Josh Dunkley will make Brisbane a better team in 2023, but the Lions can't believe his addition alone will take them to the promised land.

Dunkley's signing late in the Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period was a coup for the club, adding to an already loaded midfield.

On the surface, he's the perfect complementary piece to an engine room that includes Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, Hugh McCluggage, Jarryd Lyons, Jarrod Berry and captain Dayne Zorko.

At 25 years of age and with 116 games of experience, Dunkley is in the early stages of his prime, fresh off winning the Charles Sutton Medal in his final season at the Western Bulldogs.

He's a ball-winner. He's combative. And for Brisbane, perhaps most importantly, he's defensively minded.

The Lions have as much talent as any list in the competition, with Dunkley, triple premiership forward Jack Gunston, and incoming father-son draftee Will Ashcroft, set to add to that.

Winning two against-the-odds finals last season against Richmond and Melbourne was a huge step forward.

Chris Fagan's team showed a resilience that had been questioned in big games, holding off the rampaging Tigers in an elimination final and then over-running the defending premier Melbourne at the MCG in a semi-final, where they hadn't won for eight years.

Those wins were full of merit and laid out a blueprint for how Brisbane could take another step towards a Grand Final appearance in 2023.

What happened in the preliminary final against Geelong should be front of mind for the players during their pre-season, but not to totally override the positives from the previous fortnight.

For the second half of 2022 – and then again in the loss to the Cats – it was the Lions' full-ground defensive actions that cost them.

At times they weren't good enough at keeping the ball locked inside their forward 50, and regularly off turnovers the forwards and midfielders were slow to react and even slower to run defensively.

Deven Robertson was inserted for the elimination final against Richmond – his first senior game in 10 weeks – and was given a tagging job on Dion Prestia, and then Trent Cotchin when the former went off injured.

In the semi-final against Melbourne he went to Clayton Oliver, and did a solid job until half time, before Jarrod Berry completely flipped the match with his stopping job on the Demons' dynamic on-baller.

It's not something that can happen every week, but the defensive midfield assignments worked.

With some brave selections and a tinker to its game style, Brisbane showed what could happen when it balanced attack with defence and ball-winners with runners.

Dunkley will help that.

His addition might complicate things at the selection table, but if Brisbane retains its balance, it can move forward.

Berry showed in September he's an asset in the middle of the ground rather than on the wing, while Robertson's energy and diligence to a defensive task showed he is worthy of more senior games.

There's also Cam Rayner and Zac Bailey as options to add speed and power.

How Fagan and his coaching staff land will be fascinating.

While Dunkley will walk in alongside Neale and McCluggage as automatic starters, the rest should be – and will be – fighting for the remaining spots as Brisbane strives to stops its opponents as much as it tries to punish them with ball-in-hand.