THE BRISBANE Lions' "leaders have to lead" if the club is to arrest its nosediving season, says injured midfielder Dayne Beams.
The Lions have a 1-11 win-loss record and have lost eight straight, culminating in last Saturday's embarrassing 83-point hiding from Fremantle.
Beams, who has played just twice this year and is unlikely to return following knee surgery, says a revival starts from the top.
"Our leaders have got to lead, there's no doubt about that," Beams said.
"We're a young leadership group, all bar Rog (Daniel Merrett), so we're all learning and trying to find ways to be able to lead out on the ground when things are tough.
"I haven't been able to be out on the ground too much lately. It's difficult to watch the guys battle on their own."
Captain Tom Rockliff has had an injury-interrupted season, but aside from Dayne Zorko, many of Beams' fellow vice-captains have struggled.
Merrett, Daniel Rich and Pearce Hanley have all been below their best.
Beams said the players and coaches had an honesty session following the Dockers loss, something he hopes will turn around the club's fortunes.
"There was edits shown that were not acceptable at AFL level. Guys have to see that. I think in the past we've been able to brush over it a little bit," he said.
"They're not pretty, they're not good to watch, guys that have those efforts wouldn't have liked seeing them.
"It's important they take the lessons out of them, look at them, accept them for the efforts they are and work on them and make sure they don't happen again.
Beams said until they were consistently better around the contest, they would dish up the same results. But he's confident in the Lions could perform better in the coming weeks.
"As a group we're very disappointed in where our season's gone to date, but we're aware there's still rounds to go and we can still redeem ourselves."
The 26-year-old rated his chances as "50-50" to play again this season, but he is unable to resume running for another month and cannot come off the Long Term Injury List until Round 19.
Dayne and Claye Beams with the cheque donated to The Jodi Lee Foundation from the Brisbane Lions playing group.
The Brisbane Lions and The Jodi Lee Foundation will launch the Behind Matters campaign at the West Coast Eagles match at the Gabba on June 18, to raise awareness of Australia's second biggest cancer killer.
Footy fans at the Round 13 Brisbane Lions v West Coast Eagles clash will be asked to show their support every time a behind is scored, by holding up Behinds Matter signs distributed by volunteers before the game.
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