The Brisbane Lions have rejected suggestions of player disunity are behind their winless start to the 2024 AFL season. Widespread reporting over the weekend described a falling out between some on the list following an off-season trip to the United States, after messages between the group were inadvertently shared with a player’s partner.

Football manager Danny Daly said on Monday the reporting was “insensitive” and “factually incorrect” and he revealed it had prompted him to speak to Lions co-captains Lachie Neale and Harris Andrews. He said both assured him the reports were not the reason for the club’s recent underperformance.

“The trip has nothing to do with our own on-field performance and we will not be using it as any type of excuse as such,” he said. “I want to assure our members and fans most importantly, that this group is fully united as a playing group and fully focused on turning our season around.”

Daly said the players had not breached any team policy and, given the trip occurred in the off-season, there is nothing the club formally needs to address. “The issues are of a personal nature and that’s where it will be left. Please respect each individual, our football club and the personal nature of this,” he said.

Daly claimed the club only discovered there might be an issue caused by the trip following media reports that emerged since their 92-72 loss to Collingwood at the Gabba on Thursday. He said Neale and Andrews told him in phone conversations over the weekend that there was nothing in the reports of disharmony.

Daly, who has been general manager of football at the club since 2020, said the trip itself had not been the cause of any players’ separation from their partners, as had been reported. However, he declined to elaborate on the private lives of those on the club’s list.

“What players’ relationships are like off field, again, that’s their personal business and we don’t step into that matter,” he said.

The Lions only narrowly lost last year’s grand final to Collingwood, but have been defeated in their first three matches of the 2024 season against Carlton, Fremantle and the Magpies in Thursday’s rematch of last season’s decider.

Daly said although the team’s form needed to improve, this had been a difficult stretch of matches.

“Carlton played a prelim last year and are 3-0 and playing some good football, Fremantle are 3-0 and are going to be hard to beat at home, and Collingwood went through their own adversity last week and they came out and played some really strong football,” he said.

Andrews said there was no tension in the playing group and “there’s nothing to be stressed about”.

“There’s been a massive blow up [externally] over the last couple of days [but] as a group we’re united, all in this together,” he said. “[We] can’t control what other people say. I’m not walking around going, ‘Oh there’s players bickering’. We haven’t had the start we wanted and people go outside the box to think of reasons why we’ve started this way.”

The Lions meet another winless side, North Melbourne, on Friday night at Norwood Oval in Adelaide as part of Gather Round.