Despite finishing with just seven wins for the season – three less than in 2013 – Pearce Hanley says there is an air of excitement surrounding the Gabba.

Injuries to key personnel forced the Club to not only blood 10 debutants, but also get some valuable game time in a number of other developing players.

Of the Lions’ Round 23 team that faced the Cats in Geelong, 10 players had less than 30 senior matches to their names – seven of which had their first taste of AFL action this season.

For an experience campaigner such as Hanley, seeing the rapid development in these young players has been one of the real positives of the season.  

“The boys have responded well this year with all the injuries and we’ve been able to blood a lot of youngsters which will stand us in good stead,” Hanley told The Courier-Mail.

“The young boys haven’t taken a step backwards and they will only be better for the experience they’ve been able to get this year.

“It’s hard to gauge how your year has been after you have seven wins but we are in a different phase to a lot of teams.

“We are building towards the future with a young list and the way we played in the back-half of the year was very promising.

“It’s going to be exciting when all of the boys come back from injury and we are at full-strength.

“We are going to have a really good team in a few years.”

The imminent returns of Daniel Rich, Jack Redden, Brent Staker, Trent West, and Luke McGuane from lengthy lay-offs in 2014 will almost certainly generate greater competition for senior spots next season.