The Brisbane Lions, like the rest of South East Queensland and parts of Northern New South Wales, have begun navigating through the aftermath of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred which has wreaked havoc across the region since last Wednesday.

Lions players, coaches and staff regrouped at Brighton Homes Arena on Monday to work out how best to start their 2025 season, following the cancellation of Opening Round.

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Daly: "No doubt our preparation will be spot on"

Danny Daly speaks to the media regarding a far from normal start to the Lions season.

As a result, the Club confirms they will travel to Sydney earlier than planned to give themselves the best preparation for Saturday’s Round 1 clash with the Sydney Swans at the SCG.

The decision to fly to Sydney on Wednesday allows the team the opportunity to train in more suitable conditions on Thursday and Friday.

Brisbane Lions General Manager Football, Danny Daly spoke on Monday to provide an update on the club’s situation, beginning with a message to those impacted by Alfred.

“First and foremost, on behalf of the football Club I hope everyone in Queensland and New South Wales are safe and well and we are all praying for you,” Daly emphasised.

“To make sure everyone is safe and sound that’s the first priority for us, the human element of it. Then once that is taken care of you look at the footy side of it and you find a way to just deal with it and get on with it.

“The past week has been very unprecedented and not what we had planned for, but these things do happen from time to time unfortunately, we are just grateful everyone has been able to get through it so far.”

Due to substantial rainfall, the Lions have been unable to train since last Wednesday when they held an intra-club match at Brighton Homes Arena.

Despite the interrupted start to the 2025 season, Daly said he was confident a ‘big preseason’ held the Lions in good stead.

“These things happen unfortunately in life, and you just need to be resilient, be calm about it and work your way through it. So, I’ve got no doubt our preparation will be spot on leading into our game against Sydney,” Daly said.

“We have the players back in the Club today (Monday) and they will have a bit of a hit-out indoors to get themselves up and going again.

“We have been chatting to the AFL today and they have been fantastic through this whole past week in accommodating our needs and everything that we needed to do.

“We will train somewhere tomorrow, whether it is the Gabba or Brighton Homes Arena, which are both pretty waterlogged at the minute as you can imagine.

“We will head to Sydney on Wednesday then get a training in somewhere on Thursday on a dry ground as preparation for the game on Saturday, so we are just working through all the logistics.”