They couldn’t spend time in groups for nine weeks but Dayne Zorko feels he came out of isolation closer to his teammates than ever before.

The Brisbane Lions captain will lead the team onto the Gabba for resumption of the season against Fremantle on Saturday with an even deeper understanding of what makes his mates tick.

Zorko followed the lead of coach Chris Fagan and made a concerted effort to connect with his players during the break in matches.

He says it was worth the effort as he feels better equipped as a leader than pre-pandemic.

"It's normally a text but I've really tried to (catch up) over phone calls this time and I feel as though I've been able to talk to all of our players in different ways and learn a lot more about them," Zorko said.

"Only being able to train in a pair ... you get to know the players on a much deeper level and talk a lot more things that's just not football.

"So I've actually enjoyed that and hopefully that translates out on the field, which I've no doubt it will."

Brisbane did not get the start to the season they hoped for against Hawthorn in round one and Zorko says the inability to atone for a poor performance was major irritant of the delay.

However, that too has become somewhat of a silver lining as the analysis of that performance, and where the Lions fell away from their game plan, had led to a determination to improve that had swept across the whole group.

"We've looked at that pretty thoroughly. We looked at it last week as well," he said.

"It just wasn't us and this isn't the way we play our football.

"I've been really impressed with how the guys trained over the past fortnight in executing our game plan to what it was last year."