STAR defender-turned-assistant coach Justin Leppitsch doesn’t know if the Brisbane Lions can top the last fortnight as far as winning margins are concerned, but he’s sure there is plenty of improvement to come from the current playing group.

Three weeks ago, following a win over Melbourne, Lions coach Leigh Matthews said that for anything his players achieved during the final seven weeks of the season, they would be a better team 12 months down the track.

Speaking ahead of this week’s clash with the Kangaroos, Leppitsch agreed, although he admitted successive wins over Carlton and Collingwood by a combined 210 points would be hard to top on the scoreboard.

“If you looked at our last month, you’d probably say we couldn’t get too much better.” Leppitsch said.

“We went over to Perth and beat last year’s premier (West Coast) by 30 points and then last week we beat a very good side by almost 100 points.

“With our current form, you’d definitely say we’ve hit a bit of a purple patch. But over the long term we’ve still got a lot of improving to do, especially with our consistency.

“Seven weeks ago we drew with the bottom team (Richmond). We went seven weeks without getting a win and you can’t afford to do that.”

Leppitsch, an All-Australian at full-back in 1999 and then centre half-back in 2002 and 2003, is now in charge of the Lions’ defensive set-up.

As such, he’s watched on with more than passing interest as regular defenders have made a seamless transition to life inside the forward 50m.

Jared Brennan, of course, has kicked 14 goals since moving into attack four weeks ago, including seven last week against the Magpies.

But more intriguing has been the success of Robbie Copeland and Wayde Mills – who Leppitsch believes are reflective of a new forward-line role.

“There seems to be a new position opening up in the forward line – which is about being a defensive forward,” Leppitsch said.

“We had a big problem in that opposition half-backs were dropping back and crowding up Jonathan Brown’s space – he often end up with two, sometimes three guys on him.

“Since Jared Brennan has gone down there, other teams haven’t been able to do that. But Robbie Copeland and Wayde Mills have played a big part in that as well.

“They have the natural instinct to defend and put pressure when they have to, which has stops teams rebounding on us.

“But they’ve also done a great job of presenting and getting up the ground and offering an option, which has meant the half-backs can’t drop off like they had been.”

Much media attention in the past fortnight has focused on Leppitsch’s former captain Michael Voss and whether Voss would target a senior coaching position in 2008.

Leppitsch was happy to leave the decision to his long-time teammate – Voss ultimately opted out of the coaching race – but did offer a unique insight into the differences between being an assistant coach and life as the head honcho.

“I think I probably will want to be a senior coach eventually – but right now I’m happy as an assistant,” he said.

“Being an assistant coach compared to being the senior coach is almost like talking about two quite different jobs.

“If you look at in terms of business, you don’t see too many people who are personal assistant to the CEO take over when the CEO leaves. They might handle a fair bit of the CEO’s day-to-day and hands-on stuff, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are equipped to take over.

“The senior coach has a much bigger and more varied job than I think a lot of people realise.

“An assistant might look after a group of players but the coach looks after all of them, plus anything between 12-15 staff.”