head,” he said.
“But he made the young blokes coming in from interstate feel so welcome – that will be one of his greatest legacies.”
Black will meet family in Perth this week to decide his future after “up to 10 clubs” offered him an assistant coach role.
“That (assistant job) has been on the table from day one with Simon,” Leppitsch said.
“I made it clear even before I got the job.
“He’s indicated he would like to stay in Brisbane but we will wait on that – next week would be nice.”
In the meantime, Leppitsch is hoping to retain the services of Longer after a deal with Hawthorn fell through.
“At this point in time, I am thinking possibly one (of the five) we will retain – Billy is a chance,” Leppitsch said of Longer who reportedly received interest from Essendon and St Kilda.
“He’s a bit disenchanted at the moment with the way the whole thing works.
“Interest from other clubs have wavered from one moment to the next.”
Docherty is set to join Carlton, Polec wants to sign with Port Adelaide, West Coast are set to make an announcement on Yeo and Karnezis has been linked to Collingwood.
“I think most of the decisions were made by the players before I got the job, to be perfectly honest,” Leppitsch said.
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