The Brisbane Lions could not be accused of starving their younger list of playing opportunities, with Jarrad Jansen becoming the eighteenth Lion to debut since Senior Coach Justin Leppitsch took the reins at the Club in 2014.

The Lions have unveiled four debutants in 2016. Josh Schache (Round 1), Ben Keays (Round 6), Rhys Mathieson (Round 9), and most recently Jarrad Jansen (Round 11), have all had their chance so far this season.

While Sydney have debuted six players in 2016, the Lions have continued to add games experience to their list – on average 18.4 games into each debutant.

With youth comes excitement, but also inconsistency. The Lions will have highs and lows, uplifting victories and frustrating defeats.

The young Brisbane Bears teams of 1993-1994, that formed the core of a 1995 finals outfit and ultimately the Lions’ triple premiership team from 2001-2003 –won a total of 13 games over those two seasons.

“We had to go backwards to go forwards, there was no doubt about it,” Leppitsch told media today.

“I know it's hard for our fans at times to not have wins on the board, we're confident the wins will come in the back half of the year, but it's really for us about building a sustained future for the footy club.

"The one thing people don't want to give you in this game is time.

“Unfortunately, you get a kid at 18 and everyone wants him to be a superstar at 19, that's not the way it works.

“You'll forget about these times pretty quickly but if you don't invest in these times, you won't get the glory days either,” he said.

Of the eighteen debutants, Lewis Taylor (54 games), Daniel McStay (37), Darcy Gardiner (33), Harris Andrews (26) and Tom Cutler (25) have become regular players in the senior side, while Nick Robertson (23) has had plenty of opportunities in the absence of midfielders Tom Rockliff (rounds 7-10) and Dayne Beams.

The Swans, Western Bulldogs and Melbourne have had the equal third most debutants since 2014 with 15, while Collingwood (13) rounds out the top four.

The eighteen Lions debutants have combined for 312 senior matches, the most of any club in the AFL and 23 games more than Gold Coast who rank second for most debutant games with 289.

In contrast, ladder leaders North Melbourne are positioned 18th in terms of games played from debutants – blooding six players over two and a half seasons.

A further nine listed players are still to make their senior AFL debut for the Lions.

18-year-old key forward prospect Eric Hipwood heads the list of potential debutants.

Rookies Reuben William, Archie Smith and Matthew Hammelmann are yet to taste senior action, but could be elevated to replace long-term injured Lion Dayne Beams.

The table below shows how many players from each Club have made their debut, their collective number of games played, and average games played per debutant.

*The table takes players from their original Clubs (eg. James Aish counts for the Brisbane Lions, and Tom Boyd counts for GWS). This also only includes players that are still active in the competition (excludes Brisbane Lions' 2014 debutant Jordon Bourke).

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