It will be almost seven months ago from the day that their NEAFL premiership dream was shattered by a third quarter blitz that helped set up the Lions’ 46-point triumph.
However, the Lions will be sporting a different looking side this time around, with the Club suffering an unprecedented amount of injuries in the opening month of the season.
This means that only a dozen or so listed players will be available for selection – most of whom are still in the infancy of their AFL career.
Meanwhile, Aspley remains just as strong as last year, with a host of former AFL players in their line-up including Cheynee Stiller, Robert Copeland, and Eddie Sanbsury.
The Hornets will also be keen to bounce back from consecutive defeats at the hands of NT Thunder and Southport in recent weeks.
Innovation & Development Manager Gary O’Donnell said Aspley were as good as, if not better than, Redland who beat the Lions by 107 points last Saturday.
“On form, they’re probably better than Redland,” O’Donnell told lions.com.au.
“They probably don’t have the key forwards that Redland have, but their running power and on-ball division is really strong.
“They were beaten by Southport last week by 20 points, which was a bit of a surprise, so they’ll be hungry to bounce back.
“Aspley gave us a footy lesson at Burpengary about five weeks ago, but it was our first game and I’d like to think we’ve improved since then.”
O’Donnell wasn’t too fazed by the Lions’ lack of numbers due to injury, and said he was looking forward to getting a closer look at some more of the Hyundai Lions Academy talent.
“A couple more of our players were called up to the seniors, so we could have as many as 12 players out,” O’Donnell said.
“But it’s not dissimilar to what we experienced 2-3 years ago. Fortunately we have greater continuity in our top-ups now with the Academy guys.”
