The Lions confirmed the axing early this afternoon, telling media “the club needs to go in a new direction and we believe that starts with the senior coach”.

Chairman Bob Sharpless said Brisbane’s declining performance under Leppitsch left the Lions with little choice but to oust him with one year still remaining on his contract – having won just 14 matches in three seasons at the helm.

The Lions made the decision at a board meeting on Monday morning, with Sharpless conceding they are “simply not a competitive football team”.

“We have regressed from 10 wins in 2013, to seven wins in 2014, four wins last season, and to three this year,” Sharpless said.

“The nature of some of this season’s heavy defeats to teams around the same position on the AFL ladder have been bitterly disappointing.

“There’s something not right, and our view was we needed to do something about it.”

Leppitsch chose not to join Sharpless and chief executive Greg Swann at today’s media conference and was informed of his axing by telephone.

The playing group was told via email and were apparently unable to be gathered together because they were due for end-of-season reviews with their line coaches.

In his final appearance before the media as coach following Sunday’s defeat to St Kilda, Leppitsch had complained club powerbrokers had shifted the goalposts on what he needed to do.

Sharpless rejected that view, describing the team’s basic skills as a “bit deficient” and admitting some players wanted Leppitsch removed.

“We extended his contact at the start of this year because we had the belief we were heading in the right direction, but this season just has not turned out the way we expected,” he said.

Swann said the board had yet to determine whether Leppitsch’s replacement needed to have had previous experience as an AFL head coach, or if there was a preference for someone not associated with the club.

“Ultimately we’ll just get the best coach there is,” he said.

Swann also said the decision would be Brisbane’s alone and not influenced by the AFL.

The Lions ended the 2016 home-and-away season in second-last spot on the ladder with three victories, avoiding the wooden spoon by just 0.6 percent.

Ahead of confirmation of his fate, Lions captain Tom Rockliff said it was hard not to feel sorry for the embattled coach.

“Absolutely I feel for him,” he said.

“The whole footy club has been under pressure all year and Leppa’s copped most of that.”

But the 26-year-old said if the cord had to be cut, it should be done without undue delay.

“It’s out of our control and it’s one of those things that’s just going to play out,” he said.

“Ideally you’d prefer to know ASAP… but he’s obviously contracted so we as players are preparing for him to coach in 2017 and he deserves the opportunity.”

Rockliff dismissed long-running suggestions that he was at odds with senior management or Leppitsch after the club’s turgid season.

Instead, he said he was positive the Lions could rebound in 2017 with the right attitude over summer.

“You’ve got to be confident and you’ve seen our age demographic. We got a lot of games into young fellas this season,” he said.

“Hopefully we can get Dayne Beams having an injury free season and build on a bit of momentum.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do in the off-season, the pre-season to hit the ground running in 2017.”

-AAP