Want to put a number on the amount of faith that Brisbane Lions players have in the future of the Club?
Make it 19 – that’s the number of players who’ve committed to the Club since the start of last season, with more re-signings and signings to come in the months ahead.
Captain Tom Rockliff, Dayne Beams, Allen Christensen, Stef Martin, Mitch Robinson, Jack Redden, Josh Green, Rohan Bewick, Claye Beams and Ryan Lester have all penned deals since Senior Coach Justin Leppitsch took the reins, along with a host of the best young talent at the Club.
Last year’s Rising Star winner Lewy Taylor, Dan McStay, Darcy Gardiner, Nick Robertson, Tom Cutler, Jono Freeman – all from the stellar 2013 Draft – have committed to contract extensions.
The Club’s first three picks from the 2012 Draft – Sam Mayes, Marco Paparone and Michael Close – also re-signed.
Add to that Vice-Captain Pearce Hanley’s long–term deal that has him with the Brisbane Lions until at least the end of the 2018 season, as well as a number of other re-signings and signings to be finalised by the Club by the end of 2015.
There has also been the emergence of first-year talent this year in names like Harris Andrews, Jaden McGrath, Liam Dawson and Hugh Beasley who have all impressed at Senior level.
While injuries to a number of key players have cruelled much of the 2015 season, the exposure of young talent to Senior games will prove invaluable to the Club moving ahead – the correlation between a higher number games played and an improved win-loss ratio borne out by statistics.
Last week’s Brisbane Lions team to play North Melbourne had an average of 76.32 games per player compared to 134.27 for the Kangaroos – and well short of the 100-game standard seen as the marker to consistently play finals football.
Key signing Allen Christensen told lions.com.au: “I still go into every game, every week thinking that we can win – even though our form might not suggest that. For the four weeks before the weekend, we were actually really competitive and put ourselves in games against teams that are legitimate finals contenders – so the optimism is still there.
“There’s still a lot of positives that can come out of this season. The young players we’re blooding now can only be a positive for the future.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids playing and they are really stepping up. Someone like Harris Andrews has been absolutely amazing – he’s probably been stiff not to have a NAB Rising Star nomination.
“Coming from Geelong, we had a lot of mature players and the young blokes could be nurtured through a bit.
“I understand where we are at, you’ve got to realise that we’re not as far advanced as say a Hawthorn or a Sydney at the moment.
“It will just take time – there are a lot of skinny bodies, a lot of immature bodies not ready for the rigours of four-quarter footy yet.
“It is what it is, we’ll get there.”
Speaking to the media last week, Leppitsch said: "Our long-term vision at the club is to bring in good young talent and show our fans who's going to be there for the long term, and we've done that over the last 18 months.
“I'd argue the best young kids this club has had in the last 10 years have come through in the last 18 months. It's exciting for our long-term vision.
“The on field performances will have their ups and downs at times but we are very clear what we want to do there and it’s just making sure we perform – both players and coaches – on a weekly basis.”
