I don’t like saying it’s time for a senior coach to go, especially one who has only been in the job for two years.
However, while coaching an AFL side is an increasingly complex job, there are three key things a senior coach needs to do in order to have a successful football team.
Firstly, they need to create a winning game plan. Easy to say, not so easy to do, but it’s an essential skill.
Secondly, they need to be able to develop the players they have to fulfil their roles in that game plan.
Justin Leppitsch hasn’t really had the chance to prove himself on either of these tasks just yet, prevented by injuries and a lack of talent on the Brisbane list.
However, the third thing is the most important: getting a buy-in from your players – having their trust and belief that this team is worth devoting themselves to.
Your players need to take ownership of the club.
If Jack Redden requesting a trade earlier this week – citing his concerns with the club – proves anything, it’s that Leppitsch has failed in that third and most important task.
There are problems at Brisbane. They lack players in the right areas and have struggled badly with injuries this year. They are a young team and they lack development.
The issue here, however, isn’t that there are problems, because every club will have them. The issue here is that Leppitsch has not convinced his players to be a part of solving those problems.
Redden, after all, will not be the only Lion to depart this season. They lost five players in the 2013 off season, another two in 2014, and they will almost certainly lose Redden, James Aish and Matthew Leuenberger this year.
Dayne Zorko and Stefan Martin have also been weighing up their options, depending on who you get your gossip from.
Even the best clubs lose a player or two each season, but when people are lining up to leave at this rate it shows that there’s a serious problem. And it’s not the Brisbane weather.
It shows that the coach has lost – or never had – the ability to get his players all pulling in the same direction, to bring them together as a team, and make them believe that if they work towards a common goal, good times will come.
The players believe the team is owned by someone else, so they haven’t become dedicated and devoted to it. It hasn’t become a part of who they are.
When good players would rather skip off to another team than be a part of their current one, you’ve got a serious problem.
Part of the issue is that the Lions are yet to disconnect from their 2001-03 premiership era, despite it being more than a decade ago. That ‘ownership’ of the team still belongs to the heroes of that generation, many of whom still hold important positions at the club.
The appointments first of Michael Voss and then Leppitsch both struck me as attempts to cling to that era of success, in what was in both cases a difficult time for the club.
Neither would have been offered the senior coaching position had they not been Brisbane premiership players.
Appealing as it might be to have a favoured son return to the club, that kind of thinking can be poisonous. It is based around looking back, when instead clubs need to be looking forwards.
Voss had essentially no coaching apprenticeship. Leppitsch was an assistant coach for six years but spent only three of those years outside Brisbane.
They were Brisbane boys, and were appointed as Brisbane men, raised on Brisbane thinking. They lacked the outside influence needed to break the club out of its slump and bring it into a new, modern era.
Consider Port Adelaide, who for years were coached by people from within the Port Adelaide structure. They found themselves at their lowest point in 2012, in the hands of club legend Matthew Primus.
Primus’ demise saw Port Adelaide look outside its own heartland and install Ken Hinkley, a complete outsider, as their next senior coach. We have all seen the dramatic transformation that followed.
It is time for Brisbane to do the same. The club can no longer rest on its laurels and look back on its glory days. It needs to change its focus and look at the future.
The end of Leppitsch’s tenure at the club is the first step on that road.
I feel for him, in a better situation he might well have made a red-hot go at it, but he has lost the players and as a senior coach that is the end of you.
The next step is to appoint a coach from outside Brisbane’s premiership fraternity – either an experienced senior coach, or someone who currently assists at a successful club.
It will be a hard road. It will get worse before it gets better. But it is well and truly past time for that old era to die, and a new one to be born. It is time for the players to own their football club.
When they do, the Lions will roar again.
Wayne
Guest
Dont forget exoduses like OBree, Hilton, Headland - at that stage even when successful Brisbane couldn't hand on to players
Josh
Guest
There's not going to be a mass exodus at Brisbane, you shouldn't believe everything you read.
Josh
Guest
Jack Redden hasn't left yet and you shouldn't buy into all the speculation, Stefan Martin and Zorko aren't going anywhere. Leppitsch doesn't need to go and Brisbane will come good next season.
