Lions icon rejects grim Brisbane flag suggestion

Brisbane Lions legend and board member Leigh Matthews has denied the suggestion the club is falling out of its premiership window amid a dismal start to the season.

After losing the grand final last year, the Lions have lost their first three matches of this season and sit 14th on the ladder.

The club has also been dogged by concerns an off-field drama from a pre-season trip is causing division within the playing group.

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Since 2019, the Lions have never fallen out of the top eight but are yet to win a grand final.

That year they finished second but were bundled out of the finals in straight sets. In 2020, the Lions finished second again before losing a preliminary final, while the following year was another straight-sets failure after placing fourth.

In 2022, the Lions were sixth and lost a preliminary final, while they finished second last year.

Matthews believes it's "way too early" to suggest the Lions have missed the boat when it comes to winning a flag. 

"But it is a bad start to the year, no doubt about that," he said on Nine's Footy Furnace.

"In your win-loss ratio it's a very bad start to the year, but it's not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

"Like every team (they have selection dilemmas). Do you play the second ruckman, third tall, or don't you?

"That's a decision they decided to make that last week, and hadn't done that in the first two weeks, so those kind of decisions are what selection is all about.

"But again there's no way in the world that you're going to (write them off).

"(Eric) Hipwood is playing poorly, but you're going to persevere with him because you know he can play well."

Having previously suggested the narrative is "false" that off-field drama is affecting the Lions on the field, Matthews reiterated that point, stating it's not to his knowledge there's been any impact.

"I've never had a feeling there's this angst among the playing group or disunity like that," he said.

"I think everyone I speak to around the club says absolutely no way there's any disunity that has got anything to do with the fact they've lost three games."

Geelong great Jimmy Bartel agreed it's hard to connect the ongoing saga with the Lions' poor start to the season.

"I don't know how it affects ball use and kicking the ball inside forward 50," he said.