The 26-year-old was strongly linked with a move to Adelaide and Collingwood was another club which declared an interest in recruiting him before he agreed to see out the final year of his contract with the Lions. "I didn't necessarily do that (look at the market). I didn't speak to any other clubs," Rockliff told SEN on Friday. "It was more about me catching up with the new football people in place, Chris Fagan obviously came on board and David Noble, and once we had the meeting and went through where they thought I sat, where I thought the footy club sat, it was a really good meeting for all parties. "Once we had that meeting, it was just to go away and have thinking time and work out what was best for me, what was best for the football club and in the end we both came to the decision that we thought it was best if I stay and continue to improve and hopefully rebuild this football club. "I definitely did not speak to one other club." Rockliff might be a Lion for the next 12 months at least, but it remains unclear as to whether he will hang on to the captaincy.

Fagan has made no secret that the captaincy is up for grabs and while Rockliff said he would like to remain in the role, he would support a new skipper if he was replaced. "He (Fagan) has been upfront me with me and he outlined clearly to me that there will be a process that we go through to select the leaders for 2017," Rockliff said. "If I remain captain, then I remain captain. If not, I'll fully support who it is (but) that's not why I play football or anything like that. You play for team success and he's been really clear on that. "I think he's got to do that and I think if you look across the competition when a new coach comes on board they review everything and that's the most important thing that everyone gets a fresh start and we put our best foot forward and we're all in it together." Rockliff said Dayne Zorko, Dayne Beams and Daniel Rich would all be capable of captaining the Lions.

Speculation has been rife that Rockliff has been somewhat of a disruptive influence at the Lions and that he has even played a hand in the sackings of the club's last two coaches Michael Voss and Justin Leppitsch. His leadership style has also come under scrutiny with his abrasive manner reportedly rubbing many of his teammates the wrong way. The All-Australian on-baller admitted it has been tough to deal with all the negative media reports. "It is definitely challenging when people question you and so on and, the way the world is at the moment, you can print something or say something and it's taken as factual," Rockliff said. "As a player you have to suck it up a little bit and it was challenging at times but I have a really strong support base around me and my family and people close to me were really important to help me through that period last year.