CEO Greg Swann has reflected on the Lions’ season in his address to the players, coaches, staff, sponsors and members at the Club Champion Awards earlier this month.
“It’s been a difficult year in many respects, but the work being done and the changes that have been made right across the Club will stand us in good stead for success in the years ahead”, Swann said.
“The AFL average for injuries during the season is 90, this year we had 281, which really meant that we couldn’t get our best team on the park and get some consistency there. Hopefully the footy God's will smile on us next year and hopefully that figure reduces significantly.”
Despite the season not going the way of the Lions on-field, Swann said there were plenty of positives to take out of the year.
“There’s been a lot of positives through the year, our overall membership finished at 25,452, which is 1,000 up on last year. It’s the biggest number we’ve had for five years.
“Our opening crowd of 31,240 in Round One against the Pies was also our biggest crowd for five years as well.
“We commenced the Women of the Pride, we had an estimate of around 100 we thought that would join, we are closer now to 600 which has been a fantastic achievement. It’s been a fantastic initiative for the Club and something that is growing from strength to strength,” Swann said.
“We’ve had the Hyundai Help for Kids Academy players, Harris Andrews and Liam Dawson, following on from Jono Freeman, who both played this year. Harris was the first out of the Academy to get nominated for the Rising Star, which he did against the Cats in Round 18.
Read: Our High Point - Harris Andrews
“There’s a lot of talent coming through the Academy and something that is going to stand us in good stead as the years go on.”
Swann said while it was a disappointing season for the Lions, with only four wins and a spate of injuries, a number of players on the Club’s young list continued to take great strides in their development.
“Two thirds of our playing list are aged 22 or under, and probably next year we’ll get younger again – we see that as a positive.
“We got more than 200 games experience into our first to fourth year players in 2015 and obviously there’s a lot of talent coming through."
