Vice-Captain Dayne Zorko says he and his fellow leaders need to set the standard every week as the Brisbane Lions search for their second win on the season.
Zorko has been a standout as the Lions’ best across the opening nine games of the season, and continues to hold down a spot in the AFL Player Ratings Team Of The Year despite his team’s lowly position on the ladder.
He continued his sparkling individual form with 22 disposals, 11 contested possessions, five tackles, six clearances, five inside 50s, one goal and two scoring assists against Melbourne.
The Queenslander told The Courier-Mail: “With such a young group, the leaders need to bring those standards every week. The young guys will follow.
“There are still elements of our game we obviously need to work on at training because we need to get things right against Hawthorn this week.’’
The Lions took a small step in the right direction against Melbourne on Sunday but the rebuilding program will need to be significantly fast-tracked this week with Hawthorn heading to the Gabba this Saturday.
“We still probably don’t know what happened last week against Collingwood but it was such a disappointing effort,’’ he said.
“Our focus against Melbourne was to really play out the four quarters and get back to some of the good things we did in the first six to seven rounds to rebuild our confidence.
“It was a much better effort which gives us a platform to keep building on. It was certainly a lot better than last week but we’ve still got a lot of improvement left in us.’’