Season preview - Brisbane

Essential Information:

Coach: Michael Voss (4^th season)

2011 Season: 4 wins, 18 losses (15^th Overall)

Player changes

In: Sam Docherty, Mitch Golby, Ben Hudson (from Western Bulldogs), Jordan Lisle (Hawthorn), Billy Longer, Patrick Weardon, Elliott Yeo, Dayne Zorko

Out: Matt Austin, Jamie Charman, Mitch Clark, Xavier Clarke, Tom Collier, Brendan Fevola, Luke Power

Players to watch:

Todd Banfield: Extreme speed, red hair, pasty skin, Queensland heat. A recipie for disaster surely. Not for Banfield, whose quickness and freakish skills add a certain X-factor to the Lions forward line.

Matthew Leuenberger: Hard to miss at 6'8" but this ruck man has excellent ball skills to complement his ruck game. Disappointingly for Lions fans, his skills at times were better than the players he was hitting the ball to. Great name also. 

Questions to ask Brisbane fans:

• Things are looking up for the Lions now aren't they?
• How good is that kid Rockliff?

Questions not to ask:

• How good was that first 'Q' clash?
• Isn't it time for Jonathan Brown to move on? He hardly plays anymore and his teammates obviously don't like him.

Prediction: Another year of development* for the Lions, who are still recovering from some horrendous drafting and trading decisions over the last few years (see list of 'outs'). If they can manage to keep Brown  on the field they can cause opposing teams a few difficulties, especially at home. If they can't, the best they can hope for is not losing to their new rivals Gold Coast again. A list that is still a few years away. Bottom 4.

*Development year is AFL speak for a season in which the team is basically useless.