Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann says rumours and reports are all part of the deal when you're struggling but has urged fans to maintain faith in the club's direction.
"When you're one and 15, that's your lot in life. It's a results business so everybody cues up to whack you," Swann told Brisbane’s Triple M radio.
"The topics that they've hit on, dissension in the ranks and all that sort of stuff. It's certainly not there that I can see.
"You can see that in a couple of years time they're going to be super players these kids, but at the moment we're in that growing pains phase. It's pretty tough but there are green shoots there for us."
A host of senior players including Tom Rockliff, Dayne Zorko, Daniel Merrett, Daniel Rich and Dayne Beams have all spoken publicly in recent days on the strong player bond at the Club and support for Senior Coach Justin Leppitsch.
Swann defended Leppitsch’s strong reaction to reports of player unrest.
"Leppa is very measured - that (was) a minor blow-up at a press conference," Swann told Brisbane's.
"Every coach in the world has had a minor blow-up at a press conference but from the playing group's point of view there's certainly no bad tempers."
Swann also hit out at the suggestion captain Tom Rockliff was agitating to be released from the Lions, saying talks were simply put on hold when Rockliff was injured earlier in the season and he's confident they'll resume later in the year.
"Probably later this year we might have a talk about it," he said.
"But he's contracted for next year so there's no real stress from anybody to be honest."
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