Tom Rockliff hated football, was often brought to tears and admits he wasn't the man to captain the Brisbane Lions as they scrambled to cope with a mass exodus of talent that derailed the AFL club.
A decade on though and the damage caused by the 'Go Home Five' is a distant memory as the Lions, in their fifth-straight finals campaign, sit two wins away from breaking a 20-year flag drought.
In a neat circle it will be Michael Voss in Carlton's coach's box on Saturday at the Gabba, the man who captained Brisbane's last flag and was sacked as Lions coach 10 years ago.
With three games left in the 2013 season the club legend was marched and months later a quintet of emerging stars had their trade requests answered.
Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Sam Docherty (Carlton), Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Billy Longer (St Kilda) and Patrick Karnezis (Collingwood) all found new homes and the now-retired Rockliff, along with current players Dayne Zorko and Daniel Rich, were left to pick up the pieces.
Docherty - a former Blues captain, All-Australian and cancer survivor - will return to Brisbane this weekend with Carlton as one of the AFL's feel-good stories.
Yeo, the only other player of the five still active, won a best and fairest for West Coast when the side claimed the 2018 premiership.
At the time former Lion Pearce Hanley labelled them "mummy's boys" in a social media post, while Rockliff shared his sentiment tweeting they had got ahead of themselves.
"The footy club wasn't a great environment to be around," Rockliff told AAP.
"Whether that was the senior players, admin, whatever it was, it wasn't functioning.
"You lose five pretty much first-rounders, it's a fair chunk of talent that's hard to replace.
"Nobody could say it was running efficiently at all; at all sorts of levels it wasn't where it needed to be."
Rockliff attempted to lead by example, winning All-Australian honours in 2014 then taking over as captain a year later.
"I was probably a better vice-captain," he reflected on his two-year stint as skipper.
"I turned into someone I don't think I was.
"I could have done a lot of things a lot better, but we didn't have the cattle out there."
Rockliff eventually departed for Port Adelaide in 2018, crediting current Lions coach Chris Fagan and former football boss David Noble's arrival in his final season at Brisbane for rekindling his love for the game.
"They've done an outstanding job and he (Fagan) was instrumental in me turning it around," he said.
"I hated footy and hated going to the club. My last year as captain, particularly the back end, I was in tears.
"I felt like the world was closing in and there was nothing I could do right.
"You end up on the front page of the paper for no reason of your own.
"I felt like I was playing good enough footy. But I was the face of the club and we weren't performing, so you have to wear it."
Ten years later and Rockliff has softened on the Go Home Five, particularly Docherty given his father - a mad Carlton fan - died of a heart attack after his son's trade home was secured.
"It was a blessing to go home when he did, to be closer to family," he said.
Brisbane finished last in 2017, 15th a year later and then catapulted to second in 2019, where they've hovered since.
On Thursday highly touted small forward Kai Lohmann re-signed for two years despite strong interest in his native Victoria and no guarantee of regular AFL minutes next season.
"We like it when our players stay because there was a time, a little bit before my time, players came here and wanted to leave pretty quickly," Fagan said.
"We've been able to retain the players we've drafted mostly, other than Dan McStay who had given us good service.
"We've made the place a good place for players to come to and a place where they feel like they grow and develop as footballers and people."
The mountain is still to climb but Fagan allows himself to briefly relish in the club's turnaround.
"We jumped really quickly if you remember; from 16th to second and it was like 'whoa, that's a little bit fast'," he said.
"The team you see now is the best version of ourselves.
"I know where we were at six or seven years ago - we couldn't win a game.
"We've come miles, so I just smile about that and keep moving forward."
