BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss has rejected claims of disharmony within the ranks of his playing group.

Voss said newspaper reports of friction between the Lions players and chief operating officer Dan Collins are a distraction from the Lions' form slump, which has seen the team lose nine of its last 10 matches.

“The blames, excuses, externalising … all that is a diversion to me,” Voss said.

“I would hope that every single person in some form is unhappy about the way we are going at the moment.”

Voss said claims Collins had been given too much power and made the coach less accessible to his players were unfounded.

“He is actually one of our key leaders in our organisation,” Voss said of Collins.

“Part of his role is to ensure that we have got to turn this around, so I would hope that there are some tough conversations that are happening.

“The real story is our effort has got to be better, our core fundamentals on and off the field have got to be better.

“We can’t lose focus on what we need to be able to do and jump at shadows.”

Voss said no players had approached him about having concerns about Collins.

The Lions' coach also defended the club handing out caffeine tablets to players before games, saying it was an individual decision for each player.

“I did for a while (as a player) and I found no benefit in it whatsoever, so I stopped doing it,” Voss said.

“I actually don’t really see what the actual issue is.

“It’s (caffeine) in tablet form as opposed to having it in a cup.”

Voss said he trusted the club doctors if they decided to administer sleeping tablets to players who had earlier taken caffeine tablets.

“I’ve got no problem in the administration of any required prescribed drugs of any sort or non-prescribed drugs of any sort when our doctors look after that,” Voss said.