The Brisbane Lions Reserves, under the guidance of coach Leigh Harding, will be hoping to secure a Three-Peat of State League premierships when the new-look NEAFL competition kicks off in March.
The Lions will be one of 14 sides from three different north-eastern states of Australia vying for the title, with the NEAFL no longer being split into two conferences.
The competition now consists of five teams from South-East Queensland (Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast SUNS, Redland, Southport and Aspley), four from NSW (Sydney Swans, UWS Giants, Hills Eagles, and Sydney Uni ), four from ACT (Belconnen, Ainslie, Eastlake, and Queanbeyan) and one from the Northern Territory (NT Thunder).
The Lions will continue to play the majority of their matches in Queensland against their fellow former QAFL sides, and only travel interstate to face the Sydney Swans, UWS Giants and NT Thunder as per previous seasons.
10 of the Lions’ 18 matches will be played against the other AFL reserves sides – Gold Coast (four), Sydney (three), and UWS Giants (three) – with remaining eight matches split between Aspley, Redland, Southport, and NT Thunder (two each).
The Lions’ 2014 NEAFL campaign will begin with a cross-conference championship rematch against Sydney at Coorparoo on Saturday 29 March, with a highly anticipated Grand Final re-match against Aspley scheduled for Round 4.
Coorparoo will once again play host to most of the Lions’ home matches, although the new facility at Burpengary will be used in Round 10 and Round 13 for matches against the SUNS and Aspley respectively.
View the full 2014 NEAFL fixture
Lions eye third NEAFL title
The Reserves are hoping to claim a three-peat of NEAFL premierships in 2014
