THE BRISBANE Lions might have blooded their best young AFL crop in a decade but they need to be taught how to win, says veteran Jed Adcock.
Former skipper Adcock will play his 200th game on Saturday night when the Lions host North Melbourne at the Gabba.
It has been a tough season for the Lions, who are bottom of the ladder and on an eight-game losing streak - but the upside has been the injection of a group of youngsters who should form the long-term core of the team.
Adcock said there had been a key ingredient missing in their football education - wins.
"We need to get a winning culture back into this footy club. It's been missing for quite a few years now," Adcock said.
Adcock came to the Lions just as their period of supremacy last decade was coming to a close.
Now he is clinging to hope that the next Lions dynasty is just around the corner.
"It's eluded me now (a premiership) but I'm confident and hopeful this club in the near future, in the next few years, I think we're pushing in the right direction," Adcock said.
Adcock, who was replaced as captain this year by Tom Rockliff, was a second-round selection in the 2003 AFL draft - arriving at the Lions just after their third consecutive premiership.
Eight years on, the Lions appear bound for the wooden spoon.
Adcock, 29, insists there are plenty of positives that can be taken out of their dreadful season, in particular the blooding of a group of youngsters described by coach Justin Leppitsch as the best the Lions have seen in 10 years.
"We need to teach the young kids what it's like and how to win.
"Even though it's pretty obvious we're not playing finals, we can still shape them and have some sort of decision on who makes it."
Adcock will enter illustrious company when he becomes the 11th Lions player to reach the 200-game milestone, joining club greats such as Michael Voss, Simon Black, Jason Akermanis, Jonathan Brown and Luke Power.
Not bad for a bloke who didn't think he'd last long in the AFL system.
"I thought if I spent two years and get a couple of games it's turned out all right, (then) go home and do whatever I would have been doing," Adcock said.
"I don't think I'll be thought of along the same lines as those kind of players but it's nice to be able to play 200 games for the Lions... and to do it with one club, and a club I've loved for a long time."
