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Rockliff redemption gives Brisbane Lions a big boost

Caroline Wilson

Tom Rockliff's climb back into leadership contention at the Brisbane Lions demonstrates just how much damage can be undone over one solid pre-season.

When the Brisbane players vote next Monday for the 2017 captain, a role Rockliff has held for two years in an increasingly toxic environment, the battle will have come down to three. And it is a credit to Rockliff that he is one of them - having bounced back from the brutal evaluation thrown at him at the end of last season from newly arrived coach Chris Fagan.

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The early pre-season favourite Dayne Beams remains a strong contender but his prospects have been damaged by injury and the relatively short time he has spent on the track over summer. Helpfully he will play in the Lions' next hit out.

The other Dayne - Zorko - is the third and probably most likely contender but there remains no true stand-out favourite and if votes were cast on pre-season form and effort alone then Rockliff would get the nod.

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Remarkable when you consider his lack of popularity among a significant number of teammates last year, the fact he fell out with more than one senior official including the currently suspended Craig Lambert, squabbled over contractual issues and openly began to seek a trade towards the end of the season.

Rockliff's leadership style might have been poor but the strong role models were not exactly jumping out of the darkened corridors at the Gabba. It is indicative of his plight at the end of 2015 that he sought an audience and advice from Australian television's Celebrity Apprentice host and former Wizard Home Loans boss Mark Bouris.

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This was an unusual choice but Rockliff was searching for a mentor because they were thin on the ground at his own club. That appears to have changed with the appointment of Fagan and his football lieutenant David Noble who have said they could not be happier with Rockliff's effort and attitude to date.

The player might have been angry that his poor skinfold measurements leaked out of the club during 2016 but to be truthful his fitness issues and lack of discipline socially were not conducive to his particularly harsh brand of tough love and strong peer feedback. That is not an issue now.

Rockliff and his close friend Pearce Hanley might have embraced at the end of the weekend's all-Queensland JLT clash but the Fagan and Noble-run football department will not tolerate the occasional mid-week lapse that occurred last year.

And the transformation of the Lions' home base is not down to personnel alone nor the $500,000 renovation. The team no longer trains through the morning in the heat of the day but rather later in the afternoon - a change overseen by Fagan which to date has refreshed and bonded the group.

Still the challenge remains daunting for Brisbane. And maybe too much water has gone under the bridge for Rockliff to be captain again after Fagan made it clear when he arrived that all bets were off. Still the dual club champion - who turns 27 on Wednesday - stated in an interview on SEN last week that he still wanted to lead the club but would assist his successor if the vote went that way.

In April last year Rockliff lamented that with promotion came intensive scrutiny. "People tend to pick gaps and cracks in your leadership style," he said then. "I think I've learned to be a bit more calm and try not to let frustrations get in the way. I've always been in your face.

I think I've learned to be a bit more calm and try not to let frustrations get in the way. I've always been in your face.

Tom Rockliff

"I wish I didn't think about things so much."

And yet for a variety of reasons and several of those Rockliff's own fault the situation only became worse as Justin Leppitsch's time ran out. There was a mid-season intervention involving Rockliff's manager Tom Petroro and then the Fagan confrontation in the presence again of Petroro.

Fagan presented Rockliff with a list of unacceptable priors which he conceded had come to him second hand, some harsh home truths but an undertaking to move on. Rockliff too appears to have done just that.