Timmeah
Guest
The problem is every club and their dog have a crack a the Brisbane list each year. I remember Matthew Moody who was in his 2nd year player was chased by Essendon, Terry Wallace personally came saw Rhann Hooper to convince him to come to Richmond. What it means is that the Brisbane Lions have to walk a tight rope how they treat there list. Look how the Lions were critised when they dropped James Aish like any other club needs to do their developing juniors. As a Lions supporter I would just like to hang to most of player we draft and want to keep. The AFL which majority based in Melbourne state its Australia truel National comp and get big TV deals from this basis. But really is it a national comp. I think the game has gone backwards since Andrew D took power. I think it will cost the game in the long run.
Don Freo
Guest
I don't know why you'd address that to me. If you ever read my posts, you'd notice my enjoyment of The Purple People is indefatigable. I am never inconsolable. When you enjoy your club, you never need consolation. What do you think the Freo game plan is? Do you really think it is singular?
BigAl
Guest
That's interesting ! I wonder how committed he can be ? How much time does he spend in Brisbane, I doubt he lives there.
BigAl
Guest
Leigh Mathews is on record as saying that the Lions have a real problem in convincing local high quality people with business acumen to become involved with the club.
WhereIsGene
Guest
Don Freo, No doubt your confidence in Freo will be unshaken by this week's thrashing at the hands of Port, but I wonder how you'll feel next week when Sydney dismantle Ross the Boss's brand of ugly defensive football? Probably inconsolable. Such a shame.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Thanks for the tip, 'the truth'!
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Paul D, I argued pre-season against the likelihood of Brisban having a good year for precisely that reason and I was roundly criticised on The Roar - the midfield is reasonable, but no better than others, and the team has zero Key Position Players of quality. I don't even rate Merrett very highly. They definitely have some emerging though (Justin Clarke looks a good prospect and McStay looks promising), but none are established yet. If they could get Lachie Henderson back again and pick-up Jake Carlisle, they'd look much better. It's a shame this player unrest is occurring so soon again after Leppa appeared to have corrected it. By the way, great article Josh.
The truth
Guest
Hey Doug old son, might be worth throwing a pineapple on the Dogs/Dogs P'Ship double.
Col from Brissie
Guest
Leigh Matthews is already there. He is the Football Director and has been since late 2013.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
Who replaces Leppitsch? It is all well and good to say, get rid of him, but no one would want this Brisbane job. The problem is the board, and the culture of the club. When you have players wanting to leave that ain't a good sign You never have that happening at the others. The mass exodus at Brisbane can't be just down to the coach. It happened before him anyway.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
LOL. WhereIsGene, they do have Matthews back. He's on their Board, which you're proposing to cleanout.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Thanks for clearing that up Don, I thought 'the truth' might have had a few too many frothies.
Don Freo
Guest
He's assuming we're talking about that game where fat blokes run 2 metres, fall over, run 2 metres again and fall over...60 minutes of a game spent resting fat bodies on the ground.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I don’t place much credence in the people who were talking up the Lions based on the strength of their midfield. A team stacked full of midfielders might do well in fantasy football, but in actual AFL you need pillars at both ends, and the Lions had few enough to begin with – and even less once Merrett, Close & Freeman all went down with injury, and we had kids and 2nd stringers manning the key posts. For Leppa to retain his job he will need to make changes in his approach and his method of dealing with players, because what he is currently doing is not working. Disunity is death. And unfortunately a club in our position can’t afford to make too many more mistakes.
BigAl
Guest
What were Leppitsch's coaching credentials before he was appointed coach of the Lions ? Hopefully they would be more than Voss's !. . . which were . . .that he was a real grouse player when he was playin !!
Jim
Guest
What are you on about?
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Oh how quickly it turns.... About 6 months ago everyone wanted to write about how well the Lions are shaping up and what a great future they have.... Let's cool our Jets. A Rebuild is exactly that! It doesn't happen over night! Some people are open to direct feedback and some aren't. Redden going stale is more reflective on Jack himself than Leppa or Rockliff. Let's see how the Lions go next couple of years....Then we can comment whether Leppa is up to Senior coaching....